Bananas
Peak season in the Midwest · up 6% this week
This fruit is harvested somewhere in the country all year, so it has no single local-harvest peak, and it is sold in stores year-round. This week it's peak season in the Midwest — buying it in season usually means better quality and, as the regional prices below show, a lower price.
Per a typical 118g serving, scaled from the per-100g figures in USDA FoodData Central (Bananas, raw).
- 1 SouthcentralCheapest $0.33/lb
- 2 Midwest $0.55/lb
- 3 Northeast $0.59/lb
- 4 Southeast $0.59/lb
- 5 Southwest $0.69/lb
Buying bananas in the Southcentral saves about 52% versus the Southwest this week.
- How to pick a good one
- Buy by the stage you need. Green-tipped bananas take two or three days to ripen; fully yellow ones are ready now; brown-speckled ones are sweetest and best for baking. Avoid bunches with split skins or a grey cast, which means they were chilled in transit.
- What a good price looks like
- Bananas are the most stable price in the shop, almost always 50 to 75 cents a pound, and have been for decades. There is no seasonal buying strategy and no point waiting for a sale. Overripe bananas are frequently marked down heavily and are exactly what you want for baking — the best value in the produce section.
- What you actually get
- A pound is about three medium bananas and gives roughly 1.5 cups mashed. The skin is about 35% of the purchased weight, one of the higher waste fractions in the produce aisle, though it is priced accordingly. Three medium bananas is the standard quantity for a loaf of banana bread.
- How to store it
- Counter, away from other fruit — bananas give off more ethylene than almost anything and will ripen everything nearby. Separating the bunch slows ripening a little. Refrigeration blackens the skin but keeps the flesh usable.
- In the kitchen
- They ripen on their own ethylene, so separating the bunch slows it down and bagging them together speeds it up. If a recipe wants ripe bananas and yours are yellow, bake them in the skin at 150°C for fifteen minutes — the skins blacken and the flesh sweetens close enough for bread or muffins. Freeze overripe ones peeled, in chunks, rather than binning them.
- Getting the most out of it
- Overripe bananas are not waste, they are the ingredient — peel and freeze them for baking and smoothies rather than binning them. Bananas are one of the few items whose price barely moves seasonally, which makes them a reliable baseline in a cheap week.
- Vegan Peanut Butter Banana PuddingRecipe by Minimalist Baker~$0.22 / serving 1 in-season
- Peanut Butter Banana BreadRecipe by Two Peas & Their Pod~$0.22 / serving 1 in-season
- Peanut Butter Cup Banana BreadRecipe by Ambitious Kitchen~$0.36 / serving 1 in-season
- 1-Bowl Banana Bread Cinnamon RollsRecipe by Minimalist Baker~$0.42 / serving 1 in-season
- No-Bake Cookie Dough BlizzardRecipe by Minimalist Baker~$0.47 / serving 1 in-season
- Blueberry Banana MuffinsRecipe by Natasha's Kitchen~$0.48 / serving 2 in-season
See all 515 recipes with bananas →Filter by diet, time, budget, and macros.
Price from the USDA National Retail Report. Nutrition per typical serving, computed from USDA FoodData Central.
Bananas — FAQ
When can you buy bananas in season?
This fruit is harvested somewhere in the country all year, so it has no single local-harvest peak, and it is sold in stores year-round. This week the Midwest has bananas marked peak season.
What's the price of bananas right now?
As of the week of September 4, 2026, the price of bananas in the Midwest is $0.55/lb, up 6% from last week. It's cheapest in the Southcentral at $0.33/lb.
How many calories and how much protein are in bananas?
A typical 118g serving of bananas has about 105 calories, 1.3g protein, 26.9g carbohydrates, 0.4g fat, and 3.1g fiber, per USDA FoodData Central.
What can I make with bananas?
SeasonSort indexes 515 recipes that use bananas, each with its cost per serving computed from this week's prices — starting from about $0.04 a serving. The cheapest are listed on this page, with a link to the full filtered list.