The way I check to see if it's ripe is to look at the seams on the body of it - you know the cris-cross pattern? If it's a darker green, it's not ripe. As it lightens, it's getting riper. I know there's a way to tell by pulling one of the stems out of the top, but I have no idea how so someone else might be able to give advice.

We tend to slice only what we need and put the rest back in as a whole with the exposed fruit covered in cling wrap. And I trim off the edges of the cut pieces before I eat it because I find those bits to be a bit to hard for my liking.