WILL COUNTY MARKET

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

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Joliet, Romeoville and Channahon 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 Will County by the Numbers

Will County has 780 farms on 241,269 acres (about 309 acres each). Together they sold $234.7 million of farm products in 2022, led by corn, soybeans and nursery & greenhouse plants.

Orchards and vineyards here grow grapes, apples and pears, and local fields produce pumpkins, sweet corn, tomatoes and beets. Beekeepers tend about 728 honey bee colonies.

74 farms in Will County already sell straight to the public, about $1 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 Will County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 15,639 hogs, 7,729 egg-laying hens and 1,250 horses and ponies in Will County.

About 1,328 people run or help run farms in Will County, with an average age of 59. 32% of them are women. 115 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 21 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Will County stands out: it ranks #3 of 97 IL counties for honey bee colonies and #9 of 90 IL counties for egg-laying hens.