What months are u-pick farms open?

Most u-pick runs May through October in the continental United States, with strawberries earliest in late spring, berries and stone fruit through summer, and apples and pumpkins in autumn. Exact weeks shift by a fortnight or more each year with the weather.

What should I bring to a u-pick farm?

Cash, closed shoes, a hat, water, and your own containers if the farm allows them. Call the morning you go — u-pick fields close without notice when a field is picked out or too wet.

Seasons

U-pick season, month by month

29 August 2026 · 5 min read

U-pick is the cheapest good food in America and the only farm visit that pays for itself. The whole trick is going in the right week, and the right week moves every year.

The rough calendar

Month	Typically ready
May	Strawberries, asparagus, early peas, rhubarb
June	Strawberries peak, cherries, early raspberries, sugar snap peas
July	Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, apricots, early peaches, green beans
August	Peaches, plums, tomatoes, sweet corn, melons, peppers
September	Apples begin, pears, grapes, late tomatoes, winter squash
October	Apples peak, pumpkins, gourds, late squash

Shift the whole table two to three weeks later if you are north, two to three earlier if you are in the deep south, and up to a fortnight either way for the season you happen to get.

Call the morning you go. Every experienced u-pick visitor has driven an hour to a closed field. Farms close u-pick without notice when a block is picked out, when it is too wet to walk, or when a wholesale order took the crop. A two-minute phone call is the difference.

Go early, go midweek

Fields open at their best and are picked over by mid-afternoon on a Saturday. Weekday mornings are quieter, cooler, and the rows nearest the entrance still have fruit on them — those rows are always the first stripped.

What to bring

Cash. Plenty of farms still take nothing else.
Closed shoes you do not mind ruining. Fields are mud after rain.
A hat and more water than you think.
Your own containers — but ask first. Some farms require their own for weighing.
A cooler in the car. Berries picked at ten in the morning and left in a hot boot until four are jam, not fruit.

How to spot a good one

A good u-pick farm tells you which block to pick and which to skip, gives you a real answer about spray, and would rather you came back next week than fill a bucket with poor fruit today. A farm that waves you at the field without a word usually has a field that is not worth walking.

Finding them

Only Local Co. lists u-pick dates alongside farms, markets and storefronts, free to browse anywhere in the country . It is a directory built by asking producers, not scraped from old listings.

Find producers near you →