Golden Harvest Produce Market

I defy anyone to find better produce anywhere else in the area. We travel 20 minutes at least once a week to shop here. Every once in a while I need something in a pinch and can’t make the drive and wow, what a difference. The veggies and fruit here are the best, and the wine selection (and prices!) are great.

I am so glad I live in Kittery because this little gem is right down the road from my house! I do the majority of my shopping at the commissary because the prices are great for military families on a budget. Because the commissary is not very big, there is some produce that I am not able to get from there. Thankfully, Golden Harvest is on the way home so I can just pop on in and find all the produce on my list. It seems like they are always busy, no matter the day or time. The prices are decent for fresh produce. Great little local market!

It’s hard to find much wrong here, the staff and owners are so nice. I’m a regular/​townie and have been going here for over 8 years now. The produce I get there always stays fresh beyond anything I’d get at a large grocery store and Mary Ann’s biscotti is fantastic. You can get a lot of hard to find things here as well. Love the salad bar and the Kale and Kielbasa soup. I give it 4 because it can be hard to get around as it is cramped because it is an older place and some of the customers will run right over you. But other than that, it’s a great place.

The Good:
I wish more grocery stores were like the Golden Harvest! When you walk in you just see a phat spread of produce — kale, carrots, celery, chard, beets, and way more– and seasonal goodies like oyster mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, and strawberries. Best place for produce!!!
Packaged goods are relegated to one tiny corner, we never even make it that far! Freezer and fridge section is small but they make some of their own juices which is cool!
They have an awesome coffee selection — three kinds of locally roasted, organic, fair-​trade coffees with tons of varieties!!!
Lots of wines at affordable prices.
We go to Golden Harvest for produce, wine and coffee, to Rising Tide for bulk items like nuts, rice and quinoa, and to Carl’s for beer (they don’t carry beer at Golden Harvest.) This small stretch of road, along with Terra Cotta Pasta and Beach Pea Bakery is known as «gourmet alley»!! Makes it easy to support local business instead of big grocery stores!
The Bad:
Closes at 7! Very early, we have to rush like crazy when my boyfriend gets off work, and a lot of times we can’t make it!
I just wish they had more organic and local produce. And their few organic items are really expensive!

freshest produce… excellent selection of wines and cheese… dairy etc. + amazing meat market steps away (which sells beer too) = quality one stop shopping

Love this place! The customer service is great and its a great little mom and pop type of shop. They don’t have a huge amount of inventory of non produce items but they’re the only place I get produce from.
Avocados are a big deal for me and I always find perfectly ripe ones when I go here. I really can’t gush about them enough. They are definitely worth whatever kind of trip it might be for you to come here.

Got all my ingredients here today for the Mean Green Drink. Starting juicing tomorrow. I love this place because all the veggies are fresh and mostly local. I got a cartful of veggies for 10.16 today. They also sell wine, prepared foods and natural foods. There is nothing fancy here — just go in and feast your eyes on some of the best bounty around. And the staff are very friendly and helpful
Recipe
MEAN GREEN DRINK
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 – 2
Serving Size: 16oz. (500 mls)
Ingredients
1 cucumber
4 celery stalks
2 apples
6 – 8 leaves kale (Australian tuscan cabbage)
½ lemon
1 tbsp ginger
Directions
Wash all produce well
Peel the lemon, optional
Juice
Pour over ice
Enjoy!

One is not paying for the décor here.
Just a few minutes up RT 1 from downtown Portsmouth, over the rebuilt Memorial bridge.
Fresh squeezed OJ every Wednesday afternoon until it runs out.
The freshest greens in the area year round. Usually the best price on greens too.
Bags of baby spinach are always fresh year round. Also Richardson’s ice cream in tubs. Salad bar on weekdays.

Excellent selection of produce, locally sourced daily products, bread, and lunch foods from the deli next door.

Needed golden raisins and pine nuts pronto, so lucky they had both along with great organic veggies, breads and my favorite gelato from Maples.

Fresh seasonable and affordable!
The first time I shopped at Golden Harvest I couldn’t find the basil, after asking an employee he said «oh we keep it out back» and returned with the biggest freshest bunch of basil i’ve seen outside of a windowsill. The produce tastes leaps better than anything bought in a big name store, stir fry has new meaning in my house and a new taste.
I’m always blown away by the low prices and I love their thai noodle salad. Also great wine selection.
I never by produce anywhere else if I can help it knowing Golden Harvest is there.

Fresh!
The produce here is pretty great. Everything is very fresh and of good quality. They do offer some organic produce and in the warmer months a lot of it is local. As Cody S. stated it is all very fresh but not all of it is organic or local. People should look at the labeling carefully!
Before I started shopping here, I read the Unilocal reviews and they lead me to expect much more organic produce. If you go here expecting to be able to shop exclusively organic you will be disappointed. The quality and freshness are great but they do not regularly offer an organic option for each type of produce offered, including staple items (tomatoes, potatoes, etc). They definitely offer organic produce they just don’t offer it for each item they carry. If that is your goal or need, you will have a lot of holes to fill in your shopping list. Organic-​only shoppers should just go to Philbrick’s Fresh Market in Portsmouth or the Portsmouth Health Food store.
I like coming to this place but I am a west coast transplant and hard wired to shop at Trader Joe’s. It has been hard to ween myself of the TJ’s and this has been a decent substitute for some stuff.
Anyways, this is still a good place to shop despite the above organic snob ranting my mine. Quality for produce is still way above Hannafords, Shaws and Market Basket.
Price is what it is. You get what you pay for. If you want better quality fruits & veggies, you will pay more… here only slightly. The dry goods (pantry items) are overpriced. If you look carefully a lot of the stuff they sell here you can find in the «natural» area of Hannaford at this point. If you’re looking for something obscure, try Philbrick’s.
My husband says I am too stingy with the five star reviews but as far as I am concerned I like to reserve fives for places that do everything well. My major point loss here is that I’ve never quite felt great about the customer service/​staff interactions. I’ve never felt particularly welcomed or helped out a great deal by any employee here. Nothing rude. Just nothing that I feel is noticeably positive about the interaction.
Pros: Quality, freshness, easy parking, location (convenient to other food related shops), good but small selection of prepared foods, salad bar
Cons: Organic produce is limited
I generally enjoy coming here. Unfortunately, I do know that when the Trader Joe’s opens in Portsmouth/​Newington, I will most likely be shopping there exclusively (its like home… long story but New England hasn’t felt like home without my #1 fave grocery store). Don’t let my weirdness about Trader Joe’s stop you from shopping here.

The produce here is very fresh, and they also have an excellent selection of cheeses and other more esoteric ingredients. It’s a nice walk to shop from Carl’s, to Golden Harvest, and to Beach Pea.

Located on the Rt. 1 by pass. Next to the Beach Pea and Carls Meat Market and across from the Terra Cotta pasta. All the perfect stops for a meal.
Inside you will find a nice selection of FRESH produce, yet not much is really local or organic. Some of the prices are much higher than you would expect but everything is great quality.
They also have milk from Harris Farm in glass bottles, local coffee, cheese, breads and other grocery items.
A great place to add to your weekly stops as you will discover some new and interesting products.

Helpful staff, wide variety, lots of seasonal and local produce, and surprisingly competitive pricing

This past year, I started shopping at the Golden Harvest on a weekly basis. I mostly buy vegetables, wine, sesame seeds, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and that local skim milk in a glass container.
I love that they are still open in the winter and try to stay local. My sprouts were from Mass and my tomatoes were out of state but still better than buying the not so fresh imports from the big chain markets!!!
The prices are a little more than the market basket but you pay for what you get. I’d rather pay a little more to be eating fresh, local, organic foods then who knows what!
Apparently this little stretch is called Gourmet Alley (Carl’s Meat Market, Golden Harvest, Terra Cotta Pasta, and Beach Pea Bakery — all fresh, local, organic and so worth the money!)

When I lived in the area, I went here several times a week. They have a great selection that is well priced, and most of the employees are really friendly and quick to help.

I’m in Golden Harvest every week. Tons of fruits, veggies, wine, cheese, etc. I’ve gotten some really good food here and the only problem is that last year when local corn was in season, this store wasn’t selling corn from just down the street. It was still from god knows where so I had to go find a farm stand. They have local tomatoes already, so maybe it’s just that last year was a terrible year for local corn. In any case I was disappointed. Let’s see what happens this year.
And just to keep that complaint in perspective, that’s the biggest criticism I could think of. In other words, Golden Harvest is amazing. I should mention prices. They’re generally okay. Veggie prices are a bit higher than the supermarkets but the produce lasts longer. And the gourmet cheese prices are better than you’ll find at some other stores.
Go here, then to Carl’s, and finally Beach Pea and Terra Cotta. Your expanding waistline will thank me.

i was so excited to see that places like this actually still exist. like a grocery store, sans junk food. heck, they even sell real peanut butter (which is taking a bit of time to get used to, but i’m working on it… hehe)
i took don w.‘s tip and checked out this whole stretch of independent food shops and i was so impressed. each store got me one step closer to seeing myself happily living in portsmouth and out of hectic NYC. sigh… someday!

A year-​round fresh produce market! Gore-​met cheeses and crackers, a few sundries, wine and some of the best chips ever (made out of beans!). Also has really yummy local gelato, coffee and whole pies.
Between this, the meat place, the bakery and the homemade pasta place, this particular stretch of small town Maine has more to offer than most small cities!