Fruit Tools

Every fruit has a tool!

I was at the hardware store yesterday and noticed how many cooking utensils are sold to help devour fruit. It's as if each fruit has created a Darwinian manufacturing niche.

Here are some of the fruit tools I saw.

Meet the Flexicado, a flexible avocado slicer that slices while you scoop out the meat of the avocado. You have to take out the seed first.

Then there is the Apple Corer which also divides the apple in eighths as you push down.

The cousin to the Apple Corer is the Mango Splitter. This device separates the seed from the meat of the mango as you push down. The package shows you how to cut the fruit in a criss-cross pattern, invert the peel and cut cubes of fruit off the skin.

Grapefruit aficionados will appreciate the Grapefruiter which makes it easy to extract sections of the fruit.

The Strawberry Huller removes the stem of the strawberry. With today's perpetual strawberry seasons, this is a year-round helper.

If you eat a lot of oranges or mandarins, a Citrus Peeler turns a messy peeling session into a quick and easy task. Snack away!

I like cooking corn in the microwave and removing the husk as I eat. If you prefer husking your corn first, try a Corn Cutter.

After you've cooked corn, it's much easier to eat with Corn Holders. I prefer multicolored packs because then everyone knows whose corn holder is whose.

A Cherry Pitter makes cherries easy to cook. It also doubles as an olive pitter.

What a better way to end the hardware store tour than with a Melon Baller.

I scooped up a couple of melon ballers and corn holders on the way out the door. Not for me, of course, but for panic presents. Any of these would make perfect presents for friends setting up a kitchen or friends who seem to have everything.

Enjoy fruit. It's healthy!