Basket of fruit for a gift

[longtompot]

I'm looking for a gift basket of fruits for my mum for Mother's Day. I was originally thinking about going to Waitrose and M&S and getting some and making up my own as the pre done ones just seem a bit boring, unless someone knows of some which aren't.
What would you love to have in a basket of fruit?

Dates, grapes, strawberries, bananas, mango, pink lady apples. Anything that is high quality feels like a treat, I normally buy boring gala apples so Pink Ladys are a treat. Medjool dates have a long shelf life and so sweet.

Dried fruit like apricots / papaya

Not sure how many PP didn't get the memo ... you are hardly giving her a basket of sprouts 😂... though I do love sprouts.

I suppose the 'special' fruits for me would be watermelon, pineapple (although fiddly), honeydew melon, lychees, cherries, raspberries and strawberries.

Bananas/ apples/ oranges/ grapes/ blueberries are my usual go to fruit so wouldn't feel like a gift to me, and I don't personally like the texture of mango and kiwi or the taste of papaya.

I’d love a fruit basket! A mixture of things that keep longer like sable, candy floss or tutti frutti grapes, figs, passion fruit, citrus, pears, apples. pineapple and things that don’t last as long like berries, nectarines etc. Some unusual items like honey mangoes, custard apples, dragon fruit, papaya, pomelo etc would be nice too. The fancy jars of fruit are a good idea too. If you have any Asian, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern or Brazilian stores nearby, they are great for unusual fruits. She might not thank you for durian though 😂

Maybe you could get her a fruit storage container for the fridge too? I have the Sistema ones and find fruit lasts much longer with them.

Is she maybe thinking of something like this? No clue if they're nice or not (see comments above re. fruit out of season), but looks gifty at least. Not too much of it to wade through before it goes off too.

When I had to go to hospital, my colleagues made up a fruit basket for when I came out. It was lovely... one red apple, one green, one orange, one pear, 4 figs, bags of M&S soft prunes, dried apricots mixed fruit&nuts and a small jar of cherries in Kirsch. In between it all were those "shot" type (long and thin) packets of fruit and nuts, and chocolate raisins from Tesco.
Was thoughtful and lasted ages. Every single bit got eaten. No waste.

We do have an Asian food store here so will look on there, so thank you for the reminder @Fitzbillie
I just had a thought of what to put it in and I think I'll get a wide but shallow planter as she is a keen gardener and she can use it afterwards. Might gets some bulbs to plant in it. She has tons of storage containers so I don't think she, or at least my dad would thank me for another one 😅

I won a huge basket of fruit in a raffle. I was a bit meh at the time but got it home and the family dived in. It was fantastic. Everything was at the peak of perfection.
There were persimmons, passion fruit, a papaya, a small melon, pomelo, a pineapple, peaches, pears, grapes and a dragon fruit. Maybe some other things that I've forgotten.

I think soft fruit/ berries could be a risk, but other ripe-but-with-a-day-or-twos-freshness fruit is a lovely thing to receive

What she said!

But not what I asked for🤷‍♀️

though I'd rather have some nice wine and chocs 😉

I wouldn’t want fruit though as a gift for one person, it’s mostly a faff to eat and likely to go off before they finish it all.

I'd love that

I would do some hard fruits like apples, oranges, plus a bunch of grapes and then add some dried fruit and nuts, banana chips, dried mango/ papaya etc, bottled fruit (like you would have for cheese), preserves, fruit leather, juice/smoothie and some New Berry fruits (sweets).

I would not want a basket of fruit .
It reminds me of illness

Maybe fruit and one of those Breville personal smoothie blenders + a home made smoothie recipe booklet?

Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi. A grapefruit, a Seville orange or two. Small melon or pineapple, couple of peaches. Cherries. Not all of them though! Depends if you know she generally preps her own fruit from scratch or not, whether she juices or will cook with items.

But don't overdo it in terms of amounts as it could be hard for her to use up in time even if you know she'll love it, and make sure the use by dates are staggered for the items that will go off quickest.

We like our fruit in this household, can you tell?!

I forgot to update but the bowl of fruit was very well received. I bought a hanging terracotta planter to put the fruit in, and am buying some saffron crocus bulbs later in the year to plant up in there.
I bought some white strawberries from M&S, a pack of dried peaches and nectarines, physalis, sable grapes, blood oranges, dragon fruit, papaya, yellow kiwi, plums and figs.

Sounds absolutely delicious, not surprised it was well received!