MASON COUNTY MARKET

Mason County, West Virginia Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Apple Grove, Arbuckle and Henderson 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 Mason County by the Numbers

Mason County has 805 farms on 124,768 acres (about 155 acres each). Together they sold $40.7 million of farm products in 2022, led by soybeans, cattle and corn.

Orchards and vineyards here grow apples, pears and peaches, and local fields produce sweet corn, pumpkins, green beans and potatoes. Beekeepers tend about 251 honey bee colonies.

41 farms in Mason County already sell straight to the public, about $266,000 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 Mason County

Mason County farms and homesteads keep 11,593 head of cattle, 3,484 egg-laying hens and 848 sheep. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 1,309 people run or help run farms in Mason County, with an average age of 59. 35% of them are women. 90 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 Mason County stands out: it ranks #7 of 55 WV counties for total farm sales and #7 of 51 WV counties for selling food straight to the public.