When are apples ready to pick?

Cup the fruit and lift: if it comes away with the stalk attached, it is ready. Early varieties from August, most through September and October.

What are the best mushrooms to look for in September?

Ceps, chanterelle, hedgehog fungus and field parasols. Never eat any wild mushroom you cannot identify with total certainty.

What's in season in September in the southern hemisphere?

Spring — asparagus, first greens, and the start of the sowing year.

Season guide

What's in season in September, around the world

September. Harvest, grapes and mushrooms in the north; spring, asparagus and the first greens in the south.

September at a glance

Climate band	Ripe now	Being foraged	Going in the ground
Northern temperate40–60°N	Apples, pears, plums, squash, sweetcorn	Blackberries, elderberries, ceps, hazelnuts, damsons	Overwintering salads, green manure, garlic late
Mediterranean & warm temperate30–40°N/S	Grapes, figs, tomatoes, peppers	Porcini, wild fennel seed, almonds	Winter salads, brassicas
Southern temperate30–50°S	Asparagus, first greens, citrus	Nettles, wild garlic, morels	Tomatoes under cover, peas, potatoes
Tropical & subtropical0–25°N/S	Papaya, banana, guava	Wild honey, greens	Rice, root crops

In the north

Harvest. Apples and pears come off through the month, plums finish, squash is cut and cured, and the grape harvest runs across Europe from the Douro to the Rhine.

It is the best mushroom month of the northern year — ceps, chanterelle, hedgehog fungus, parasols in the fields — and the hedgerow is still full of blackberries, elderberries and the first damsons.

In the ground: overwintering salads, green manures on empty beds, and garlic from the end of the month in colder districts.

What's in season in Ireland in September

In the south

Spring. Asparagus comes up in New Zealand and Tasmania, first greens and nettles are out in southern Chile and Argentina, and the vineyards are budding rather than being picked.

Sowing starts in earnest — tomatoes under cover, peas and potatoes outside — precisely as the north begins storing.

Marked days

Mid-Autumn Festival
China and across East Asia
Mooncakes eaten under the harvest moon, the roundest of the year.
Sukkot
Jewish calendar, September or October
A harvest festival kept by building a shelter roofed with cut branches and eating in it, with gaps enough to see the stars.
Vendange
France and across Europe
The grape harvest, and whole villages still turn out for it.

From the community

No entries for September yet — yours would be the first.

Tell us what's ripe where you are, and what your place does with it.

Find somewhere near you

6 places on the map are in season in September.

Hudson Hill Apple Farm
Apples · Hudson Valley, New York, USA
Sonoma Heritage Pear Grove
Bartlett pears · Sebastopol, California, USA
Blue Ridge Wild Pawpaw Trail
Pawpaws & ramps · Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Willamette Hazelnut Commons
Hazelnuts · Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Somerset Levels Cider House
Cider apples · Glastonbury, Somerset, United Kingdom
Highland Wild Bramble Walk
Blaeberries & brambles · Aviemore, Scotland, United Kingdom

Open the map

This month in the Harvest Club

September's Gathering is Harvest — inside the world of wine, and how a vintage is born.

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Questions

When are apples ready to pick?: Cup the fruit and lift: if it comes away with the stalk attached, it is ready. Early varieties from August, most through September and October.
What are the best mushrooms to look for in September?: Ceps, chanterelle, hedgehog fungus and field parasols. Never eat any wild mushroom you cannot identify with total certainty.
What's in season in September in the southern hemisphere?: Spring — asparagus, first greens, and the start of the sowing year.