Apples, pears and what else? Seasonal fruit in November in Belgium

General information, not medical advice. If you have symptoms or follow a diet for medical reasons, discuss it with your GP or dietitian.

Which seasonal fruit is there in November in Belgium? Each month this series sums up what the Flemish seasonal calendars recommend. In November that is mainly Belgian apples and pears, topped up with a few fruits from further away.

Seasonal fruit in November: Belgian apples and pears

Oog voor Lekkers, the Flemish government’s school fruit programme, publishes a seasonal calendar every school year. For November and December 2026 it lists the apple varieties Jonagold, Jonagored, Elstar, Gala, Kanzi and Braeburn and the pears Conference, Doyenné, QTee and Migo as Belgian fruit. Imported fruit includes kiwi, banana, mango, mandarin and orange.

The calendar notes that this list is a guide: the weather affects what is actually available. The calendar of Lekker van bij ons, the campaign of VLAM (the Flemish Centre for Agricultural and Fisheries Marketing), shows for each fruit whether supply is low, normal or high in a given month. Velt, a Flemish organic gardening association, looks at what is harvested locally outdoors or in unheated greenhouses.

Why eating seasonally is a good habit

The Vlaams Instituut Gezond Leven advises not always grabbing the same fruit from the bowl but varying between seasonal fruits. Variety gives you different fibres, vitamins and minerals. According to Gezond Leven, fruit can help lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol, the kind that can build up in blood vessel walls. That effect partly comes from soluble fibre such as pectin, plentiful in apples and pears. Fruit can therefore help protect against cardiovascular disease.

Seasonal fruit is also practical: it is plentiful in shops and markets, and an apple or pear goes to work or school without any preparation.

How much fruit a day?

In its June 2025 dietary guidelines the Belgian Superior Health Council advises eating 250 grams of seasonal fruit every day, roughly two medium pieces such as an apple and a pear. Fruit juice does not count. How to count that amount is explained in the article how much fruit per day. According to Gezond Leven, just over half of Flemish people eat fruit daily, but portions are often too small. According to the Superior Health Council, only 10 percent of adults reach 250 grams.

Gezond Leven counts one piece of fruit as something the size of an apple. This is how to count:

• an apple or a pear counts as one piece of fruit;
• a banana or orange also counts as one piece;
• two kiwis or two mandarins together count as one piece;
• a dessert bowl of berries counts as one piece.

Fresh, frozen or from a jar?

Gezond Leven prefers fresh fruit, frozen fruit without additions and tinned or jarred fruit in its own juice. Frozen berries are a handy extra next to apples and pears in November. For vegetables too, frozen is often a good choice, as the article frozen vegetables vs fresh explains. Fruit juice and smoothies are a less good choice according to Gezond Leven: less fibre and more sugars than whole fruit, and they fill you up less. Dried fruit is not a preferred choice because it is easy to eat too much of it.

According to Gezond Leven, grapefruit can affect how some medicines work. If you take medication, ask your doctor or pharmacist whether that applies to you.

Combining late-autumn fruit and vegetables

An apple also works in a warm dish: a stew, Belgian endive or a salad of grated celeriac. Ideas for seasonal vegetables are in the article leek, endive and celeriac. Last month’s picks are in the overview of seasonal fruit in October. Early December brings the overview for that month.

Sources

• Superior Health Council (Belgium). Dietary recommendations for the Belgian population (advice 9805-9807). June 2025 (in Dutch/French).
• Departement Landbouw en Visserij (Flanders). Oog voor Lekkers seasonal calendar, school year 2026-2027 (pdf, in Dutch).
• VLAM. Seasonal fruit calendar. Lekker van bij ons, accessed 25 October 2026.
• Velt. Seasonal calendar, accessed 25 October 2026.
• Fruit. Vlaams Instituut Gezond Leven (Flemish Institute for Healthy Living), accessed 25 October 2026.