Fidgety, fun-filled, and fantastic for pretend play — modern fruit toys made of wood offer top-notch playability — plus that eco-friendly feeling that makes you smile.
It’s 2021 — “wooden” doesn’t mean “an old classic”. Behold the bold fruit shapes and colors contemporary wooden craftsmanship has to offer — and try wooden play fruit for the curious shopper and chef in your home!
Need another reason to love fruit toys for your toddler or child (ages 2 to 6 years)?
They’re fruity-delectable, fancy-fresh, eco-safe, toddler-loved, and parent-approved!
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Where to find the freshest play fruit?
Don’t let your bananas turn into banana bread!
For families busy shopping and cooking — here’s your best-of-the-best list of wooden play fruit toys for toddlers and kids (ages 18 months to 4 years).
- (01) Melissa & Doug Cutting Fruit Set is by far the world’s most popular wooden cutting fruit set (plus an awesome wooden play tray).
- (02) Hape Fresh Fruit Wooden Kitchen Play Food Set is a less-is-more fruit set with six eco-friendly fruits and kids wooden fruit knife.
- (03) Plan Toys Assorted Fruit Kitchen Food Playset is a great pick for babies 18+ months old — sustainably made from non-toxic materials.
- (04) Drevo Smart Waldorf Toy Fruits is for green lifestyle families — an organic handmade baby and toddler Waldorf toy for 18+ months.
- (05) Melissa & Doug Playtime Produce Fruits Play Food Set boasts realistic fruit sizes and colors — life-like fruit the Montessori way.
- (06) Carlorbo Pretend Play Cuttable Toy Fruit Set For Kids offers “more but not too many” fruits for your toddler age 3+ to explore.
- (07) All Alive Handmade Organic Wood Play Fruit comes with a canvas bag for a well-balanced toddler fruit play toy.
- (08) Morgan’s Mercantile Eco Felt Fruit Set stands for everything fuzzy, soft, and lovable — it’s not wood, but you might like it.
Before we get into the juicy details of these play fruit…
You should know — pretend food play offers all kinds of avenues for childhood imagination and role play. Check out our full reviews to learn more — play supermarkets, play grocery carts, play cash registers, play kitchens, and more on the way.
The pretend possibilities are playtastic!
(01) Melissa & Doug Cutting Fruit Set (With Wood Crate)
The world’s most popular wooden cutting fruit set — with a play tray and everything.
With over 6,000 five-star ratings (at the time of writing) — thousands of peachy-smiling parents can’t be wrong.
It’s a 17 piece play food set with a toddler-safe wooden knife. That’s the point of a cutting fruit set. Toddlers and kids (ages 3 to 5 years) use a play knife to slice and dice play fruit for a nutritious pretend snack.
My favorite part is the large square-shaped natural wood fruit tray. It opens up space for organization, fosters the good habit of putting your toys away, and makes storage easy as apple pie.
(02) Hape Fresh Fruit Wooden Kitchen Play Food Set
An eco-sustainable & minimalist set with six solid wood fruits and a wooden fruit knife.
This little 6 fruit set is exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from a respected brand like Hape.
Known for a focus on simplicity in education — Hape’s responsibly manufactured toys strive for better quality, rather than more quantity.
Maybe a select variety of six realistic-shaped wooden fruit toys is all you need. The wood toy knife for fruit-cutting play is included, too.
(03) Plan Toys Assorted Fruit Kitchen Food Playset
A baby-friendly fruit set (for 18+ months) — sustainably made in Thailand from rubberwood & non-toxic colors.
The first thing you’ll notice is the almost lifelike fruit-o-licious colors and textures. As a manageable fruit set for babies (age 18+ months).
Plan Toys artistic creatives took time and care to make the surface of these play fruit look organic and fresh-for-the-picking.
Which fits right in with the Plan Toys brand as a whole — sustainable zero waste toys locally made from locally sourced rubber trees in Trang, Thailand. Of course, rest easy knowing Plan Toys loves Mother Earth and uses non-toxic paints and dyes for a win-win-win!
Plan Toys brand offers other lesser-known baby and toddler fruit toys. You might prefer last year’s model — that comes with less creative colors, but with a cool curvy fruit tray unlike any I’ve seen.
(04) Drevo Smart Waldorf Toy Fruits (For Baby & Toddler)
An organic handmade baby and toddler toy (18+ months) born in Waldorf developmental principles.
For lovers of all things vegetarian, organic, and sustainable — take a closer look at Drevo Smart brand’s wooden Waldorf fruit.
Lots of people confuse Montessori with Waldorf.
The Waldorf style is close to nature.
Waldorf is more “whimsical”.
Montessori is more “practical”.
The trees are hand-cut and the wood is coated with natural linseed oil — finally finishing the in-loving-hands manufacturing process by adding a coat of handpainted in harmless hypoallergenic paint — 100% toddler-safe.
Talk about a pleasant natural baby gift! Appropriate for tiny tots 18 months to 4 years old — the wooden surfaces are food-safe — so you can rest easy when the toy comes in contact with slobber & saliva, skin & body parts, food & beverage.
Waldorf learning, pastel colors with wood grain showing through — plus all-original hypoallergenic colors? What’s not to love!?
(05) Melissa & Doug Playtime Produce Fruits Play Food Set
Boasts realistic fruit sizes and colors — for objectively life-like fruit object play.
While not as popular as Melissa & Doug’s brand new toddler fruit cutting set — this realistic wooden play fruit is something Montessori parents can shout from the mountaintop — I love it!
I’d classify this one as a wooden Montessori fruit — for sure.
Contrary to popular belief, real Montessori educators tend to use realistic-looking materials in the classroom, rather than “cutesy & cartoony” abstracted materials.
For Montessori fruit toys — that means fruit that looks like the real thing with proper COLORS, SIZE, and SHAPE (and proportions).
Since these pretend fruit appear just like they do in life situations — that provides first-hand experiences for early learning children.
The fruit set includes 9 fruits — which are NOT cuttable. The box is styled like wood but made of cardboard.
Overall, I’d call Melissa & Doug brand’s children’s cutting fruit a better deal — but for expert educators who prefer apples-to-apples lifelike learning fruit — this one offers a slightly more exotic fruit variety and a more authentic fruit sensory experience.
(06) Carlorbo Pretend Play Cuttable Toy Fruit Set For Kids (Age 3+)
Not a trusted brand name — but it’s a great-sized set with fun fruit designs for toddlers and young kids.
Carlorbo isn’t a brand name you’d recognize — and the name kind of reminds me of Marlboro, which doesn’t sound like the kind of thing to be handing out like fruity candy.
Sometimes brand name isn’t everything though. Carlorbo offers unique fruit choices — like pomegranate and avocados. And you’ll love the added tactile sensory experience from the natural felt fruit leaves.
Picture this tiny red wooden strawberry with tiny green felt leaves — cute as a button!
Plus, pinching fruits by the stem is a rather realistic way of eating. Most sets imitate fruit mostly based on visuals, but the felt stems and leaves in this set recreate gentle touchable fruit textures.
Carlorbo isn’t the only generic fruit toy brand that’s worth shopping for this year.
Take a peek at the iPlay brand magnetic wood fruit and vegetables set (for 3 to 6 years) for an all-inclusive mega set of wooden produce play toys. Aren’t those wooden grapes absolutely adorable?
Airlab brand’s fruity playset is another offering that caught my eye. Complete with a wooden tray and velcro-sticky wooden cutting fruit — it’s a great budget pick for toddlers 3 years and up.
(07) All Alive Handmade Organic Wood Play Fruit (With Canvas Bag)
For families who shop Whole Foods organic section — here’s a well-balanced toddler play fruit toy.
I first found out about the All Alive brand when I stumbled upon their wooden dinosaur eggs.
If you’ve never heard tumi ishi mindful blocks — you might be pleasantly surprised!
All Alive brand’s odd-shaped wood toy fruits remind me of those wonderful “ugly produce delivery services” — where the “ugly duckling” fruits that the supermarket rejected get delivered to your door by subscription.
It really did get me thinking — why are our fruit toys teaching children exactly what fruit should look like? Fruits come in all different shapes and sizes.
I think there’s a valuable lesson in understanding and diversity here.
Handcrafted from organic alder wood, food coloring, and flax seed oil — it’s a natural wooden fruit gift for your natural child.
(08) Morgan’s Mercantile Eco Felt Fruit Set (100% Recycled Plastic)
Fuzzy, soft, and lovable — people looking for the best wooden toy fruit might love felt toy fruit too!
What makes “Eco Felt” and not just “Felt”? Morgan’s Mercantile brand’s signature Eco Felt is repurposed from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
Morgan’s Mercantile is turning lemons into lemonade — by removing plastics from the ocean and serving up a fruit-tastic recycled play toy. Those plastic bottles and nets that used to wash up on the beach – are now nicely nestled in your playroom in the form of fruit.
I like stories like that.
Strawberries, limes, oranges, lemons, kiwi, banana, and strawberries. Each in 100% recycled and compostable brown paper fruit box — exactly the container you get down at the farmer’s market.
For toddlers and kids (3+ years old) — this is proactive recycling at its greatest — and a fruit toy basket full of fuzzy sensory fun.
