Pender

Pender County, North Carolina Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Looking for food grown in Pender County? Backyard growers and small farms around Atkinson, Burgaw and Watha list it here. North Carolina favorites like strawberries and apples show up here when they're in season. Listing is free and you keep 100% of every local sale.

Farming in Pender County by the Numbers

Pender County has 354 farms on 78,903 acres (about 223 acres each). Together they sold $246.1 million of farm products in 2022, led by hogs, poultry & eggs and nursery & greenhouse plants.

Orchards and vineyards here grow grapes, pecans and pears, and local fields produce sweet corn, watermelons, green peas and pumpkins. Beekeepers tend about 725 honey bee colonies.

27 farms in Pender County already sell straight to the public, about $583,000 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 Pender County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 254,535 hogs, 180,810 egg-laying hens and 86,051 turkeys in Pender County.

About 589 people run or help run farms in Pender County, with an average age of 55. 33% of them are women. 53 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 4 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Pender County stands out: it ranks #10 of 90 NC counties for honey bee colonies and #16 of 78 NC counties for egg-laying hens.