Which state grows the most lentils?
🔎 Skip to the answer (ranking table)Guess
Which states grow the most lentils (the little seeds in soup and dal)? Tap them most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→3 in order
I bet… California — sunny food state? ☀️
Answer
The real order is…
Montana grows about 2.64× as many as #2 North Dakota!
📚 Background Lentils feel like warm-country food — Indian dal, Mediterranean soup. But America's lentils grow where the summers are cool and dry: Montana leads by a wide margin, with North Dakota and Washington's Palouse hills behind. Lentils are a hardy cool-season crop, often planted between wheat harvests. (USDA NASS Quick Stats) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: 🫛『The little seed that loves the cold north』→ I bet… California — sunny food state? ☀️
Compare
Lentils grown (100-lb bags, 2024)
Most: Montana (6,210,000 cwt (100 lb)); least shown here: Washington (490,000 cwt (100 lb)).
Note: measured in hundred-pound bags (cwt). Only states that publish a value are shown. Only the top states are shown here — smaller producers (and states USDA doesn't publish) aren't listed.
Soup food from big-sky country!
Recap
🏅 Today's discovery
🏅 Montana is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
Quiz a friend!
📋 See the ranking table (top 3)
| Rank | State | Value | Share of U.S. total |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Montana | 6,210,000 cwt (100 lb) | 68.6% |
| #2 | North Dakota | 2,349,000 cwt (100 lb) | 26% |
| #3 | Washington | 490,000 cwt (100 lb) | 5.4% |
| 🇺🇸 USA (total) | 9,049,000 cwt (100 lb) | 100% |
Only the top states are shown here — smaller producers (and states USDA doesn't publish) aren't listed.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2024)
Sources
Data as of: 2024
USDA NASS Quick Stats: LENTILS - PRODUCTION, MEASURED IN CWT, 2024, by state (opens in a new tab) (2026-07-16) — Published estimates only. States with unpublished (suppressed) values are omitted.
↳ In Quick Stats, pick LENTILS / PRODUCTION in CWT, year 2024, and compare states.