When To Buy Corn, Watermelon, Peaches And Other Summer Produce In MA

Summer produce season is here, and Instacart order data shows Massachusetts shoppers are entering the best part of the grocery year: sweet corn for the grill, watermelon for the cooler, cherries by the handful, tomatoes worth waiting for, and peaches good enough to eat over the sink.

The company analyzed fresh produce orders from U.S. grocery retailers from 2023 to 2025 and commissioned a May 2026 Harris Poll survey of more than 2,000 adults to look at what Americans buy, when they buy it, and how particular they become when summer fruits and vegetables are at their best.

In Instacart’s 2025 state-by-state data, Massachusetts shoppers ordered 6% more corn and 13% less yellow peaches than the national average.

The data lines up neatly with the summer calendar: corn, watermelon and cherries surge around the Fourth of July, while peach season makes people wait a little longer.

Around the Fourth of July, fresh sweet corn orders through grocery retailers are about three to four times higher than usual, according to Instacart, with yellow, tri-color, sweet and white corn all typically peaking between July 5 and July 7.

Watermelon peaked July 8 at 170% above its yearly average. Cherries also peaked July 8, up 369%, the biggest produce spike of the first couple of weeks of July.

After the Fourth of July, other summer produce favorites hit their peak order periods, according to Instacart:

Yellow peaches: Week of July 15

Donut peaches: Aug. 11

Pluots: Aug. 12

White nectarines: Aug. 12

Plums: Aug. 12

White peaches: Aug. 13

Hatch chile peppers: Week of Aug. 14

Muscadine grapes: Week of Aug. 27

Peaches Worth The Wait

Peaches, though, may be where America’s summer produce feelings are most exposed.

Instacart said yellow peaches peak the week of July 15, rising 214% above their yearly average. And the Harris Poll survey found 62% of Americans identify as Team Peach, compared with 18% who are Team Nectarine.

The survey found 35% of Americans say a perfectly ripe peach beats any other summer dessert. Among people who eat peaches, 41% said they would eat a perfect peak-season peach immediately, right where they were standing, and 51% said they like eating peaches bite by bite, juice everywhere.

Where Corn Is King

The state-by-state numbers show that some summer produce favorites are more popular in certain parts of the country than others.

Vermont over-indexed on corn at 40% above the national average, followed by Maine at 29% and Connecticut at 22%. Iowa, despite being the heart of the Corn Belt, came in 37% below the national average for corn orders on Instacart — perhaps a sign that Iowans are growing the corn themselves or buying at farmers markets or farmer stands.

The data also showed people are pickier about their produce during the peak growing season. Instacart said the share of produce orders with hand-typed customer instructions increased 16 percentage points from its January low to its late-July peak.

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