Summer Fruit Guide 2024

Have you ever eaten so many blackberries that they stained your fingers red, or bitten into a nectarine so ripe that its sticky juice dripped down your chin? Sweet fresh fruit is truly the taste of summer—and if you’re craving that flavor, you’re in luck. Our 2024 Summer Fruit Guide is here to give you a peek at the fruits you’ll see in our Harvest mixed fruit boxes this season. 

The Harvest mix includes our biggest range of seasonal fruits, and can even feature heirlooms and unique varieties. The large box (50 servings) has the most diverse seasonal options inside. Eating seasonally is a great way to support your health, local farms, regional food economies, and sustainable agriculture.

The exact mix of fruits in your box will vary from region to region and week to week as our buyers choose the best of what’s available. Just enter your zip code to see what’s in your region’s mix this week. Now, let’s dig into the seasonal preview. 

The FruitGuys Summer Fruit Guide

Summer brings berries and a parade of stone fruits, from early summer cherries and apricots to late summer peaches and plums, and finishes with grapes and the beginning of the apple and pear harvest. This year, we’ve lucked into a fantastic California cherry season. There was just enough cold weather to help the trees set a great crop, and most orchards avoided excessive rains or frost issues. Stone fruit is also coming in beautifully, and we’re expecting an extra-long season for grapes starting in June and stretching into January. Read on to see what’s coming.

Berries

California strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are here! California boxes will feature summer strawberries from JSM Organics (a 2019 FruitGuys Community Fund grantee) and blueberries from Homegrown Organic Farms. Some Midwest boxes may have Michigan blueberries from Mick Klug Farms starting in July. These antioxidant-rich little beauties are a staple of summer eating, and never more delicious than in summertime.

Stone Fruit

Stone fruits are fruits with pits (aka “stones”). California sweet cherries from Fruit World, King Fresh Produce, and The Flavor Tree Fruit Company kicked off the season, and Fruit World will also have apricots through June. We’re expecting other delicious stone fruits from California growers like our longtime farm partner Blake Carlson, who will supply us with peaches, nectarines, plums, and more all summer long.

Lucky California boxes might get a taste of Angelcot® apricots we get through Frieda’s or heirloom Suncrest peaches from Masumoto Family Farm.

Another favorite of ours is the Very Cherry plums we get from Flavor Tree. Just imagine eating a tasty cherry and juicy plum at the same time—that’s what you get with these. Midwest customers will see apricots and a parade of stone fruit including donut peaches, nectarines, white peaches, and plums from Mick Klug Farms through the summer. 

Too much stone fruit? Here’s how to make an easy stone fruit jam.

In the coming months, customers from coast to coast will enjoy apriums, plumcots, vibrant tart-sweet pluots, and delectable plums, peaches, and nectarines—all high in vitamins C and A, and great sources of dietary fiber. These summer favorites come in so many varieties that we couldn’t possibly list them all. Some of our favorites include Black Velvet™ apricots, Peacotums, and Necta Pies.

Mid-Atlantic customers will also enjoy Saturn Donut peaches from longtime partner Frecon Farms in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Early Pears & Apples

August will bring fresh California pears from the pear pros at Scully Packing Company. You can also look for a new crop of apples in August, starting with Northern California’s heritage Gravenstein apple. We’ll feature the Gravenstein in its own special box! 

Citrus

As summer arrives, we’re saying goodbye to the navel oranges of winter and spring and welcoming Valencia oranges, which are named for the Spanish city. Valencias are thin-skinned, have few seeds, and are considered one of the best oranges for juicing.

If you’re not sure about the difference between a navel and a Valencia, here’s a tip: The navel orange has a belly button on its underside, which is how it gets its name. 

Grapes

California grapes typically arrive in August, but this year’s crop is already tasting great in June. We’re jumping for joy: Cotton Candy™ grapes! Bronx grapes! Muscats and Thomcords! 

In 2014, The FruitGuys Community Fund granted Lagier Ranches—growers of the Ark of Taste-listed heirloom Bronx grape—funds for a pollinator-supporting hedgerow project. This year, the Community Fund gave a $5,000 grant to Dear Native Grapes in Walton, New York. The grant funds will help them install a deer fence to protect five acres of their native and hybrid grapes.

Snag The Summer Flavors

So, that’s the scoop on what could be in your mouth this summer if your office receives our Harvest fruit mixes. Want to try it out? Order now and choose your ideal frequency (weekly, every other week, or monthly) to eat your way through our Summer Fruit Guide all season long.

Already a customer and want to change your box to a Harvest? No problem! Fill out this short form and we’ll make it happen.