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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
Avocados are notorious for being temperamental when it comes to achieving the perfect ripeness, but this hack might help change that.
Health and wellness Instagram influencer Caroline Groth shared the hack, which involves an unripe avocado, a kiwi and a paper bag, with her nearly 65,000 followers recently.
In a Reel posted on her Instagram page, Groth wrote in the caption: “Guys, green skin + Shepherd avocado season means I legit need a spreadsheet to keep track of when I’ll have avocados to eat because they take foreeeeeeever [sic] to ripen.
“But no more… insert the best 101 life hack ever.”
The Danish-Australian blogger showed her followers that placing an unripe avocado and a kiwi fruit into a brown paper bag, rolling it up and leaving it for 24 hours would yield a “most perfect, ripe avocado”.
According to Groth, this is because the kiwi fruit releases ethylene gas, a “plant hormone that aids the ripening process”.
Enclosing both fruits in a paper bag “traps the gas so the process works faster”, she added, pledging that the hack would ripen an avocado within 24 hours.
In the comments, Groth said that using a banana in place of a kiwi would also work because bananas produce ethylene gas, as do apples.
Ethylene gas naturally occurs in fruit as they ripen. It is a plant hormone that regulates the plant’s growth and development, according to Gardening Know How.
Putting an unripe avocado in a breathable bag, such as a paper bag, together with a kiwi, banana or apple helps to produce more ethylene and therefore accelerate the ripening process.
Groth’s followers described the hack as “genius” and “mind-blowing” as they thanked her for sharing it.
“I need this in my life,” one person wrote, while another added: “This is life-changing!! Thank you.”
A third said: “You’re s***ting me! This has changed my life! Thank you!”
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