ALACHUA COUNTY MARKET

Alachua County, Florida Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Gainesville, Archer and Lochloosa buy and sell food they grew, baked or raised. Homemade jams, breads and honey are listed right next to fresh produce and seedlings. It's free to post, there's no cut taken, and local farm food carries no sales tax.

Farming in Alachua County by the Numbers

Alachua County has 1,712 farms on 197,906 acres (about 116 acres each). Together they sold $146.4 million of farm products in 2022, led by nursery & greenhouse plants, fruit & nuts and vegetables.

Orchards and vineyards here grow pecans, chestnuts and persimmons, and local fields produce watermelons, collard greens, sweet corn and green peas. Beekeepers tend about 38,503 honey bee colonies.

150 farms in Alachua County already sell straight to the public, about $1.2 million a year in direct sales. Crop Market gives them, and every backyard grower, a free way to reach more neighbors.

Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2022 Census of Agriculture.

Farm Life in Alachua County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 44,902 head of cattle, 5,815 egg-laying hens and 2,584 goats in Alachua County. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 3,084 people run or help run farms in Alachua County, with an average age of 59. 43% of them are women. 173 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 34 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Alachua County stands out: it ranks #1 of 61 FL counties for honey bee colonies and #2 of 62 FL counties for goats.