Roll up your sleeves for a whole new world of flavor and nutrition. A new year brings fresh opportunities to discover and relish delicious, healthy fruits and veggies from around the globe. The international produce scene keeps expanding, giving us more choices than ever to incorporate global zing and novelty into our 2024 diets.

Trending International Produce Picks for 2024

Dragon fruit

  • Origin: Native to Vietnam, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries
  • Appearance: Oval shape with vibrant pink or yellow peel and interior filled with tiny black edible seeds
  • Taste: Sweet, mild flavor similar to a mix of kiwis and pear
  • Nutrition: Excellent source of hydrating fiber, vitamin C, and betalain antioxidants that fight inflammation
  • Description: The delicate sweet flavor comes from the small black seeds scattered throughout the slightly crunchy white flesh. It is often used in fruit salads, smoothies, and even cocktails or mocktails.

Pomegranates

  • Origin: Originally from regions of Asia but now grown extensively in India, the Middle East, and around the Mediterranean
  • Appearance: Deep ruby-red leathery exterior skin containing many glistening red juice-filled seed pods called arils
  • Taste: The arils have a sweet yet tart tropical flavor while the skin and membranes taste quite bitter
  • Nutrition: Extremely high in polyphenol antioxidants that provide heart and blood health benefits
  • Description: Pomegranate arils make a refreshingly sweet-tart addition to fall and winter salads, desserts, juices, and more. The juice contains higher levels of antioxidants than red wine or green tea.

Persimmons

  • Origin: Native to China and Japan for over 1000 years with many cultivars developed
  • Appearance: Ranging from light to bright orange with smooth, glossy thin skin
  • Taste: Sweet, almost creamy, custard-like flesh when fully ripened with hints of cinnamon
  • Nutrition: Low in calories yet high in immune-boosting vitamin C making it a great fall fruit
  • Description: Known for their melt-in-your-mouth texture, persimmons work well in breads, puddings, preserves, and even combined with leafy greens for a sweet salad. Some types are astringent until fully ripe.

Up and Coming International Produce

Cherimoya

  • Origin: Native to the Andean highlands and valleys of Ecuador, Peru, and Chile
  • Appearance: Ovoid shape with thick, rugged green skin enclosing a creamy white flesh studded with large black seeds
  • Taste: Sweet, custardy flavor often described as a cross between banana, pineapple and pear
  • Fun Fact: Cherimoya is Mark Twain’s favorite fruit which he described as the “most delicious fruit known to men”.
  • Description: The velvety flesh offers floral-fruit notes that pair nicely with sweet desserts as well as savory dishes. It can be scooped straight from the skin or incorporated into ice cream, tarts, and more.

Goldenberries

  • Origin: Hailing from Peru and Colombia in cool, high-altitude regions of South America
  • Appearance: Resembling petite yellow cherry tomatoes with smooth, golden skin and juicy pulp surrounding numerous small seeds
  • Taste: Sweet, tropical flavor with hints of pineapple, mango and strawberry
  • Perk: Goldenberries are easy to pop by the handful straight from the vine and fun for kids to snack on
  • Description: These vitamin-packed berries have an addictively sweet-tart taste similar to Cape gooseberries. Their versatility makes them perfect for jams, desserts, trail mixes, and even savory Latin American dishes.

Romanesco

  • Origin: A unique variant of cauliflower that originated in Italy, also cultivated along the cool coastal regions of the Northwestern US
  • Appearance: Striking lime green heads composed of delicate spiraling pointed florets in an almost perfectly geometric fractal pattern
  • Taste: Creamy white interior with delicate nutty cauliflower notes yet much milder flavor
  • Best Use: Gently roasted or steamed to bring out Romanesco’s sweet, earthy essence and maintain its magical shape
  • Description: This visually stunning vegetable caramelizes beautifully when cooked, making it an Instagrammable addition to soups, pastas, risottos or simply served on its own with a drizzle of olive oil and shaved Parmesan.

Tips for Purchasing and Preparing

  1. When assessing international fruits and veggies, start by checking freshness. Focus on bright, perky colors and smooth unbroken skins. The produce should feel firm and heavy for its size. Skip anything with bruises, wrinkles, or mold.
  2. Under proper storage too. Dragon fruit and berries prefer the refrigerator’s high-humidity fruit drawer. Let pomegranates sit at cool room temperature instead. Persimmons reach their softest and sweetest after a few days on the counter. Then refrigerate to slow further ripening.
  3. To highlight these new flavors, go for gentle preparation. Rinse and slice most for simple serving in fruit salads or cheese boards. Blend softer produce into smoothies. For Romanesco, lightly roast or steam to warm its cool earthiness.
  4. Don’t limit these novel ingredients to sweet applications either. Dragon fruit shines in grain bowls alongside spicy and umami components. Spoon velvety permission or cherimoya pulp over oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast. Toss pomegranate arils into tender bitter greens for a salad with contrasting bites.
When first exploring bolder or more unfamiliar produce, mix it in with the type you already love and buy regularly. Doing so keeps meals familiar while letting adventurous eaters expand their horizons at their own pace. Before you know it, you might discover a new forever favorite fruit or veggie.

Conclusion

The New Year invites us to broaden our produce preferences and knowledge. Incorporating international fruits and vegetables allows us to enjoy greater dietary diversity. And it helps connect us to cultures worldwide through universal ingredients. Plus global produce expands nutrition possibilities with unique phytonutrients like betalains.

Here’s to discovering and relishing nature’s delicious novelty in 2024 and beyond.

If you’re hungry to explore global flavors and nutrition, Fresh Farms makes it easy. We source hard-to-find items from small specialty growers across the continents. That means you can grab goldenberries, dragon fruit, cherimoya, and more in one convenient shopping trip. Visit Fresh Farms to bring the international produce trends of 2024 right to your kitchen table.