Cherry season has been done for a month. G&S Farms closed its 2026 cherry U-pick weeks ago, and Marsh Creek Cherries wrapped in June. The pumpkin patches on the east side of town are still green in the field. If you have lived here longer than a season, you already know the middle of August is neither the loud part of the harvest nor the photogenic one. It is the shoulder.
That is exactly why it is the best week on the local calendar. For roughly ten days in late August, the last stone fruit is still on the tree, the sweet corn is at its shortest window from field to boil, the free Friday concert series is counting down its final show, and the Sunday market on Brentwood Boulevard is inside its last month of the year. Nothing else on the Brentwood calendar layers that many things at once. Below is how a resident actually uses the week.
What is still ripe, and where
Cherries are the crop that gets the press, but they are the shortest window in town. The Delta Protection Commission notes the typical local cherry season runs late April to mid-June with peak in May, and by late July most Brentwood cherry farms have already posted that their 2026 season is closed. What is left in August is the quieter half of the orchard: white and yellow peaches, nectarines, apricots, pluots, and the first Asian pears.
Airaya U-Pick Farm on Marsh Creek Road carries 22 varieties of tree-ripened fruit across a U-pick season that runs from May 8 through the end of August, which means the last two weekends of the month are effectively the last call of the year at that orchard. Hours are Wednesday through Friday 9 to 3, with pricing at $3.50 per pound weekdays and $4.00 per pound Saturday and Sunday. Payment is cash, Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal, and you pay for what you pick.
A short list of who is doing what right now:
| Farm | What is ripe in late August | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Airaya U-Pick | White and yellow peaches, nectarines, pluots, Asian pears | Season ends with August; Wed–Sun, cash or app only |
| Farmer's Daughter Produce | Peaches, plums, sweet corn | 20 acres of stone fruit, U-pick and pre-picked daily 9am to 6pm |
| Three Nunns Farm | Peaches, pumpkin patch just opening | Peaches June through September; pumpkin patch August through September |
| Moffatt Ranch | Peaches, nectarines, later-season Asian pears | Typical June-through-August U-pick season with different varieties ripening across the summer |
| G&S Farms | Brentwood Diamond sweet corn, cannery tomatoes, Blue Lake and Romano beans | 2026 cherry U-pick is closed; corn is the reason to go |
The one thing that matters here more than any variety list: a farm can open late, close early, sell out, or change hours as fruit ripens, so check Harvest Time and the individual farm on the same day you plan to visit. In late August the ripening runs fast. A tree that had fruit Wednesday morning may be picked out by Saturday.
The Saturday morning that anchors the week
The Brentwood Farmers' Market has been the town's Saturday habit for years, and it is the one downtown fixture that does not change with the season. It runs Saturdays 8am to 12pm year-round at 655 First Street, operated by the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association. Late August is when the stalls are at their most crowded with local product rather than trucked-in filler.
What you will actually see on the tables the last two Saturdays of the month: peaches from the orchards two miles east, pluots and nectarines from the same growers, the first hard winter squash from farms that have already turned over their summer beds, sweet corn from the fields off Walnut Boulevard, tomatoes at the price point they only hit once a year. There is prepared food, bread, cut flowers, and enough overlap with the u-pick farms that a resident with a plan can get half the same fruit at First Street without driving to Marsh Creek Road.
The market's own advice is worth repeating: get there early. By 10am on an August Saturday the peach vendors are working through their second table, and by 11 the shade under the awnings is the only reason to still be standing there.
Friday night, and why this one is the last one
Brentwood's free Friday concert series, formerly Starry Nights and running in 2026 as Concerts in the Park, is nine free Friday night summer concerts in the City Park in downtown Brentwood, beginning June 6th through August 21, 2026. That August 21 date is doing a lot of work in this post. It is the last free concert of the year in the park, and it lands inside the exact window when the harvest is still full and the school-year rhythm has not fully taken over. The format is unfussy: blankets, lawn chairs, family, friends, and a picnic dinner.
If you have never made the connection, this is the one: the market closes at noon, the concert starts in the evening, and the picnic dinner in between is entirely sourced from what you carried out of First Street six hours earlier. That is the shape of a Brentwood Friday-into-Saturday that nobody who moved here last year has figured out yet.
Sunday, before the Boulevard series ends
The Sunday market is newer and often missed by residents who only think of Saturday when they think of "farmers' market." The Amazing Brentwood hosts a Sunday market on Brentwood Boulevard from June 7 through August 30, every Sunday 10am to 2pm, with a rotating lineup of local vendors that includes farm-fresh produce, baked goods, and artisan crafts. August 30 is the final Sunday of that run.
The Sunday market is a different animal from Saturday. It is smaller, slower, more craft-heavy, and it happens on the Boulevard rather than the historic First Street blocks. If you have been meaning to go once this year, the last two Sundays of August are the last two Sundays of the year to do it.
One weekend, if you want the whole picture
Here is the tightest version of the week for a resident who wants to use the shoulder:
- Wednesday or Thursday morning at Airaya U-Pick on Marsh Creek Road. Weekday pricing is $0.50 a pound lower than weekend, and the orchard is quieter before the season closes.
- Friday early evening at Downtown Brentwood City Park for the final Concerts in the Park of 2026. Chairs, blanket, picnic. Parks & Recreation at (925) 516-5444 for lineup questions.
- Saturday 8 to 10am at the First Street Farmers' Market. The peaches are the point; the bread and flowers are the reason you stay past 9.
- Saturday late morning at Farmer's Daughter Produce for sweet corn and whatever pre-picked fruit you did not want to hunt for. No entrance fee, cash or card.
- Sunday late morning at the Brentwood Boulevard market. Coffee, a slow walk, and the last week of a summer-only series.
- Sunday afternoon at Brentwood Ice Cream Co. at 5421 Lone Tree Way, Suite 101, open daily from noon to 8:30 PM. The flavors that rotate through August often carry names of the same farms you visited that morning.
That is six specific stops inside three days, all within Brentwood city limits, all closing their seasonal windows within roughly a week of each other.
What comes next, so you do not miss the handoff
The reason late August feels like a hinge is that it is one. G&S Farms turns its attention to the live-vine pumpkin U-pick, corn maze, and curated seasonal activities that end their harvest year each October. Three Nunns already has its pumpkin patch opening this month alongside the last peaches. Within about ten days of the last free concert, the pumpkin conversation replaces the peach conversation everywhere in town.
If you have been in Brentwood long enough to have a favorite orchard, you already know this rhythm. If you moved in during the last twelve months, this is the week to learn it, because the calendar will not overlap like this again until next August.
If your late-summer conversations at the market have started sliding toward "what is our house actually worth right now," or if you are watching a neighbor's sign go up and wondering what changed, Cindy Alaimo is happy to walk your block with you. Schedule a Complimentary Local Market & Home Presentation Plan and get a read on Brentwood pricing from someone who has been buying peaches at First Street for years.
