Post #2478 by woofmutt on Thu, Jun 20, 2002 7:44 AM

Of the pineapple, cherries, and paper umbrellas it's the paper umbrellas you have to worry about most. They can go stale pretty fast even if properly stored. It's best to buy them in season (early March to late February). Buy fresh. Domestic one's cost more than imported but the money is well worth it. If you happen to live in the eastern lower mid west upper central region you may find a u-pick cocktail umbrella farm which could save you a bundle.

Experts may give a shelf life to maraschino cherries but as long as they're red and firm and not fuzzy they should be fine as nobody ever eats them and those that do probably don't have taste buds anyway. But as maraschino cherries are fairly cheap don't chance it, if you know you're throwing a shindig then check your cherries. If the color seems unnatural, they taste all weird, and the texture is like chewing on some sort of wax and plastic highbred then they're fine. Should they taste good or remotely cherry like then something is probably horribly wrong.

How long a pineapple lasts depends on how green it was when you got it. In general it seems once it starts smelling like a pineapple it can go bad fairly quickly and if you're not careful you'll end up seeing your pineapple on the wrong end of a car chase on FOX's "World's Most Outrageous Produce Inspector Videos". Pineapple seems to freeze fine (I once froze two hollowed out pineapples for later use and they looked fine) so you could freeze wedges. They'll get all frosty when you take them out of the freezer, but it's not unsightly. If the pineapple was on the firm side when you froze the wedges they should be firm when defrosted. Experiment...Unless you live in Georgia or Arkansas where sate laws against personal pineapple experimentation were recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

Save the artificial fruit garnish for artificial drinks such as Xima.

[ Edited by: woofmutt on 2002-06-20 07:55 ]