RANDOLPH COUNTY MARKET

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

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Baldwin, Chester and Percy 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 Randolph County by the Numbers

Randolph County has 744 farms on 254,611 acres (about 342 acres each). Together they sold $173.4 million of farm products in 2022, led by soybeans, corn and wheat.

Orchards and vineyards here grow chestnuts, pecans and grapes. Beekeepers tend about 30 honey bee colonies.

9 farms in Randolph County already sell straight to the public, about $65,000 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 Randolph County

Randolph County farms and homesteads keep 13,893 head of cattle, 1,056 egg-laying hens and 619 sheep. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 1,261 people run or help run farms in Randolph County, with an average age of 58. 24% of them are women. 89 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 1 farm earns money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.