What Fruits Are In Season During Fall?

You might often think of fresh, colorful fruits as being synonymous with the refreshing balmy air and sunny weather of spring and summer. And for good reason, of course, since there's such a vast selection of delicious fruits whose harvest seasons happen during the warmer seasons. But this is a bit of a misconception, as many of our most popular fruits actually come into season during the fall, with some even extending late into the autumn months.

There are over a dozen well-known fruits that are in season in the fall. Among these, apples, grapes, pears, plums, and cranberries constitute but a small selection of the eclectic variety offered to you as the weather cools off. And to make matters even better, the picking season for fall fruit is fairly spread out, with some maturing as early as late summer and some not coming into season until winter is all but visible on the horizon. This means that, even after the bountiful fruit season of summer has passed, you can still enjoy fresh, in-season fruit well into the waning months of the year.

If you had to single out one fruit that dominates the fall picking season, it would be apples. Depending on the variety, and there are a ton of apple varieties you probably haven't even heard of, they'll be ripe and ready for picking between the late summer and about the middle of fall. There are orchards all over the northern USA and Canada that offer fresh apple picking and even some seasonal ciders, if that's up your alley. If you're looking for the most plentiful supply, visit the state responsible for producing the most apples in the USA. But for a fruit so well-known and readily available, you shouldn't have much trouble tracking down some in-season apples.

But if you're searching for something other than apples, don't worry, there's plenty of fruit to choose from in the early stages of fall. Pears largely have the same seasonality as apples, as do plums, which tend to be available from late August until sometime in October. Grapes, too, share a similar picking season –- though they tend to go out of season earlier, such as cotton candy grapes, which only barely make it into the fall months. Interestingly enough, figs also come back into season around this time, as they have a second picking season that extends into October. So if you're looking to buy some fresh figs, you're in luck. But needless to say, you won't be yearning for fresh fruit options in the early stages of autumn.

If you thought that the early fall months brought the last gasps of the fruit growing season, think again. Although this season represents a sort of symbolic bookend on the year's harvests, there are still a number of fruits available well into the fall. One of the fruits most associated with fall, cranberries are in season all the way through November -– no wonder they're a Thanksgiving staple. Speaking of fruits with fall associations, pomegranates are also in season around the same time, from the mid-to-late fall season. If you can manage to eat pomegranate without making a mess, its seeds bring a juicy tartness that, similar to cranberries, complements fall cooking so well.

In much of geographic North America, these fruits would represent the end of the fruit season, but fall and the beginning of winter only represent a shift from these fruits to more tropical fruits grown further south. Citrus fruits start to come into play, such as kumquats, which grow from the middle to late stages of fall. Guava is also in prime picking season starting in the late fall, while the zingy kiwi fruit, an underrated meat tenderizer, is in season well into the winter, depending on where you are. Yes, the dog days of summer are behind you, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of the most succulent and tasty fruits of the year.