STEARNS COUNTY MARKET

Stearns County, Minnesota Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Buy local in Stearns County: fruit, vegetables, honey, baked goods, plants and livestock from people in Saint Cloud, Albany and Cold Spring. 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 Stearns County by the Numbers

Stearns County has 2,695 farms on 643,463 acres (about 239 acres each). Together they sold $1 billion of farm products in 2022, led by dairy (milk), poultry & eggs and corn.

Orchards and vineyards here grow apples, grapes and plums, and local fields produce sweet corn, green peas, potatoes and pumpkins. Beekeepers tend about 4,124 honey bee colonies.

132 farms in Stearns County already sell straight to the public, about $875,000 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 Stearns County

Stearns County farms and homesteads keep 1,796,151 turkeys, 897,819 egg-laying hens and 187,176 head of cattle.

About 4,732 people run or help run farms in Stearns County, with an average age of 56. 32% of them are women. 449 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 8 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Stearns County stands out: it ranks #1 of 87 MN counties for number of farms and #1 of 87 MN counties for total farm sales.