Five Seasonal Recipes Using Local Produce Available Right Now at New York Markets

The tomatoes are back. Not the pallid, gassed-in-transit kind that fill supermarket bins in February, but the real ones — Brandywines, Green Zebras, heirloom Cherokees — piled high at the Union Square Greenmarket as of this week. It is peak summer harvest season for the Hudson Valley corridor, and the 140-plus vendors who rotate through the Greenmarket's four Manhattan locations are hauling in everything from sweet corn to zucchini blossoms to the first blackberries of July.

Why does this matter right now? Seasonality isn't just a chef's affectation. A 2024 study published in the journal Food Chemistry found that locally grown tomatoes harvested at full ripeness contain up to 40 percent more lycopene than commercially harvested varieties picked early for transport. Lycopene is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease — a category New York City's Department of Health flagged as the leading cause of death in the five boroughs for 2025. Eating with the season, it turns out, is also eating with intention.

Greenmarkets — run by GrowNYC, the nonprofit that has managed the program since 1976 — operate at Union Square on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. A flat of mixed heirloom tomatoes from Stony Creek Farm in Oneonta was going for $6 per pound this past Wednesday. Zucchini and summer squash from Oak Grove Plantation in New Jersey were $2 for three. For shoppers further uptown, the 97th Street Greenmarket in East Harlem runs every Friday and draws vendors from as far as the Catskills.

Five Recipes Built Around What's at the Stalls This Weekend

1. Raw corn and basil salad. Strip two ears of sweet corn straight from the cob — no cooking needed when corn is this fresh. Toss with torn basil, a handful of arugula, shaved Pecorino, a drizzle of good olive oil, and flaked sea salt. Serves two. Under $8 at market prices.

2. Heirloom tomato panzanella. Cube a day-old sourdough loaf from, say, She Wolf Bakery (whose bread is sold at several Greenmarket stalls), toast the cubes in a dry pan, then toss with chunked tomatoes, red onion, capers, and a red-wine vinaigrette. Rest it 20 minutes before eating so the bread absorbs the tomato juice. This is lunch, not a side dish.

3. Zucchini fritters with yogurt dip. Grate two medium zucchini, salt them, squeeze out the liquid aggressively. Combine with one egg, a quarter cup of flour, chopped dill, and crumbled feta. Pan-fry in olive oil until golden. Serve with whole-milk Greek yogurt loosened with lemon juice. The entire dish costs roughly $5 and takes 25 minutes.

4. Blackberry and ricotta toast. Smear thick slices of toasted bread with fresh ricotta, top with blackberries from any of the berry vendors at the Saturday Union Square market, finish with a thread of honey and cracked black pepper. The pepper matters. Don't skip it.

5. Sautéed shishito peppers with miso butter. Shishitos — mild, blistered quickly in a cast-iron pan — have been appearing at Hudson Valley Fresh vendor stalls since late June. Blister them whole in a very hot dry pan until they're charred in spots. Remove from heat and toss immediately with a tablespoon of unsalted butter mixed with a teaspoon of white miso. Salt generously. These pair with almost anything cold from the refrigerator, including leftover fritters from recipe three.

Getting There and Going Further

All five recipes can be assembled within an hour of leaving the Union Square Greenmarket at 17th Street and Broadway. For those without kitchen access or cooking confidence, the James Beard Foundation runs public culinary education programming at its West Village headquarters on West 12th Street, including seasonal cooking workshops that typically run $45 to $65 per session. Their July calendar focuses explicitly on summer vegetables. Spots fill quickly.

Registered dietitians at NYC Health + Hospitals — the city's public hospital network — can provide personalized nutrition guidance, and many locations offer sliding-scale appointments. The Hudson Valley harvest window for peak summer produce typically runs through late September. That leaves roughly 12 Saturdays at the market before the root vegetables move in and the heirlooms disappear. Use them.