hand fruit

plural hand fruits

1. countableuncountableFruit that is normally eaten from the hand, such as apples or bananas.

   For most people, hand fruit—a fruit that fits in your palm—is a good choice. Hand fruits include apples, oranges, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, or small bananas.

   2008, Heather Bauer, The Wall Street Diet, Hachette Books, →ISBN

2. countabledateduncountableFruit of a suitable variety, and of a good grade of condition, such that it is salable on the basis that it is appealing for immediate consumption; in a schema of table fruit, hand fruit, and preserving fruit, table fruit was a top grade, hand fruit was a good grade, and preserving fruit encompassed any combination of (1) varieties less suited to unpreserved consumption (such as by palatability when uncooked) and (2) lower-grade condition that needed more trimming and culling.

   1 more example

   FALL PRESERVING FRUIT. Dealers divide fruit into three sorts—hand fruit, table fruit, and preserving fruit. Hand fruit is that not particularly selected, but of a quality to be eaten from the hand; table fruit is that carefully chosen and assorted, usually the choicest that appears, and which brings the highest price; preserving fruits are, in many instances, varieties never eaten from the hand or on the table. Many of the peach varieties, however, that are favorites for eating, make the best preserves.

   1887, F. A. Benson, “Table supplies and economics.”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 5, number 11, page 272