The Best Fall Fruit: What’s Fresh for Your Office

Have you ever noticed that the Thanksgiving cornucopia runneth over with fruit? Peek inside, and you’ll see bright red apples, sweet golden pears, and crisp grapes in a rainbow of colors. Why? Because fall is one of the best fruit seasons! And here at The FruitGuys, we’re bringing that horn of plenty right to your office. 

Our annual Fall Fruit Guide is your handbook to the autumn bounty. It gives you a sneak peek at the best fall fruits our farm partners will pick across the country for your fruit boxes, including crisp and juicy Asian pears, jewel-like pomegranates, and subtly spiced persimmons.

As always, we’re honored to share this guide and farm-fresh fall fruits with you. When you eat a variety of local, seasonal fruit, you’re powering your workday, boosting your mental and physical health, and supporting your neighbors, too. That’s a beautiful way to snack.  

Now, let’s dig into our most popular fall mixes and the fruits that make autumn so special! 

The Best Fall Fruit Mixes 

During the fall fruit boom, nothing can top our Harvest Mix and Season’s Best Box. They both come loaded with a rotating selection of the best fruits of the season, including apples, pears, Asian pears, kiwis, grapes, and more. You might even find unique and exotic bites inside, like finger limes, passion fruits, and kumquats. The Harvest Mix—our widest variety of fresh fruit—also includes bananas. 

All of our mixes are tailored to your region, and we source local bites from small farms whenever we can. Check out This Week’s Mixes to see exactly what’s in your box this week. We update the page every Sunday.

Apples

Apples abound in autumn, and they’re one of the best fall fruits! We’re so used to eating apples year-round that it’s easy to forget farmers harvest them fresh in the fall and preserve them in cold storage for the rest of the year. Taste a freshly picked apple in our Staples, Harvest, and Season’s Best mixes! We’re already featuring local varieties in all regions. 

For our West Coast organic boxes, we love sourcing Sweetie, Gala, Honeycrisp, and Ben Shogun Fuji apples from Cuyama Orchards in California. Look for their Arkansas Black apple—an heirloom variety—in November. 

Chicago-area customers should see apple varieties like Fuji, Honeycrisp, and Gala coming from Mick Klüg Farms and Lehman’s Orchard in Michigan. Meanwhile, our Philadelphia and East Coast friends will enjoy varieties like Gala, McIntosh, and Honeycrisp from our pals at Frecon Farms and Beechwood Orchards in Pennsylvania. 

If you see brown patches on your apples or pears this fall, don’t worry—there’s nothing wrong with the fruit. That color comes from a natural process called russeting. Russeting is a brownish, corky, or netlike texture that appears on many apple and pear varieties. It’s perfectly edible and has a yummy, nutty flavor. 

Fruit grown on small farms often has size variations and natural blemishes (what we call fruit beauty marks) that make it look different from fruit found in supermarkets. Just remember that the delicious flavor is well worth the visual imperfections.

Pears

Nothing says “fall” quite like the subtle sweetness and soft texture of a perfectly ripe pear. And this year, we’ve lucked into a great pear season. Last year’s pear crop from Washington was smaller than usual because of an early frost. But this year our farm partners are expecting a comeback, with crops up between 34% (organic Bartletts) and 570% (organic Boscs)! 

Pear harvests are underway in California and the Eastern US, too. In the Central region, we’re looking forward to fresh pears from Michigan. There are so many varieties to sink your teeth into, including Forelle, Bartlett, Starkrimson, French Butter, Comice, and more. 

On top of their delicious flavor, pears are full of healthy zinc, magnesium, calcium, copper, iron, and fiber. So eat them to impress your doctor—and your boss! Here’s a quick look at how snacking on pears can help you work.

Have an abundance of pears? Try making a comforting cobbler or an autumnal salad with pears and persimmons. 

Asian Pears

Also known as apple pears, these sisters of the traditional European pear are crispy, juicy, and delicious. Asian pears mostly originated in China and Japan, where they have a 3,000-year history. The Japanese varieties tend to be more round and apple-like, while the Chinese ones may have a more elongated Western pear look to them. 

Asian pears don’t have shiny skin like apples—their skin is a bit textured and varies in shade from matte-green and bronze to gold. These fruits are juicy but very firm, so they travel well. Inside, you’ll find crisp flesh and complex or even tropical flavors that intensify closer to the core. European pears such as the Bartlett have a smoother, mellower taste profile. Read our guide to learn more about the differences.

This fall, look for crisp Asian pears from Subarashii Kudamono in Pennsylvania in our Eastern mixes. They’ve grown Asian pears for more than forty years, and have seven unique patented varieties. We’ll also feature juicy 20th Century Asian pears from California’s Earthseed Farm in some Western mixes. 

Wherever your Asian pears come from, store them in the fridge for the best flavor and texture. They’re one of the best fall fruits when you treat them right.

Oranges and Other Citrus

Fall is a transition season for oranges. Thin-skinned summer Valencias give way to sturdier winter Navels as the weather changes. (Our handy guide can help you tell the difference between the two.) 

Some West Coasters are still enjoying sweet California Valencias from Bernard Ranch, but they’re in short supply, so there may be a few weeks between the two varieties this year. We’ll fill the gap with juicy imported Cara Caras and mandarins until local oranges are available again. 

Look out for other fun citrus items this fall, too: long, skinny finger limes and unique sweet-tart kumquats may appear in lucky mixes through December. West Coasters can also keep an eye out for California mandarins in October or November. 

Grapes

California is producing beautiful grapes this year, and we expect them to be available all fall and even into the winter. Fun fact: Grapes are actually berries, and those grown for eating (as opposed to, say, winemaking) are called “table grapes.” These fall fruits range in color from pale green to purple-black, and in size from pea-sized Champagne grapes to Japan’s plum-sized Kyoho grapes. 

This fall, we’re packing California grapes from Grapery in Kern County, Creekside Organics, Inc. (formerly Fruit World) in Fresno County, and King Fresh in the San Joaquin Valley. Keep an eye out for fun and fresh varieties from Grapery, like its long and skinny Moon Drops™ and super-sweet Cotton Candy™ grapes. 

Kiwis & Kiwi Berries

This year’s California kiwi season is expected to start in October, and we’re excited to offer three colors of kiwi: gold, green, and red! 

One kiwi has only about 50 calories but more than 100% of your daily Vitamin C. Plus, snacking on it just might help you sleep. Watch for these sweet-tart superfoods in our Harvest and Season’s Best mixes. 

We’re also looking forward to kiwi berries—tiny, fuzz-free kiwi lookalikes that you can pop into your mouth like grapes—out of Oregon this season.

Persimmons

Persimmons are one of the most underrated fall fruits. They come in two main varieties: Fuyu and Hachiya. The Fuyu persimmon is flat, firm, and ready to eat right out of your hand. It’s perfect for slicing into salads or slicing and dipping like an apple (watch the video below for more snack ideas). The Hachiya Persimmon is acorn-shaped and much softer when it’s ripe. We tend to add Fuyus to our mixes because they travel the best. 

We’re looking forward to fresh California persimmons from Brandt Farms and Earthseed Farm starting in October. 

Pomegranates

Of all the fall fruits, the pomegranate is the most elegant and exotic. Leathery skin protects a tightly packed network of brilliant red juice-filled arils (the official name of the jewel-like seeds) cushioned by a bitter membrane. Whether those arils are floating in sparkling water or scattered across the top of a salad, they always lend a pop of color and a sense of drama.

Of course, the pomegranate doesn’t give up its treasures without a fight—it takes a bit of work to extract the seeds and eat one. Watch our video to learn the best way to de-seed a pomegranate.

This year’s California pomegranate crop is looking great, and we expect early varieties to arrive in our mixes in September.

Late-Season Stone Fruits

Summer is the peak season for stone fruit, but you may still see some varieties of peaches, nectarines, plums, and pluots in our boxes through early autumn. The final juicy gems are coming out of California and Pennsylvania, where Beechwood Orchards will pick late-season peach varieties like the Autumnstar through September. 

See What’s In Your Mix 

We created this guide to give you an overview of what’s coming, but you can learn even more by checking This Week’s Mixes to find out exactly what’s in your mix this week. It’s the best way to stay up-to-date on the fresh fruits we’re packing all season long, and keep your fall fruit basket full!

Love This Guide to the Best Fall Fruit? Share It With Your Team

Fall is a wonderful season to enjoy fresh fruit at work. If you’re an HR or office manager and get one of our mixes delivered, share a link to this fall fruit guide with your team. They’ll love learning about the fun varieties on the way and the farms that grow their fruit.