At peak right now: Strawberries, Cherries, Blue Crab, Zucchini. Head to a farmers market or your CSA to find them fresh.
Maryland strawberries come in sometime around the third week of May, depending on the year, and they don't stay long. If the spring has been warm and dry, you might get a full month of good picking. If May runs cold and wet and then suddenly hot, the season can compress into two weeks or less, with berries going soft faster than farms can get pickers through the rows. It's not like buying produce where you can plan around a reliable supply. You check the farm's website or their Facebook page, you see they've opened for pick-your-own, and you go that weekend if you can.
The variety most Maryland farms grow is Chandler, or one of a few similar short-day types that have been the standard here for years. They're small compared to what you find in a grocery store, and they don't look impressive in the same way. What they do is smell like strawberries from ten feet away. The sugars develop fully because the fruit is grown to be eaten, not to survive refrigerated transit from California or Florida. A grocery store strawberry has been bred for size, uniformity, and a skin tough enough to survive a supply chain. A strawberry picked warm from a Maryland field in late May has none of that going for it except the flavor, which is enough.
Pick-your-own is the best way to get them. Farms like Clark's Elioak Farm in Howard County and Larriland Farm in Woodbine open their strawberry fields when the crop is ready and charge by the pound or by the flat. You bring a container or rent one there. You eat a few in the field, which is expected and fine. You pick more than you think you need because you will use them. They don't keep like store fruit. Two days on the counter and they start to go, so you make jam or freeze them or slice them into something the day you get home. A flat of local strawberries at the end of a Saturday morning is one of those things that forces you to cook, which is not the worst outcome.
The window is real and it closes. A farm that was open last Saturday might post Thursday that the season is winding down and they're only open one more weekend. This happens every year and every year people are caught off guard by it. If you have kids, a pick-your-own strawberry morning is the kind of thing they remember. If you have a chest freezer, a few quarts of Maryland strawberries frozen in June will taste better in January than anything you can buy. Either way, the last week of May is not a bad time to drive out to a farm and spend an hour in a field. The berries are there, they're sweet, and they won't be there much longer.
A few producers worth knowing about this week.
The California Farmers Market is one of only two producer-only markets in St. Mary's County, which means every vendor you meet actually grew or made what they're selling. Running Saturdays from 9AM to 1PM, May through November, at Leonard Hall Drive in Leonardtown, the market carries a solid range of seasonal produce, meats, cheeses, eggs, flowers, baked goods, wines, and spirits. It's a reliable weekly stop for anyone sourcing close to home in Southern Maryland.
The Olney Farmers and Artists Market runs every Sunday from 9am to 1pm, rain or shine, on the grounds of MedStar Montgomery Hospital along Route 108. The vendor mix spans local food and drink producers, including brewers, wineries, and distillers, alongside artists, crafters, and a kids-in-business program that gives young entrepreneurs a place to sell. It's a true year-round community anchor for Montgomery County.
Freetown Farm, located on Harriet Tubman Lane in Columbia, serves as the home base for the Community Ecology Institute, an organization weaving together food growing, ecological education, and neighborhood connection. Beyond a typical CSA, the farm hosts a community garden, a make-and-repair space, and youth programming through its Roots and Wings summer camp and Green SEEDS internship. A second site, the Green Farmacy Garden in Fulton, extends the organization's work into medicinal and functional plants.
Moon Valley Farm in Woodsboro runs a multi-farm, year-round CSA that delivers produce, mushrooms, eggs, and sourdough bread for 51 weeks out of the year , about as close to uninterrupted as a CSA gets in Maryland. Pulling from multiple farms keeps the share diverse across seasons, and the inclusion of mushrooms and freshly baked sourdough sets it apart from standard vegetable-only boxes. For Frederick County households looking to anchor their weekly groceries in local food, this is a strong place to start.
Richardson Farms in White Marsh has been a Baltimore County staple for farm-fresh produce, with sweet corn, tomatoes, and greens grown on site. Beyond the fields, the market functions as a full-service stop: local meats, a deli counter, and a hot food menu that includes their well-regarded chicken pot pie and collard greens with bacon. Catering is available for events, making it a practical resource for households that want farm-sourced food without a long drive.
Mo's Seafood has been a Baltimore fixture since the 1980s, built around a Jumbo Lump Crab Cake recipe that has earned the restaurant a national following. Beyond that flagship dish, the menu stretches into preparations like Salmon Imperial, Oysters Christopher, and Lobster Tail Imperial, reflecting the kind of old-school Baltimore seafood house cooking that feels increasingly rare. Three locations across the city, including Inner Harbor-Little Italy, Towson, and White Marsh, keep it accessible from most corners of the metro area.
Adkins Farm Market in Wicomico County runs through the seasons with purpose: spring flowers and herbs give way to summer produce grown on the farm itself, alongside their own eggs and honey. By fall, the Mount Herman Road property shifts into corn maze and mums territory, making it a destination as much as a market. If you are stocking a summer kitchen on the Lower Shore, this is a reliable stop for eggs and whatever is coming out of the fields.
The Havre de Grace Farmers Market has been a Saturday institution on the upper Chesapeake for 30 years, drawing vendors and shoppers to Pennington Avenue with a lineup that runs well beyond produce. Fresh-picked fruit and vegetables anchor the stalls, but you'll also find farm-raised meats and eggs, locally made cheese, milk, yogurt, honey, baked goods, wine, and distilled spirits , the kind of range that lets you fill a whole week's kitchen in a single morning.
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