In episode 054 learn what fruit you should be looking out for in the grocery store during the month of December.
📜 Transcript
Hey everybody,
We are at the start of a new month and I wanted to take the time to share with everyone, what I believe is the best fruit to be eating this month. I am hugely passionate about fruit and trying all the different varieties I can. I want to share with you what you should be looking for this month.
For me, December is when I start buying citrus again. I don't like to buy in it the summer or in the early part of fall as what you find in the store is mostly stuff imported from other countries and is rarely any good.
Christmas time is for Clementines. This is used to be the only time of year you would find the crates of them. They were usually imported from European countries until we started seeing more of them grown in California. Easy to peel citrus has exploded in popularity, where I think the majority of people now like to buy them instead of Navel oranges.
You may see mandarins labelled a Clementines throughout the winter, however the actual Clementine variety is only available late fall and just into winter. It's kind of like Kleenex describes all facing tissues. Clementines are used to describe all mandarins. For the true Clementine, look for them this month.
They aren't my favorite mandarin to buy in December. I prefer buying Satsuma mandarin. Not all stores carry them but a lot do. Whole Foods Market carries them frequently. They are grown in California but also you can get them in the south. I have been enjoying buying ones that are grown in southern Georgia. I will be talking more about this variety later on in the month on the podcast. So be looking for that.
On the berry front, this month is usually the last time you will find cranberries until next fall. They last a while in the fridge and can be frozen very well. Since most of us don't just eat them raw, the texture of frozen cranberries will be perfectly fine for anything you want to use them in.
As for the other berries, I usually don't buy much of them in December. Quality is not really there or the price. We are getting them imported from other countries. When we start seeing more strawberries grown in Florida in stores, then you can see better prices on them.
Apples are done being harvested now. They are plenty of crisp, tasty varieties that are good to buy this month, like Lucy Glo, Lucy Rose, Snap Dragon, and Sugar Bee. These apples are all related to the Honeycrisp, so fans of that one should give these a try.
Thanks for listening to today's episode. To learn more about the varieties talked about in this episode visit our show notes page. If you aren't signed up yet, you can sign up our Fruit Season email list and be updated when you can find the best fruit in season.
🛒 Before You Checkout
What you need to know before you checkout at the grocery store or market:
When buying fruit like oranges, mandarins, apples, pears, etc consider whether you are buying fruit in bags or loose by the pound. See how much the bagged fruit is actually by the pound. Sometimes it's cheaper and sometimes it's not. But what you do often find is that the bagged fruit tends to be smaller sized fruit, which can be beneficial if you have small kids at home that can't finish a larger piece of fruit.
📚 Additional Resources
Here is all the fruit that we talked about in this episode:
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