JO DAVIESS COUNTY MARKET

Jo Daviess County, Illinois Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Apple River, East Dubuque and Nora buy and sell food they grew, baked or raised. Homemade jams, breads and honey are listed right next to fresh produce and seedlings. Listing is free and you keep 100% of every local sale.

Farming in Jo Daviess County by the Numbers

Jo Daviess County has 907 farms on 309,287 acres (about 341 acres each). Together they sold $242.5 million of farm products in 2022, led by corn, soybeans and cattle.

Orchards and vineyards here grow grapes, apples and pears, and local fields produce pumpkins, sweet corn, potatoes and cantaloupes. Beekeepers tend about 215 honey bee colonies.

42 farms in Jo Daviess County already sell straight to the public, about $2.7 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 Jo Daviess County

Jo Daviess County farms and homesteads keep 51,203 head of cattle, 1,094 egg-laying hens and 1,094 sheep. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 1,548 people run or help run farms in Jo Daviess County, with an average age of 58. 31% of them are women. 141 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 15 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Jo Daviess County stands out: it ranks #4 of 93 IL counties for selling food straight to the public.