I made this summer produce guide to help you enjoy fruits & vegetables that are in season throughout the month. Both July and August are the best months for fresh produce with most summer fruits and vegetables at their peak flavor.
July seasonal produce list
Ideally, you can find the sweetest watermelons, the most flavorful tomatoes, and the most buttery corn at a local farmers market.
If you do end up with some bland produce, I've still got you covered. It happens, and most of the time a subpar fruit or vegetable can still be rescued. Tomatoes can be roasted with olive oil and herbs. Watermelons can be sprinkled with a chile lime salt or turned into an aqua fresca. Corn can absorb a smoked flavor from the grill then slathered in an herb butter.
I'll cover the top level, most practical tips for produce in season this month. For more information and recipes, check out the guide dedicated to each specific fruit and vegetable.
Fruits
- Cherries
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Apricots
- Peaches
- Nectarines
- Plums
- Figs
- Grapes
- Melons
Vegetables
- Tomatoes
- Corn
- Bell peppers
- Hot peppers
- Zucchini & summer squash
- Eggplant
- Green beans
- Cucumbers
- Peas
- Sweet onions
- Rhubarb (last of the season)
Fruits in July
Softer fruit like strawberries, raspberries, peaches (etc), have to be picked while still hard to survive transport and storage to your local grocery store. Once picked, these fruits stop developing flavor but will still soften and turn color. This makes it really difficult to pick out a good tasting, fully tree (or vine) ripened fruit.
When you can't trust what you see, use your nose. The better they smell, the better they will taste. It's also worth a trip to a farmers market to take advantage of the abundance of fruit available in July. Most farmers offer samples - the best way to ensure you're spending money on a good tasting fruit.
Cherries
"Cherry pie on the 4th of July" became a common summer phrase for a good reason - it's peak cherry season.
Cherry season is actually quite short and July is usually the peak of their locally grown availability, disappearing quickly toward the end of the month. In the heart of Midwest's cherry region, the Traverse Cherry Festival in Michigan happens over the 4th of July weekend.
Because cherries ship well, they'll be available later in summer at grocery stores. They'll still have a decent flavor (unlike berries that are picked unripe and are often disappointingly bland when shipped cross country).
Sour cherries are great for pies and are generally available in June & July where they are grown. They have a small growing region and most of the national producers are in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Blueberries
July is also peak blueberry season. Ripe blueberries are highly perishable, so the farmers market will have more flavorful berries this month. Unripe berries will show hints of red or green, but they'll turn to a solid blue after a few days.
Even though blueberries continue to change color after harvest, they won't get any sweeter or more flavorful. This makes the quality hard to determine without a taste test.
Luckily, blueberries grow well in most parts of the US, making them easy to find at farmers markets across the country. Farmers market blueberries taste much better than grocery store options, but home grown blows them all away!
While grocery stores routinely offer blueberries discounted to $1.99, farmers market berries can be pricey. Taste test them if you can and then take care of them when you bring them home so they don't go to waste.
If you don't eat the blueberries right away, just make sure to store them well. Store them in a single layer, on a tray lined with paper towel. A blueberry that's gone bad or started to decompose will ooze purple juice onto the paper towel. This makes them easy to spot so you can remove those individual berries while preserving the rest of them.
Browse the recipes below or a collection of 75 blueberry recipes.
Blackberries
Fully ripe blackberries are sweet and flavorful, especially when they are at their peak in July and August. Their season extends into early fall, sometimes all the way into October.
When blackberries are harvested too early, before they have a chance to fully ripen, they often taste bitter. Seek them out at a farmers market for your best chance at getting high quality, vine ripened blackberries this month.
If the ones you have end up tasting bitter, you can try a few things to fix them: add sugar, fat, salt, or simply cook them to break down some of the bitter compounds.
Raspberries
Raspberries are at their most popular in this US in July, when they are at peak production throughout the entire month.
They are probably the most fragile and perishable summer fruit, spoiling faster than all other berries. To combat this, try buying them in the morning at a farmers market when the weather is cooler. A hot July afternoon can quickly reduce the shelf life of harvested raspberries.
When you return home, put the raspberries in the fridge immediately. Ideally, spread them out on a paper towel-lined plate (like blueberries), which will catch any juices and slow down mold formation. Ripe raspberries will last 24 hours in the fridge, or up to a few days if you are lucky.
Peaches, plums & nectarines
People in warmer climates have been enjoying locally grown stone fruits for a month now. For the rest of us, July is our opportunity to buy locally grown stone fruits like apricots, peaches, plums, and nectarines.
A large variety of stone fruits exist, some are planted because they ripen early, while others ripen late. This helps farmers (and backyard growers) extend the season.
However, stone fruits tend to taste better as their season progresses. In general, varieties that ripen later have more flavor. Just like with apples, the earlier season varieties tend to be lighter on flavor.
Fully ripened peaches and nectarines are incredibly fragile. They bruise with the slightest touch and the skin easily breaks open. I grow them myself and can see how it would be practically impossible for even a market farmer to provide ones this ripe.
When at the farmers market, ask for a sample before buying - many offer free samples. Try to refrain from squeezing them to determine ripeness. Even a gentle squeeze will bruise the fruit for the next person that might buy it. Instead, ask the farmer to pick out some ripe ones or buy what you see and they will soften on the counter within a day or two.
Watermelons, cantaloupe, and honeydew
Every year I impatiently wait for the first seasonal melons to show up. They start to appear in June from warmer climates, but tend to not have much flavor by the time they are shipped to the Midwest where I currently live.
But throughout July, melons start to ripen across most of the country. There are a few tricks to try to pick out melons that were fully ripened on the vine.
Watermelon are the hardest to assess, but look for the lighter spot on the bottom. That's where it sat on the ground. If it's fairly pale and white, it was picked too early. If it's more of a warm creamy or yellow color, it was left to ripen longer on the vine.
Cantaloupe are the easiest to pick out for flavor. First, it should smell sweet and floral - the better it smells, the better it should taste.
Next, look at the stem end - cantaloupes actually detach from the vine when they ripen. If there is a slight indent where the stem would have been, it is a sign it stayed on the vine longer and naturally detached itself. On the other hand, if you see an actual stem or it looks like it was cut off from the vine, that means it was picked before it fully ripened.
Lastly, choose a cantaloupe that has more golden hues under the webbing pattern. Similar to the spot on the watermelon, the more golden the hue, the longer it was left to ripen on the vine. A pale or greenish hue indicates it was picked early.
Honeydew should also smell sweet and floral, which will be most noticeable at the stem end. The rind should be matte (not shiny) and have a creamy or slightly yellow hue. Also rub the rind with your fingers - it should feel a little bit tacky or waxy. If it feels really smooth, it was picked too early.
Currants
If you're interested in farmers market-exclusive fruits, keep an eye out for currants starting this month. They have a 2-3 week harvest window depending on the variety, found from June through August.
July fruit guides
The guides below provide practical tips and recipes for all of the fruit in season in July. I didn't cover all of them specifically in this article, so be sure to check out the other available fruits, including figs, grapes, and melons.
July vegetable season
Summer vegetables are in peak season throughout July and continue into next month. It's worth buying tomatoes from a local source or farmers market for better flavor. Peppers, on the other hand, ship really well so you will find high quality even at a grocery store.
Cucumbers can be bitter in July if the weather is routinely hot and dry. Look for English or Persian cucumbers, which are often not bitter at all. Green bell peppers can also be more bitter than usual this month.
Corn
Backyard barbeques in July always have grilled corn on the cob for a reason. They are at peak seasonality this month with a good flavor and a creamy texture.
The old saying that you should "have a pot of water boiling before you pick your corn" applied to the old types of corn. This is because the old varieties of corn convert half of their sugar to starch within 24 hours of harvest.
On the other hand, modern varieties of corn start with 2-3 times more sugar in the first place which converts to starch very slowly. Their quality can last a week or more in your fridge. The tradeoff is more sugar for less corn flavor.
Only the modern corn varieties are available to buy, both at grocery stores and at farmers markets. If you want that old timey corn flavor, you'll have to grow it yourself, or hunt around for a specialty seller. If that interests you, look for "Standard (su)" corn.
When buying fresh corn, look for ones with fresh husks that aren't dried out. That indicates the corn is fresher. Black spots on the husks are normal and don't affect the quality of the corn. The silks will likely be brown, which is also normal as this happens when they become ready to harvest.
If the tips of the cobs are missing kernels, that is totally okay and not an indication of quality. It just means the last of the corn silks didn't get pollinated.
Zucchini & summer squash
Zucchini have to be the most abundant, affordable, and versatile summer vegetables. In July, home growers start to get overrun with zucchini and a friendly neighbor might be dropping some off. If someone in your neighborhood has them in their garden, let them know you'll take some off their hands - they'll be thrilled to find a happy home for them.
Zucchini is a type of summer squash and the most types are interchangeable in recipes. They can be stuffed, grilled, turned into a soup, and even made into pickles.
Try a new zucchini recipe this month to take advantage of the abundant and inexpensive vegetable.
Tomatoes
Tomato season is ramping up this month and cherry tomatoes are abundant and flavorful. Larger tomatoes are also available in July but reach peak product next month.
The flavor of tomatoes can be hit or miss, but they're more consistently flavorful from the farmers market. That's because market vendors are able to let the tomatoes ripen longer on the vine since they don't need to withstand shipping or have an unnaturally long shelf life.
Bland tomatoes can be cooked down into a thick sauce or roasted in the oven with herbs to concentrate their flavor. If tomatoes are too acidic, try mixing them with a lower acid vegetable like zucchini or eggplant.
Bell peppers & other sweet peppers
Sweet peppers are categorized as not having capsaicin or very little of it. Capsaicin is the compound that gives hot peppers their heat.
Most peppers ship and store well, so we are able to enough to enjoy them throughout the year thanks to imports from the southern hemisphere. But when they are abundant at local farmers markets in July (for most of the country, or earlier in hot climates), I try to use them as a featured ingredient in recipes.
Green bell peppers are unripe orange, yellow, red, or even purple peppers. Because they aren't fully ripe, they have a more vegetable and sometimes bitter flavor. When allowed to ripen, their flavor sweetens and develops hints of citrus.
Look for other sweet pepper varieties this month. One of my favorite summer peppers are Jimmy Nardellos, perfect for pizza. You might find them at a farmers market, but not likely at a grocery store.
July vegetable produce guides
Almost all summer produce is at peak production and flavor in July, which continues into next month. For more tips and recipes, check out the other guides for what's in season this month.
Other seasonal guides?
Check out the seasonal produce guide for August to see what's coming up soon, or what might still be around from June.
