What's in Season in Fall: A Region-by-Region Guide to Autumn Produce

The first cold morning changes a market. Tomatoes get cheaper and softer, the squash pile grows taller than the person selling it, and somebody has a crate of apples with a name you have never seen on a grocery sticker. This guide covers that turn, region by region and month by month, then crop by crop.

One caveat first. Fall reaches Minnesota long before it reaches Houston, and the USDA's Seasonal Produce Guide says plainly that what is in season near you "will vary by growing conditions and weather." The ranges below come from state agriculture departments and university extension charts, all of which carry the same warning. Use them to know what to expect, then ask the person behind the table.

Northeast and Midwest

Most fall produce guides are quietly written about this region, and the charts show why. Penn State's harvest calendar for Pennsylvania runs apples from late July to the end of October, pears from mid-August to the third week of October, pumpkins through September and October, and winter squash into the first week of November. Beets, carrots, broccoli, and cabbage go to the end of November, and cauliflower returns for a second run in October and November. Michigan State's availability guide has a longer tail, with fall apples from September through December (and from storage in January and February), butternut and acorn squash from September into December, and Brussels sprouts and rutabagas through November. Minnesota Grown's chart puts Brussels sprouts, parsnips, turnips, and winter squash at peak in September and early October, with pumpkins peaking from late September into October.

South

Southern fall is less a harvest than a second spring. UGA Extension's month-by-month guide for Georgia lists apples, muscadines, sweet potatoes, winter squash, tomatoes, and peppers straight through September and October, with tomatoes and peppers marked limited in November. Pears start in August, pecans and persimmons in September, and pumpkins run September through November; kale, mustard greens, turnips, and broccoli return in October. Georgia spans eight USDA hardiness zones, the guide notes, so the mountains and the coast disagree. NC State's Homegrown calendar for North Carolina has apples from August through the winter, muscadines August to October, persimmons in September and October, pecans in November and December, collards every month, and sweet potatoes year-round because they cure and store so well.

Pacific Northwest and Mountain West

The Washington State Department of Agriculture's vegetable seasonality chart marks peak harvest for acorn and butternut squash from October through December and Hubbard from November into January, with pumpkins and sweet potatoes from September through November. Brussels sprouts run from September into the new year, kale peaks September through November, parsnips carry from September through March, and tomatoes and peppers stop in October. A federal regional produce list from the Administration for Community Living adds pears, grapes, plums, rutabagas, and leeks to the Northwest's fall column. Elevation is the story in the Mountain West: Utah State University's harvest schedule for the Wasatch Front lists winter squash from August through November, carrots, onions, and potatoes into November, peaches as late as October, peppers done by the end of September, and tomatoes a month later. Its chart for the higher Wasatch Back runs shorter on nearly every crop.

Southwest and Texas

Fall is when the desert Southwest and Texas come into their own. The Texas Department of Agriculture's availability card lists pecans from October through January, persimmons from August through November, pumpkins from September through November, sweet potatoes from August into May, and the start of citrus, with oranges from September and grapefruit from October. Greens, beets, spinach, kale, and cauliflower begin in October or November and run through winter, while tomatoes hang on into November and sweet peppers into December. Pomegranates "ripen between September and December" in Arizona, according to University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. New Mexico's pecan harvest comes later than Georgia's or Texas's: NMSU's orchard schedule has it beginning in mid to late November and running through December. In California, UC's persimmon overview gives harvest from late October through November, and the federal list adds dates, figs, mandarins, almonds, and walnuts to the fall column for California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.

Crop by crop: how to buy it and how to keep it

Storage figures below come from two extension bulletins, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Storing Fresh Fruits and Vegetables and Iowa State's Storing Winter Storage Vegetables, unless noted. They assume a proper cold spot; a kitchen counter will not hit these numbers. For the everyday refrigerator version, see how to store farmers market produce.

Apples

Ask which apples are for eating this week and which are keepers; growers know, and the answer changes your order. Nebraska's bulletin puts apples at 30 to 40°F and about 90 percent humidity for 3 to 8 months, which is why Michigan lists fall apples again in January and February. The same bulletin warns that apples pass their odor to delicately flavored produce and give off ethylene that speeds ripening in whatever sits next to them, so bag them separately. Our apple buyer's guide sorts varieties by use, and a haul that gets ahead of you can become slow-cooker apple butter.

Pears

A hard, green pear at the market is normal. Penn State's pear ripening guide explains that European pears need chilling before they will ripen at all: a day or two in the refrigerator for Bartlett, 2 to 6 weeks for Anjou, Bosc, and Comice. Then ripen them on the counter at 65 to 75°F and check the neck; the pear is ready when the flesh just below the stem yields slightly. Cold-stored at 29 to 31°F, they hold 2 to 4 months.

Winter squash and pumpkins

A squash you buy in October has usually been cured already; Iowa State describes curing at 80 to 85°F and 80 to 85 percent humidity to harden the skin, for every type but acorn, which is stored uncured. Your job is a cool, dry, ventilated spot at 50 to 55°F, away from apples, pears, and other ripening fruit, whose ethylene shortens a squash's life. Keeping time varies: roughly 5 to 8 weeks for acorn, 2 to 3 months for butternut, 5 to 6 months for Hubbard. Buy the big Hubbard in November and the acorns as you need them. Our winter squash guide goes variety by variety.

Brassicas

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale share a family, and the reason they taste better in October than August is cold. Penn State's fall vegetable guide describes winter sweetening: as temperatures drop, cold-hardy crops convert starches to sugars that act as antifreeze for their cells. Storage is cold and humid, 32°F and 90 to 95 percent, but the clock differs: Nebraska gives cabbage 3 to 4 months, Brussels sprouts 3 to 5 weeks, cauliflower 2 to 4 weeks, and broccoli or kale only 10 to 14 days.

Root vegetables

Carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas get the same frost sweetening; Nebraska's bulletin says many people prefer their flavor after a frost, which is the argument for buying them after the first cold snap. Iowa State's instructions: trim the tops to about an inch, then hold the roots at 32 to 35°F with humidity in the 90s (a bag in the crisper is the home approximation). Carrots keep 4 to 6 months, turnips 4 to 5, parsnips 2 to 6, rutabagas 2 to 4, beets 1 to 3. If yours come with greens, cut them off at home and cook them; both bulletins call for topping roots before storage.

The last tomatoes and peppers

Penn State is blunt that the first fall frost "will kill lots of plants," and tomatoes and peppers are first on that list. Nebraska's bulletin tells growers to pick peppers before frost threatens, and the same logic empties tomato plants, which is why late-season tables carry pale, firm tomatoes. Mature-green tomatoes ripen at 55 to 70°F over 1 to 6 weeks, so a windowsill will finish them. Sweet peppers hold 2 to 3 weeks at 45 to 50°F, warmer than the rest of the refrigerator, and do not improve with waiting. Buy for the week, not the month.

Greens

Kale, collards, mustard, chard, and spinach are the workhorse crops of fall everywhere, and in the South they run through winter; Texas lists greens from October to April, and North Carolina has collards every month. They sweeten with cold like the brassicas most of them are, but they do not keep like cabbage: Nebraska gives kale and collards 10 to 14 days at 32°F and high humidity. Buy them last, so they ride home on top of the squash instead of under it.

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are dug in late summer and early fall and then cured, which Iowa State says heals cuts and bruises and converts some starch to sugar; commercial growers hold them at 85°F and high humidity for 7 to 10 days. Cured roots store at 55 to 60°F with 85 to 90 percent humidity for 4 to 6 months, warmer than a refrigerator and cooler than a kitchen; below 55°F they can develop off flavors. That is why North Carolina lists them every month of the year. Skip any with soft spots or shriveled ends, and handle the rest gently: Nebraska notes that sweet potatoes bruise easily and bruised roots do not store.

Cranberries

The National Center for Home Food Preservation's cranberry page puts harvest from September through November. Look for berries that are fully red or yellowish-red with glossy, firm skin. In the original bag in the crisper they keep up to 4 weeks, and frozen up to a year. Fresh local cranberries are regional: USDA's Economic Research Service forecast the 2025 U.S. crop at 8.13 million barrels, with Wisconsin at 5.3 million and Massachusetts at 1.75 million.

Persimmons

Two persimmons sit side by side at Southern and California markets, and confusing them is how people decide they hate persimmons. UC's overview describes Hachiya as acorn-shaped and "very astringent when firm"; it needs to ripen off the tree until soft and almost jelly-like. Fuyu is squat like a flattened tomato, not astringent, and eaten firm, though the flavor improves with a little softening. Georgia lists persimmons from September through November, North Carolina in September and October, Texas from August through November, and California from late October into November.

Pomegranates

Arizona's bulletin notes that pomegranates bruise easily, so treat them like eggs on the walk back to the car. Stored at 40 to 50°F they continue to develop flavor; at 32 to 40°F with 80 percent or higher humidity they keep for weeks to months. Heavy for its size is the buying rule, since the weight is juice.

Pecans

New-crop pecans arrive on different schedules: Georgia's guide lists them from September, Texas from October, North Carolina from November, and New Mexico's harvest begins in mid to late November. Buy them in the shell if you can wait to crack them. NMSU's pecan storage guide calls an unbroken shell "one of the best packages for kernels" and gives in-shell nuts 18 months in the refrigerator against 12 for shelled, with either lasting years in the freezer. Ask whether the nuts are this year's crop; that is the reason to buy them at a fall market.

Storage cheat sheet

Before your next market trip

Shop in the order things keep. Buy squash, roots, onions, and pecans in quantity once the piles get tall in late October and November; they will still be good in January. Buy greens, broccoli, and the last tomatoes for the week ahead and no longer. Keep apples in their own bag, and give sweet potatoes and squash a shelf instead of the crisper.

If you are new to shopping this way, how to shop a farmers market like a regular covers timing and etiquette, and the storage guide has the everyday refrigerator version of the numbers above. If a vendor tells you the squash is early this year or the persimmons are late, believe the vendor over this guide.