RITCHIE COUNTY MARKET

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

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Auburn, Berea and Mahone 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 Ritchie County by the Numbers

Ritchie County has 497 farms on 104,706 acres (about 211 acres each). Together they sold $4.9 million of farm products in 2022, led by cattle, hay & other field crops and fruit & nuts.

Orchards and vineyards here grow apples, persimmons and peaches, and local fields produce potatoes. Beekeepers tend about 100 honey bee colonies.

12 farms in Ritchie County already sell straight to the public, about $72,000 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 Ritchie County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 9,225 head of cattle, 2,124 egg-laying hens and 560 sheep in Ritchie County. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 825 people run or help run farms in Ritchie County, with an average age of 61. 35% of them are women. 43 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers.