Winter Fruit Guide 2024

When winter winds bring cooler temperatures, it’s natural to lean into hearty foods like soups, roasts, and stews. But those warming meals need a fresh counterpoint—and nature provides it with winter fruit exploding with juice and flavor. 

Eating a variety of fresh, seasonal fruit year-round is fantastic for your body and your brain. Its vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber keep your mind sharp, your heart healthy, and your risk of seasonal sniffles low. But which winter fruits should you eat? 

Here at The FruitGuys, we do our best to make that choice easy by delivering delicious winter fruit mixes all season long (this year, that means Saturday, December 21–Thursday, March 20). Our mixes vary from region to region, but we’ve tried to capture the big picture of what to expect this season in this Winter Fruit Guide. First, let’s start with winter fruit royalty: Citrus. 

Oranges

We’re looking forward to a strong citrus season this year. Warm October weather slowed down the ripening of some varieties in the fall, but now that things have cooled off we’re seeing a riot of bright and beautiful citrus coming from our farm partners. 

Sweet, snackable Navel oranges are always a winter favorite, and cooler temperatures help them turn a bright, uniform orange. We’re also excited about California Blood oranges and sweet pink Cara Caras. In California, we source excellent oranges from Bernard Ranch and Bee Sweet Citrus—both of which also grow wonderful grapefruits. 

Grapefruits

Keep your eyes peeled for an abundance of tasty grapefruit varieties over the winter months, including pomelos and their sister fruit, the Oro Blanco (or “white gold”) grapefruit. This hybrid between a white grapefruit and a pomelo was developed at the University of California-Riverside in the late 1950s. 

Delicious and low in acid, it has none of the usual grapefruit bitter-tartness—so even if you’re not typically a fan of grapefruit, the Oro Blanco is well worth a try. You’ll also see the classic, highly flavorful Ruby Red grapefruit this season. All grapefruits are high in Vitamin C and fiber, and pink and red grapefruit contain the beneficial antioxidant lycopene. 

WARNING: Grapefruits, pomelos, and tangelos can interact with some drugs, including those for blood pressure, anxiety, cholesterol, and allergies. If you’re on medication, check with your healthcare provider or pharmacist before consuming these fruits.

Mandarins, Tangerines, and Other Citrus

You can expect to see lots of small citrus fruits over the winter months. Stem and leaf mandarins, which arrive with their greenery intact, are a festive treat already appearing in some mixes. We’re also big fans of Satsuma mandarins, which are seedless and, thanks to their “zipper” skin, super easy to peel and eat. Clementines will also come on strong in December and January, along with Lee tangerines, a sweet and juicy hybrid of the Clementine mandarin and the Orlando tangelo. 

We’re expecting Minneola tangelos, which are nicknamed “honeybells” for their bell shape, from our friends at Fruit World in December and beyond. January will bring Page mandarins from San Joaquin County’s Lagier Ranches—a farm we’ve worked with since 2009, and a recipient of a 2014 farm grant from The FruitGuys Community Fund.

We’ll also have tiny and delicious Kishu tangerines from Churchill Orchard, plus tasty and versatile mandarinquats and kumquats. The latter is a delicious winter fruit with a blend of sweet and tart flavors. It’s ready to eat whole, skin and all!

Our pals at Friend’s Ranches will start supplying us with their famous Ojai Pixie tangerines in late February and Gold Nugget and Tahoe Gold tangerines in March. The rare Ojai Pixies from Friend’s are naturally seedless and always delicious—so much so they’ve been served at the White House several times. They’re also included in Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, a living catalog of culturally significant foods facing extinction.

Apples

Most of The FruitGuys’ facilities will have local apples in abundance throughout the winter. We source these from family farms whenever possible, like Frecon Farms in Pennsylvania and women-owned Mick Klüg Farms in Michigan. 

We also have fantastic, unique apple varieties from Washington, California, and beyond including the Arkansas Black, SnapDragon ®, SweeTango ®, Cosmic Crisp ®, and Pink Pearl. To learn more about fifteen of the apple varieties we often include in our fruit boxes and how they rank from sweet to tart, check our apple flavor chart.

Pears

Pears offer a variety of subtle, mouthwatering flavors, and with proper cold storage, stay fresh and delicious for months. We’re expecting a smaller-than-usual pear crop from the Pacific Northwest this season after back-to-back cold winters, so treasure every bite you can get! 

Luckily, pears are a versatile winter fruit. Whether you go for Comice, D’Anjou, Forelle, French Butter, Bartlett, Packham, Seckel, or the sweet and fragrant Taylor’s Gold, there is truly a pear for everyone. One of our favorites, the Asian pear, is already wrapping up for the year, but we look forward to its return in the fall. 

More Winter Fruit Options

We expect to have gem-like California pomegranates and autumnal Fuyu persimmons from Brandt Farms through the end of the year. December also brings a handful of unique and tropical treats from California, including passion fruits, Finger limes, Buddha’s hands, and pink lemons. Keep a lookout for more fun items as the season progresses, including California mangoes, guavas, and rambutans.

In Oxnard, California, the harvest of early strawberries is already underway and will continue through springtime. Finally, avocado fans, take note: We’ll have Bacon avocados available from December through March, and Fuertes close behind in February and March.

Winter Fruit Recipes

All of the fruits we listed are delicious eaten out of hand as a snack, both at the office and at home. But if you want to get more adventurous with your winter fruit, here are a few recipes to help inspire you. 

• Sliced Persimmon and Winter Squash Salad
• Apple Pear Cobbler
• Spiced Pears and Pomegranate
• Winter Citrus Salad
• Apple-Turnip Mash
• Cozy Holiday Fruit Drinks
• Caramelized Pears and Onions
• Chickpea Salad with Grapefruit and Fennel

Find more fresh and healthy recipes in the recipe section of our blog. 

Thanks for reading our Winter Fruit Guide. If you’re a FruitGuys customer, you can check This Week’s Mixes to find out exactly what’s in your box. If not, consider exploring our seasonal fruit mixes here.