Right now, in early spring across the Northern Hemisphere and early autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and specialty crops are being pulled from fields, orchards, and greenhouses around the world. What’s available depends on where you live, but the overlap between late-winter storage crops and the first fresh spring harvests makes this one of the more diverse times of year at farmers’ markets and grocery stores.
Fruits and Vegetables in Season in the US
The United States spans enough climate zones that late winter and early spring harvests overlap significantly. Root vegetables and cold-hardy greens dominate in cooler regions, while warmer states like California and Florida are already producing fresh fruit.
Vegetables in season right now include asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, collard greens, kale, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, and turnips. Many of these, like parsnips and beets, are storage crops harvested in late fall that remain available through winter. Others, like asparagus and peas, signal the start of the spring growing season.
For fruit, avocados, grapefruit, kiwifruit, lemons, limes, oranges, pears, and apples are all in season. Florida’s Meyer lemons ripen from November through March, making this the tail end of their peak. California’s strawberry season has already begun. Cal Poly’s research farm started its 2025 harvest in late February, though commercial volumes typically take a few more weeks to ramp up. By late March and into April, California strawberries will be widely available in stores.
What’s in Season in the UK and Europe
March in the UK and Northern Europe is still firmly a cold-weather harvest. According to the British Dietetic Association, the vegetables currently in season include artichoke, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, chicory, leeks, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, radishes, sorrel, spring greens, spring onions, and watercress.
Purple sprouting broccoli is the standout of the British March harvest. It’s one of the few brassicas that matures this early, and its short season (roughly February through April) makes it a seasonal favorite. Leeks and parsnips are at their sweetest after exposure to frost, which converts their starches to sugars. Spring greens and watercress mark the transition toward warmer-weather crops.
Southern Hemisphere Autumn Harvests
While the Northern Hemisphere shakes off winter, countries like South Africa, Australia, and parts of South America are entering autumn, which brings one of the most abundant harvest windows of the year. In South Africa, the March through May period yields an enormous range of fruit: apples, avocados, blueberries, figs, grapes, grapefruit, lemons, mangoes, nectarines, oranges, passion fruit, peaches, pears, persimmons, pineapples, plums, pomegranates, quinces, raspberries, and watermelon are all in season.
On the vegetable side, South African autumn harvests include aubergines (eggplant), beetroot, broad beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, carrots, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, and turnips. This diversity is one reason supermarkets in the Northern Hemisphere can stock fresh summer fruit year-round: when it’s winter where you are, it’s harvest season somewhere else.
Coffee Harvests Around the World
If you drink coffee, the beans in your cup were harvested on a schedule tied to altitude, latitude, and rainfall patterns. Right now, several Central American countries are wrapping up their main harvest season. Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama all harvest coffee from November through March, meaning the final pickings are happening as you read this.
Colombia operates on a different cycle. Its primary harvest in the central growing regions (Antioquia, Quindío, Risaralda, Caldas) runs from September to mid-January, so that crop is already in. But Colombia’s secondary harvest, called the “Mitaca,” kicks off in April through June. In the southern regions like Huila and Nariño, those timelines flip, so fresh coffee is being picked there now.
The major South American producers, including Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, start their primary harvests in May and run through September. That means fresh lots from those origins won’t arrive for a couple more months.
Wild Foraging in Late Winter
For foragers in temperate climates, late winter and early spring offer a smaller but interesting selection. Crab apples rarely rot on the tree and can be gathered right through winter. Pine needles and seeds are available year-round from evergreen species. Hairy bittercress, a peppery green, grows through winter in a low rosette form close to the ground. Navelwort leaves are actually less bitter in winter than at other times of year, making this a good time to collect them.
Trumpet chanterelles, sometimes called winter chanterelles, fruit most heavily from September through December but can still be found into early spring in mild climates. As temperatures warm through March and April in the Northern Hemisphere, ramps (wild leeks) and morel mushrooms begin appearing in eastern North American forests, though exact timing varies by latitude and elevation.
Year-Round Greenhouse and Hydroponic Crops
Some of the produce you see in stores right now wasn’t harvested from an outdoor field at all. Hydroponic and controlled-environment agriculture produces lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries, herbs, and spinach continuously throughout the year, regardless of outdoor weather. Lettuce and leafy greens are the most common hydroponic crops, but year-round tomato and pepper production is increasingly common in commercial greenhouses.
This is why grocery store shelves look relatively consistent across seasons. The tomatoes and cucumbers available in March often come from heated greenhouses or hydroponic facilities rather than open fields. If you’re looking specifically for field-grown, in-season produce, farmers’ markets and farm stands are more reliable indicators of what’s actually being harvested outdoors near you.
How to Find Local Harvest Information
Seasonal availability shifts by a few weeks depending on your specific region, elevation, and weather patterns in any given year. The USDA’s SNAP-Ed program publishes a seasonal produce guide broken down by season for the US. The British Dietetic Association offers a month-by-month chart for the UK. For hyperlocal information, your state or county agricultural extension office typically maintains harvest calendars tuned to your exact growing zone.
Buying produce that’s currently in harvest near you generally means lower prices, better flavor, and shorter time between field and table. Root vegetables, brassicas, and citrus are the workhorses of the late-winter and early-spring table in the Northern Hemisphere. Within a few weeks, the spring crops like strawberries, asparagus, and peas will be in full swing.