Colorful and Delicious: Winter's Best Snackable Fruits
We’re well into January, and even though we're still months away from spring favorites like cherries and apricots, we still have lots of wonderful winter fruits to choose from. Our produce experts choose the very best of varieties available in our seasonal produce boxes – and as always, we source them as locally as possible.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of our favorite pick-of-the-season winter fruit.
Apples
Offering a satisfying crunch by themselves, or with some peanut butter for a protein-packed snack, freshly picked apples from Washington state are here. You’ve already started to see varieties like Fujis, Galas, and Honeycrisps. Look for additional varieties – Jazz, Pink Lady, and Granny Smith.
California-grown citrus
The citrus season has really taken off, and mandarins and grapefruits have hit the market. Page mandarins are an exceptional variety – easy to peel, small and snackable, sweet, and not too acidic. A great salad topper. mandarins add a burst of freshness and pair particularly well with baby spinach, arugula, and baby kale.
Kiwi
Kiwi from Fresno are here, and we may get some from Morgan Hill too. The variety we have right now is the Hayward, the largest and sweetest. With sweet-tasting flesh and tart skin (the way a plum can be), its brown skin is fuzzy and the flesh inside is a vivid green, with a lighter center surrounded by a circle of tiny black seeds. All of it is edible. Whether you peel the skin or eat the fruit whole is a matter of personal taste.
Pear
Pear season is underway. We have all your usual favorites – Asian, Bartlett, Bosc, and D’Anjou – but now you can expect to see some specialty pears in rotation: Comice, Concorde, and Red D’Anjou. We source our pears from the cool orchards of Oregon and Washington state. Pears are delicious all by themselves but also make an exceptional toast topper - try them thinly sliced with some ricotta and honey.
Pomegranates
Pomegranate season starts in the fall and often runs through late winter. Pomegranate fruit is actually harder to come by these days because so many of them are carved out for processing into juice or to sell the arils (seeds). The pomegranates that we source from our growers in the Fresno Valley are absolutely gorgeous and fun to eat. Consider cutting and removing the seeds in advance for a great on-the-go snack.
If you're feeling extra curious, check out our deeper dive into the citrus season or pear varieties. Need help getting the seeds out of a pomegranate? We've got you covered there too! Take a look at our How to Remove Pomegranate Seeds video for a quick lesson on the easiest way to get to those snackable seeds - no soaking required!