MONROE COUNTY MARKET

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

🌽 Buy local in Monroe County: fruit, vegetables, honey, baked goods, plants and livestock from people in Columbia, Fults and and Waterloo. 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 Monroe County by the Numbers

Monroe County has 533 farms on 197,346 acres (about 370 acres each). Together they sold $132.7 million of farm products in 2022, led by soybeans, corn and wheat.

Orchards and vineyards here grow grapes, pears and peaches, and local fields produce bell peppers. Beekeepers tend about 114 honey bee colonies.

15 farms in Monroe County already sell straight to the public, about $113,000 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 Monroe County

Monroe County farms and homesteads keep 10,151 hogs, 6,271 head of cattle and 1,445 egg-laying hens.

About 894 people run or help run farms in Monroe County, with an average age of 58. 29% of them are women. 90 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 3 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.