BATH COUNTY MARKET

Bath County, Kentucky Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Hope, Olympia and and Sharpsburg 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 Bath County by the Numbers

Bath County has 626 farms on 124,643 acres (about 199 acres each). Together they sold $25.2 million of farm products in 2022, led by cattle, soybeans and hay & other field crops.

Orchards and vineyards here grow apples, sweet cherries and peaches, and local fields produce sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans and potatoes. Beekeepers tend about 88 honey bee colonies.

13 farms in Bath County already sell straight to the public, about $147,000 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 Bath County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 26,239 head of cattle, 1,120 egg-laying hens and 919 horses and ponies in Bath County. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 1,116 people run or help run farms in Bath County, with an average age of 55. 36% of them are women. 147 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.

Where Bath County stands out: it ranks #24 of 117 KY counties for goats.