You can find strawberries in December or mangoes in July at your local Phoenix area market, but if you are looking for locally grown produce, you must eat with the seasons. Here in the Valley of the Sun, we can grow fruits and vegetables all year round, so there's always something available.
If you are used to the growing seasons in other parts of the country, you may not know what to expect at our local farmers' markets. Tomatoes are a good example. Field tomatoes are harvested in early summer in Arizona. Since tomatoes stop setting blossoms at 90°F, we don't see the late end-of-summer tomatoes you find in many other parts of the country unless they have been raised in one of our Arizona greenhouses. Early summer is the time to enjoy local field tomatoes as the crop peaks through June.
Here's what you can find during June and July at the farmers' markets in the greater Phoenix area.
Fruits and Vegetables in Season: June and July
- Apples (Annas are the first to ripen)
- Apricots
- Basil (many varieties)
- Black-eyed peas
- Chiles
- Corn
- Cucumbers (slicers, Armenian, lemon)
- Eggplant
- Figs (early crop)
- Garlic
- Grapes
- Green Beans
- Leeks
- Melons (Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Musk, etc.)
- Nectarines
- Okra
- Onions (Red, Yellow, Grilling and Arizona Sweet)
- Peaches
- Peppers
- Pinto Beans
- Plums
- Potatoes
- Rosemary
- Summer Squash
- Sunflowers
- Tomatoes
- Watermelon (also Yellow and Seedless)
- Winter Squash
- Zucchini
