Yakima Valley Fruit Stands
Yakima Valley, central Washington
Yakima, WA
One of the most productive farm valleys in the country, where roadside stands sell just-picked cherries and peaches in the shadow of hop yards and the oldest vineyards in the state.
The Yakima Valley is one of the great farm baskets of the country, and its roadside fruit stands are the friendliest way to taste it. Along the valley's back roads and highways, family stands and u-pick orchards sell cherries, peaches, apricots, apples, and pears within hours of the harvest, often from the very trees you can see behind the counter. In summer and fall the whole valley becomes a slow, sweet driving tour from stand to stand.
This abundance is no accident. Warm, dry, sun-soaked days, cool nights, volcanic soil, and water drawn from the mountains through a century of irrigation have made the Yakima Valley extraordinarily productive. It grows a huge share of the nation's hops, some of its finest tree fruit, and the grapes for the oldest wine region in Washington, all in one long, green valley.
What Guests Love
- Roadside stands piled with cherries, peaches, apricots, apples, and pears in season
- Driving between hop fields, orchards, and vineyards under wide central Washington skies
- Tasting at the vineyards of Washington's very first wine region
- The simple pleasure of fruit eaten within an hour of being picked
Worth Knowing
- This is a seasonal pleasure; cherries come first in early summer, then stone fruit and apples through fall, so time your visit to what you want to eat
- Many stands and u-pick farms are cash-friendly and keep farm hours, so plan for a relaxed pace rather than a fixed schedule
- Summers are hot and sunny with little shade between fields; bring water and sun protection
- The valley is spread out, so a short driving loop between towns lets you sample the most stands
Details
Yakima, WA
Learn about Yakima Valley Fruit Stands
How the valley was watered
For all its lushness, the Yakima Valley is high desert, and in its natural state it is sagebrush country that sees little rain. What transformed it was water. Beginning in the early twentieth century, large federal and private irrigation projects diverted the Yakima River and its tributaries into a network of canals and ditches, turning dry benchland into orchard and field almost overnight.
That water made the valley one of the most intensive farming regions in the West. Row upon row of fruit trees, tall trellises of hops, and rank after rank of grapevines cover ground that a lifetime earlier grew only sage and bunchgrass. The fruit stand at the edge of the road is the last, small link in that long chain from snowmelt to canal to tree to your hand.
Hops, apples, and wine
The Yakima Valley is a giant in more markets than most visitors realize. It grows the large majority of the hops raised in the United States, the aromatic flowers that flavor much of the country's beer, and in late summer the hop yards stand tall and green, their scent hanging in the air near harvest. The valley is also a heartland of Washington's famous tree fruit, from cherries and apricots to the apples the state is known for.
It is wine country, too, and pioneering wine country at that. The Yakima Valley was the first federally recognized wine region in Washington, established in the 1980s, and its vineyards helped launch a state industry that has since grown enormous. Today tasting rooms dot the valley alongside the fruit stands, a chance to sample what the same sun and soil produce in a glass.
The Yakama Nation and the living land
Long before the canals and the orchards, this valley was and remains the homeland of the Yakama people. Under the treaty of 1855, the many bands and tribes who became the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation reserved a vast area to the south and west of the valley, and they retain rights across their ceded lands, including the fishing, hunting, and gathering that have sustained them for generations.
The Yakama Nation remains a central presence in the region today, with its own government, cultural center, and enterprises, and its history is woven through the valley's place names and its water. To travel the valley eating its fruit is to move across a landscape that is both a modern farm empire and an ancient homeland, held by the people who have belonged to it far longer than any orchard.
A season of harvests
Half the pleasure of the valley is knowing what is ripe when, because the stands follow the harvest closely. Cherries lead the way in early summer, dark and sweet, followed through the warm months by apricots, peaches, nectarines, and plums, the classic stone fruit the valley is known for. Berries and melons fill in the middle of the season.
As summer tips into autumn, the great apple and pear harvest arrives, the crop that made Washington a household name, along with late grapes and the first pressings of the valley's wineries. A stand that overflows with cherries in June will be stacked with apples by October, so the valley rewards more than one visit across a single season.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Yakima
Yakima River Canyon
North of Yakima
Washington's first scenic byway, following the river for 27 miles through basalt cliffs, with bighorn sheep, birds, and easy summer floating.
Toppenish murals
About 20 miles southeast
A small town covered in dozens of large historical murals, near the Yakama Nation Cultural Center that tells the tribe's history.
Yakama Nation Cultural Center
About 20 miles southeast
A museum and heritage center in Toppenish presenting the history, language, and living culture of the Yakama people.