What fruit do you eat during the winter?

[joannqn]

This past summer I got us all eating a ton of produce. I lost weight and loved it. Typically, we'd eat 1 1/2 cups or more of various fruit with breakfast and lunch. Typically, we'd have grapes, cantaloupe, hami gold melon, bananas, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, and some apples. (DS has OAS so he can't have peaches, nectarines, pears, plums, and apples unless they are canned/cooked.) At dinner, we had 2-3 veggies or a veggie and salad.

 

Since winter, we've had a couple salads per week since, occasional canned corn and frozen peas, and virtually no fruit.

 

Out of desperation, I paid 99 cents a pound for the only cantaloupe in the store last night. This morning my finger went through the skin when I picked it up to cut it. I ended up tossing half of it. Ugh. I bought grapes because they were on sale at $2.99 a pound instead of their usual $3.99 a pound. Apples aren't a favorite so I didn't want to pay $1.79 a pound for the cheap ones. The bananas were a rather unappetizing greenish gray color so I didn't bother. I quit buying citrus because I got tired of paying for and throwing away tasteless, dry oranges. There are no peaches, nectarines, plums, or apricots in the stores at all. The occasional berries are expensive and don't look good.

 

Smoothies can be made with frozen fruit but they are expensive when you are making them for 6 people. I have to be careful with them; that's how DS's OAS first showed itself. I also don't care for them and usually give half of mine to the kids.

 

Summer can't come fast enough!

[jenangelcat]

Apples that we picked and stored in the basement and strawberries that we picked and canned. Sometimes I'll buy bananas and oranges. Everything else is gross out of season (from the store).

[Tammyla]

:iagree: Bring on the summer produce.

 

We do lots of carrots, broccoli, avocado & squashes during the winter, our fruits are pretty miserable, but we search for the best we can find. Our more expensive grocery store has better produce year round; I make it a point to shop their sales.

[OnTheBrink]

apples, bananas, navel oranges, pears, grapes, clementines

[Guest]

I'm eating an apple right now! And I did the whole cantaloupe thing about a week ago. Was totally bummed.

 

But, I did try my hand at canning last summer and canned all our jams, plus blueberries and peaches. That has been nice!

[chicagoshannon]

We eat canned, apples, bananas, grapes, and if I'm really desperate and the strawberries look ok, I'll get them.

[Janie Grace]

Fruit that is still good here: apples, oranges (esp. tangerines, cuties, etc), bananas, grapes (red seedless). Nothing else is good this time of year; I don't waste my $ on berries, melons, etc. in January.

 

I do buy frozen fruit (berries and mangoes) from Whole Foods. We have it in smoothies and in whole wheat muffins and pancakes. Sometimes mix it into yogurt w/ granola.

[leeannpal]

I miss summer fruits! We do buy apples and citrus fruits in the winter because they are in season and less expensive. We also love frozen fruit, not for smoothies, but just eat out of the bag.

 

Berries are so expensive right now!

[Random]

We do more veggies like sweet potato, squash, broccoli and lettuce during the winter. I'm in AZ, so the citrus supply is wonderful this time of the year.

 

How about making your own alfalfa sprouts?

 

Have you shopped at Azure Standard? Their frozen produce is a pretty good deal, I think. And, sometimes, their fresh is a good price, as well.

[crazyforlatin]

We're in California, so fruit is plentiful but I only eat apples and maybe bananas and oranges, and I usually give DD apples, pears, and frozen blueberries. I buy almost everything from Trader Joe's or Costco.

 

Have you tried Fuji apples? They are much more tasty than other apples, in my extremely biased opinion :D. I like the idea of making smoothies and adding in fruits that you may not necessarily eat alone. Would it be cheaper to add in soymilk or some sort of other liquid base? I haven't priced it out but DH used to make it with soymilk and put in cheap fruits.

Edited January 5, 2012 by crazyforlatin

[crazyforlatin]

I re-read the part about your DS. Would he like squash? I've steamed various types for DD and added just a little maple syrup over them, depending on the taste of the squash.

[Parrothead]

Fuji apples are the only kind I like so I get them year round. The price is fairly consistent through the year.

 

I also get bananas. If you put them in a fruit bowl with the apples they will ripen faster.

 

Pears are another fruit I get this time of year.

 

For the rest of it we eat a lot of veggies. Much more veg than fruit.

[twoxcell]

I buy; Apples, Bananas, Oranges, Mandarins, Blueberries(frozen), grapes sometimes, and whatever else I can find fresh. I also get applesauce, and some canned fruits in fruit juice.

[Lady Marmalade]

Oranges, clementines, grapefruit, bananas, kiwi, and pears right now. Occasionally apples if I can find Pink Lady apples and they look alright. The D'Anjou pears are especially tasty right now.

 

Mangoes should be thinking about getting tasty soon, then we'll have a few of those.

 

Otherwise we eat canned fruit- much of which we've canned ourselves. We are not smoothie fans, which is good because they're extremely expensive to make when you add up all the fruit you toss into a smoothie, vs having the fruit whole. We did try frozen mangoes for a treat... we all thought the chunks tasted fishy once thawed, so we'll just wait for the good ones to start rolling in.

[simka2]

I order large quantities of fruit from Azure Standard. This last shipment it was oranges, pears, and golden delicious apples. They were the best oranges we have ever had. :D

[cjzimmer1]

I don't buy much produce in the winter because it's usually not very good. However, we do enjoy the clementine oranges. They are more expensive than regular oranges but I haven't had bad ones yet. I'll buy grapes if they are on sale, and bananas if they aren't too green.

 

I buy bushels of apples in the fall and we just finished the last of them, last week. Now we will eat the homemade applesauce I canned in the fall. We also love blueberries. I freeze them in the summer and we eat them now in the half frozen state. Very nice change of pace. I also have frozen raspberries that we will add to muesli and yogurt.

 

Pineapples and kiwi fruit seem to be pretty good year round. Not sure what your prices are but here the pineapple has been on sale for 99 cents that last month at Aldi's. Sweet cherries are coming in from Chile now. I realize that's not at all local but they are actually at a pretty decent price and so we will get a couple of bags just for something different.

 

My kids adore pomengrante. And while they are about $2.00 each, I will buy 1-2 a month and everyone shares just to help keep the variety of nutrients going into their bodies.

 

The other option would be dry fruits. My kids will frequently have dried fruit for their afternoon snacks.

[Jen in PA]

We eat a lot of pineapple (fresh), kiwi, bananas, grapes, pears, and citrus this time of year. I will buy apples if they look nice, and even mediocre ones are good turned to applesauce. I also keep frozen berries on hand for snacking. I keep canned mandarin oranges in case we run out of fresh fruit, but right now fresh mandarins are far cheaper than canned.

[Night Elf]

We pretty much eat the same fruits year round: apples, bananas, grapes. We'll occasionally pick up strawberries or a melon, but it's not often. They just don't get eaten as much as our regular stuff.

[In the Rain]

Mostly apples, bananas, kiwi, pears, and clementines. I also buy berries and melon.

[justasque]

I enjoy baked fruit desserts - crumbles, cobblers, and so on. We eat apples, bananas, frozen berries by the bagful (in smoothies, baked in desserts, or with yogurt over top), canned fruit (in water or their own juice, no sugar or other fruit juice added), applesauce, and so on. I've made three consecutive large batches of apple blackberry crumble, and they've gone super-fast each time.

[TammyinTN]

I just purchased this weekend from Costco...apples, pears, bananas, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, oranges and asian pears. Delish....and almost gone.:D

[jengjohnson]

We eat a ton of citrus in the winter - clementines, oranges, grapefruit. I buy apples and bananas year-round. We also eat a lot of prunes and figs. I really only buy canned applesauce, no one seems to like the taste of other canned fruit so it is wasted. We LOVE fruit!

[Jane in NC]

And this is why I freeze blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and peaches.

 

We are regularly given large quantities of dried cherries from our Michigan family. We like these in cooked cereal and in baked goods like scones.

 

My local farm has had (at least until this week's freeze) lettuce, spinach, kale, chard and turnips. I have a fridge full of these greens which will last at least two weeks. I usually freeze some of the organic kale and chard to include in soups or things like baked ziti.

 

Like other posters, we buy citrus this time of year, usually oranges, clementines and lemons. Last night I made a lemon/olive oil salad dressing for our lettuce/radish salad.

 

Sitting on the counter is a loaf of cranberry/chocolate sweet bread. I used fresh cranberries for this, reserving the rest of the bag for a chutney.

 

Try prunes! Really. They are tasty.

[DaffodilDreams]

apples, grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, clementines, avocado, winter squash, and berries and peaches we picked and froze this summer

 

Still, I do feel we eat a lot less produce - esp fruit - in the winter months, too.

[KrissiK]

I get so tired of winter fruit. We eat apples, oranges, tangerines, bananas, pears and fruit I canned in the summer.

[Shellydon]

Bananas, apples, lots of oranges and grapefruit (ours are from Texas and wonderful), pears, blackberries, pineapple and grapes are pretty much always on the list in additions to carrots, acorn/butternut squash, spinach and lettuce.

[sbgrace]

Bananas, apples, pears and a variety of frozen fruit I use to make smoothies (peaches, berries, pineapple, rhubarb-vegetable but I treat it like a fruit, etc.)

[AdventureMoms]

We are eating bananas, apples and oranges mostly right now. Sometimes grapes, but they've looked pretty bad lately. I also do frozen berries. A lot of frozen berries. Aldis has them at a very reasonable price. My kids love them straight out of the freezer! Once in awhile I see pineapples that look good, and we'll get one of those.

 

We do tend to eat less fruit in winter than in summer. There are lots of veggies that seem to keep well, but very few fruits!

[Jenny in Florida]

Apples, bananas, grapes, frozen strawberries, occasionally clementines. We also eat a fair amount of applesauce out of a jar. I buy the unsweetened kind, at least.

 

I eat raisins, but I'm the only one who will (unless they are baked into bread, which my daughter and husband will eat, too).

 

Oooh! And I bought some pears at Whole Foods the other day as a treat. They were fantastic!

 

My son and I drink fruit smoothies, which I know you said aren't big at your house. Ours use calcium-fortified OJ as a base and have frozen bananas and straberries, plus a scoop of vegan protein powder. It's a tasty was to get in a few servings of fruit each day and not terribly expensive.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Jenny in Florida

[Ali in OR]

Apples, oranges, and bananas for fresh, plus frozen blueberries.

 

Winter is the peak season for citrus; navel oranges are wonderful now and for the next few months. No kid wants to peel their own, but if you slice rings and then cut those in half, suddenly everyone wants to eat some! We also are fuji apple fans and they are great from October-June. You may still find them in summer, but they're the previous year's crop and are getting scarce and expensive by then--good time to eat peaches instead. Fuji's are consistently $1.28/lb here and sometimes are on special at some store for $0.88 or $0.98 per lb. Green bananas will ripen on your counter. Some stores have better looking bananas than others. We have many blueberry farms around here--do you have them up there? Next July, find a u-pick blueberry farm and pick and freeze as much as you can afford to for use during the year. We did about 71 pounds for $1.25 per lb last summer. One dd eats them frozen, dh and I like them in a little yogurt with a little granola, and of course I bake with them.

 

You will see a few strawberries at Valentine's Day, but they'll be expensive and not too sweet. I resist them through March too, but by April the California berries are pretty good. Of course nothing compares to Oregon strawberries in June, but that's a short-lived treat.

[didadeewiththree]

clementines!

[*Inna*]

Apples, oranges from IL's tree and endless Cutie tangerines.

[NanceXToo]

I'm usually not a big apple fan, but I found that I love Honeycrisp apples! I eat bananas, I recently got a bag of Sunkist oranges, the seedless ones, and they were good. The red seedless grapes are sometimes still good this time of year. The kids love when I buy canned/jarred peaches since they're obviously not in season fresh. Jarred applesauce or applesauce cups. Raisins. That's about it.

 

I sure do miss summer and sweet nectarines, cantaloupe, strawberries, peaches, cherries.... I mean, you can still buy them but they're ridiculously expensive and don't taste very good. :P

[pitterpatter]

Whatever we can find at reasonable prices. :001_smile:

 

Right now, we have Cuties, bananas, grapes and apples. Really wanted some strawberries, but Sam's Club was all out last time we went. Can't really get any locally, as we're small and rural. They're all icky and super expensive.

 

We buy kiwi too. DD loves cantaloupe, but I'm still shy about buying those due to the recall a couple of months ago.

[4ofus]

We also eat tons of clementines & tangerines, apples, bananas, red holiday grapes, & pears. To a lesser extent grapefruit, dried figs & dried dates, pineapple& young coconut. Frozen berries in smoothies or yogurt. But I haven't seen anyone mention persimmons. These are my current favorite go-to fruit! Yum!

[Photo Ninja]

Oranges

Clementines

Bananas

apples (different varieties)

pears (different varieties)

berries (frozen during summer)

pineapple (canned)

canned peaches

whatever Costco has that looks good. This can vary weekly, but I am usually happy with the quality of the fresh fruit and veggies.

 

I wonder if fresh fruit availability varies much depending on where you live? Do west coast residents have more available because of weather? Just wondering. I have friends on the east coast who complain because they can't get the fresh fruit and veggies that I can buy.

[joannqn]

I wonder if fresh fruit availability varies much depending on where you live? Do west coast residents have more available because of weather? Just wondering. I have friends on the east coast who complain because they can't get the fresh fruit and veggies that I can buy.

 

California has good produce. Washington stinks in comparison.

 

I haven't had a single good orange in 19 years. Really good tomatoes are hard to come by as well. Even though we're the "apple state" we pay a lot more for them than other states seem to. The bare bottom lowest price for apples I've ever seen is 88 cents a pound for red delicious or granny smith during the summer. That happens a couple times a year. Right now they are $1.79 a pound at the cheapest and closer to $3 a pound for things like honey crisp. Grapes have been $3.99 a pound lately. We don't have peaches, nectarines, plums, or apricots except during the summer, and they can be hit or miss on quality. I've thrown away my share of mealy, nasty peaches and nectarines even during the summer.

[KungFuPanda]

We are on a clementine kick. My kids inhale them until they go out of season here. (I don't even know what that means with clementines. They all seem to be from Spain or .)

 

We like smoothies, so I do a lot of those with frozen fruit. Honestly, though, in the winter I gravitate more towards veggie soups and baked root vegetables. I figure that's enough.

[Laurie4b]

Bananas, apples, clementines are winter staples. We also buy some fruit juices (grape and Fusion mixtures of fruit and vege juices). We eat dried fruit: raisins, cranberries, apricots but more as flavorings, like in a salad or in oatmeal. We also buy frozen berries, mostly blueberries.

 

We eat more winter veges like pumpkin, which made into custard (like pumpkin pie with no crust) is more like a fruit to our way of thinking!