Farmers Markets near Monterey, CA

Monterey

Monterey Farmers' Market at MPC is held on the campus of Monterey Peninsula College at 930 Fremont Street. It's one of several certified farmers' markets on the Monterey Peninsula, drawing on Salinas Valley growers just inland.

Monterey

Old Monterey Farmers' Market runs along Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey, between Del Monte and Pearl, a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf and the city's historic adobe district. Current schedule, vendor list, and contact details aren't confirmed online.

Monterey

This market sets up in the parking area of Del Monte Center, at the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 68 — the largest shopping center on the Monterey Peninsula. It draws from the peninsula's coastal growers as well as farms just inland in the Salinas Valley.

Del Monte Center's certified market pulls vendors from the Salinas Valley, often called the salad bowl of the world for its produce output, as well as smaller growers along the Monterey Peninsula itself. The center sits at the junction of Highway 1 and Highway 68 in Monterey.

Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove Farmers' Market runs Monday afternoons at Central and Grand avenues, one of six Certified Farmers' Markets the Salinas-based nonprofit Everyone's Harvest operates around Monterey County, alongside markets in Marina, Alisal, Natividad, Seaside, and Salinas. Reach the organization by phone or email for current hours and vendor questions.

Carmel

Carmel's certified farmers' market sets up Tuesday mornings, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the parking area at The Barnyard Shopping Village, and runs seasonally from May through September. Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets organizes it and rotates in a free booth for a local nonprofit each week. Vendors bring fresh produce, nuts, flowers, live plants, and baked goods.

Marina Certified Farmers' Market sets up on Reservation Road in the city of Marina, on Monterey Bay just north of the Monterey Peninsula. It draws on the Salinas Valley's produce region, one of the most productive farming areas on the Central Coast.

Salinas

Salinas

This certified organic market takes over the 300 block of Main Street at Gabilan Street every Saturday, 9am to 2pm, rain or shine. The Oldtown Salinas Foundation runs it as a showcase for Salinas Valley farms — arguably the most agriculturally dense stretch of California — alongside flower vendors, food stalls, live music, and a free kids' craft area. It's a bigger production than a typical neighborhood market.

Salinas

Everyone's Harvest, a Salinas nonprofit, runs the Alisal Certified Farmers' Market at 632 East Alisal Street on Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., staying open year-round except for two weeks around the holidays. The market takes EBT, WIC, and Senior FMNP, and its Market Match program matches every EBT dollar spent on produce, up to $30 a visit. Free parking sits next to the market, and Salinas Transit routes 41 and 42 stop nearby.

Everyone's Harvest, a Monterey County nonprofit running six certified markets across the county, operates this Tuesday market at 632 E. Alisal Street, with summer hours running 11am to 4pm. It's one stop in a six-day rotation across Salinas, Seaside, Marina, Pacific Grove, and Natividad, all built to get Salinas Valley produce directly to shoppers — free parking is available next to the adjacent WIC nutrition center.

Salinas

Watsonville

Esperanza Community Farms runs a subsidized CSA out of Watsonville, delivering biweekly boxes of pesticide-free vegetables and fruit to families in the Pajaro and Salinas Valleys. The nonprofit also operates the Esperanza Food Hub, linking small local growers with schools and community organizations, and has run a Farm to Cafeteria program bringing organic salads into area schools. Its focus stays on food security in a farmworker region that grows much of the country's produce.

Watsonville

Salinas

A neighborhood farmers market on East Cliff Drive in the Live Oak area east of Santa Cruz, in a coastal county known for strawberries and Brussels sprouts grown around nearby Watsonville.

Aptos

The Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College, run by Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets, is held every Saturday from 8 AM to noon at 6500 Soquel Drive in Aptos, celebrating over 50 years of farmers markets in the region with plentiful free parking and easy access.

Santa Cruz

The Live Oak Farmers' Market has anchored Sundays for the Live Oak, Pleasure Point, and Capitola communities since 2000, running 9 AM to 1 PM year-round at 15th and Eastcliff Drive. Tables stack high with organic produce, tree-ripened fruit, fresh bread, sustainable seafood, pasture-raised organic meats, and flowers, alongside celebrated brunch vendors, live music, EBT Market Match up to $15, and a monthly family day with the local school district.

Aptos

Nearly 90 vendors set up every Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon, year-round in the Cabrillo College parking lot at 6500 Soquel Drive — a market that was voted America's favorite farmers market in California three years running and got a nod from Coastal Living. Beyond produce, stalls cover eggs, cheese, seafood, olive oil, mushrooms, and fermented foods, plus a knife and garden-tool sharpening stand.

Santa Cruz

The Westside market runs Saturdays year-round, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Highway 1/Western Drive lot near Natural Bridges. Santa Cruz Community Farmers' Markets has run it as part of a five-market family for three decades, and the vendor mix leans hard organic — more than 30 farms and producers, plus pasture-raised meat, eggs, dairy, and locally caught seafood. A bluegrass band plays most Saturdays, as much a draw as the produce.

San Juan Bautista

Coke Farm is a certified organic food hub in San Juan Bautista that has aggregated and shipped produce from more than 100 regional growers since 1981. The company distributes organic strawberries, carrots, chard, kale, herbs, and heirloom tomatoes across the U.S. and Canada, employing around 114 people.