Dietitian Grocery Tips: buying fruit in season

When you buy fruit in season, you’ll get the top most quality, best price, and the fun of anticipating different fruit throughout the year!

I did an informal Instagram poll, and got a strong message in return: people are interested in hearing what I buy in the grocery store. I thought I’d start by highlighting one of the key strategies I use to keep my grocery shopping, healthy, tasty and affordable: buying fruit in season.

There are many advantages to buying your fruit seasonally!

Quality: Just pure taste. There’s nothing like the taste of fresh fruit picked at peak ripeness! I absolutely adore a fresh, juicy peach, bursting with flavour!

On the other hand, a lacklustre peach is one of life’s greatest disappointments. I’d put it right up there with mistaking a black bean square for a brownie. True story: that happened to me when I lived in Guatemala, and it’s a memory that will be imprinted in my mind forever!

Price: Who can argue with saving money? When the harvest is bountiful, the price drops!

Delayed Gratification: One of the perks of eating fruit seasonally is the anticipation of enjoying the fruit annually! My heart does a little happy dance when I first find cherries in summer! Part of the joy of Christmas is enjoying a mandarin orange! To get over the blues of Christmas having ended, I look forward to the amazing grapefruits that I know will be appearing in stores in January.

Environmentally Friendly: If it’s a fruit that can be grown locally, the grocery stores don’t need to ship it from around the globe. Strawberries can be grown in my home province of Manitoba, but they’re only available in late June or early July. For the rest of year they come in from California or Mexico.

So, without further ado, here are the fruits I tend to buy each month.  This is my personal experience from living and shopping in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fruit that are seasonal and available in your area may be different! This isn’t strict or anything… the fruits aren’t 100% restricted to their months, since there is often overlap available. These are simply the typical months when I find these fruits to be plentiful and affordable.

Winter

• December: mandarin or clementine oranges
• January: grapefruit, blood oranges, persimmons
• February: kiwi, mango, litchees

Spring

• March: pineapple
• April: cantaloupe
• May: rhubarb

Summer

• June: watermelon, strawberries
• July: cherries, raspberries
• August: blueberries, grapes
• September: stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots)

Fall

• October: apples, pears
• November: pomegranate, cranberries

All year round

These are the fruits that have a relatively stable price, and are available consistently throughout the year. I buy them whenever I can’t find other deals, but I tend to buy them most in spring, since there aren’t a lot of seasonal fruits available in spring.

• bananas
• pineapple
• melons
• blackberries
• avocado
• frozen fruit

I hope this helps you to buy fruit seasonally! For more reading on fruit, check out this article that answers the questions “should I buy fresh or frozen” and this article that teaches you how to buy fresh fruit and make it last two weeks!

[share title=”Share This Article” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”true” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”true” reddit=”true” email=”true”]