North Carolina Farmers Markets

Name: USDA National Farmers Market Directory listings in North Carolina
Creator: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
License: https://www.usa.gov/government-works

211 North Carolina farmers markets in USDA's national directory. The middle of the 43 whose season can be read as a range runs May 1 to October 31. Enter a ZIP below for the nearest, with the season and hours each one filed and the date it filed them.

Every North Carolina season and hours line here is what the market filed with USDA, with the date it filed beside it; current trading status is the market's own to publish

Listings in the directory

211

Seasons readable as a range

File weekly hours

Rank by listing count

#12

Start here

The North Carolina markets nearest a ZIP code

USDA’s directory holds 211 farmers market listings in North Carolina. The middle of the 43 readable seasons runs May 1 to October 31. Today falls inside that window, which is a statement about the median of the filings and about nothing else.

Seasons and hours as filed with USDA, each with the date it was filed. Many of those dates are years old. A market keeps its own calendar and publishes it in its own window, and every listing here links the directory record and the market for current status.

Distance is printed on every row because it matters: a market 40 miles away describes that town rather than yours. A ZIP near a state line will pull results from both sides, which is correct behaviour rather than a bug.

The North Carolina season

The middle North Carolina listing runs May 1 to October 31

USDA's directory holds 211 farmers market listings in North Carolina. 31 of them give a season this site can read as a range, 15 percent, and the middle of those runs May 1 to October 31. The listings themselves were last touched between April 2020 and January 2026.

That range is a median across the 43 North Carolina seasons in USDA’s directory this site can read as a range, with the year each operator filed under thrown away so a 2019 filing and a 2024 filing sit on the same axis. 27 of them came from a month range the operator typed into the date field rather than a filed date pair, which widens the window by up to a month at each end. Half of North Carolina’s markets open later than the median by construction. Today falls inside the window, which is a statement about the median of the filings and about nothing else.

19 North Carolina listings are year round, either written that way or filed as a range that wraps the new year. Those are excluded from the median above and counted here instead, because a year round market says nothing about when a season opens.

The middle of the 43 North Carolina seasons in USDA's directory that can be read as a range: May 1 to October 31. 27 of them came from a month range the operator typed rather than a filed date pair. Half of these markets open later than the median by construction, and it is a description of what operators filed rather than a schedule any market keeps.

May 1Median opening, as filedacross 43 readable North Carolina seasons

October 31Median closing, as filedabout 26 weeks of season

19Listings that are year roundset aside from the medians

#12Rank by listing countbetween Florida and Massachusetts

How good is this data

What North Carolina operators actually filled in

What the North Carolina listings actually fill in

Filed as two real dates147%
Typed as a month range178%
Written as year round157%
Other prose, not readable21%
Left blank16377%

The first two rows are the ones this site can read as a range, 31 of 211 or 15 percent, and only those go into the median. A month range is the operator’s own words, so it is read rather than discarded, but it widens the window by up to a month at each end. 47 listings also file weekly hours and 211 carry usable coordinates, which is what the ZIP tool ranks on. The records themselves were last touched between April 2020 and January 2026.

The North Carolina records in this snapshot were last touched between April 2020 and January 2026. That is the caveat on every line of this page: a listing carries whatever the operator typed on the day they typed it, and nothing rolls it forward.

211 of the 211 listings carry usable coordinates, which is what the ZIP tool ranks on, and 134 give a website. A listing with no website and no hours is still worth having, because the address and the directory record are enough to go and look.

Cabbages, cauliflower and yellow onions on a market table with handwritten price cards — Cabbage at seventy five cents a pound, priced on a card somebody wrote that morning. Of North Carolina's 211 listings, 31 tell you which weeks of the year to expect this and 47 tell you which morning. “Cauliflower, winter cabbage, and yellow onions” — U.S. Department of Agriculture, Lance Cheung — Public domain

The big ones

The largest North Carolina markets by the directory’s own vendor counts

USDA’s form asks operators how many vendors they have, and 48 of North Carolina’s 211 listings answered. This ranks the ones that answered rather than the state, and the numbers are the operators’ own on the dates their records were last touched.

Charlotte Regional Farmers Market169 vendors
Piedmont Triad Farmers Market100 vendors
Durham Farmers' Market60 vendors
Black Mountain Tailgate Market55 vendors
Uptown Farmers Market55 vendors

What North Carolina listings say they belong to

4 listings name North Carolina Farmers Market Network
3 listings name Polk County Local Government
2 listings name Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project
2 listings name Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture

These come from the directory’s own affiliated organisation field, which is the operator’s statement about its own market. They are membership organisations rather than public bodies, named here rather than quoted, and a market’s membership is the operator’s own statement.

Current status

Where to check whether a North Carolina market is trading

Where to find out whether a market is trading

Two places, in this order. The market’s own page or noticeboard, which is the only thing that is ever current, and North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which is the public body for this in North Carolina and keeps its own list. Link verified September 4, 2026.

A state farmers market association, where one exists, is nearly always a membership nonprofit rather than a public body, so the department of agriculture is the public body linked here.

“The Farmers Market Directory lists markets that feature two or more farm vendors selling agricultural products directly to customers at a common, recurrent physical location.”

USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Local Food Directories: National Farmers Market Directory

A federal directory of farmers markets. Operators file and maintain their own listings, so an entry is a claim by the market rather than a check by USDA, and a town with no entry is not a town with no market. That cuts both ways in North Carolina: the 211 listings here are markets that filed, and a North Carolina town with no listing is a town where nobody filed rather than a town with no market.

Summarised from USDA Local Food Directories, National Farmers Market Directory in our own words.

Common questions

North Carolina farmers market FAQ

Is a farmers market open in North Carolina today?

When does the North Carolina farmers market season usually run?

Across the 43 North Carolina seasons in USDA's directory that can be read as a range, the middle one opens around May 1 and closes around October 31, about 26 weeks. 27 of those were a month range the operator typed rather than a filed date pair, which widens it by up to a month at each end. It is a median of what operators filed, not a schedule: half of them open later than that by construction, and 19 North Carolina listings are year round and excluded from it entirely.

How good is the North Carolina data?

Which North Carolina markets are the biggest?

Do North Carolina farmers markets take SNAP?

Who runs farmers markets in North Carolina?

The markets themselves do, almost always as independent nonprofits, town committees or vendor cooperatives. The public body is North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which keeps the state's own market list. The directory also records what listings say about themselves: 4 name North Carolina Farmers Market Network and 3 name Polk County Local Government. Those are membership organisations rather than public bodies, named here rather than quoted.

Keep going

Nearby, and the rest of the local food calendar

Other Southeast states

Farmers markets in every stateThe national picture: how old the directory is, how much of it fills in a season, and every state ranked.Pick your ownThe other half of the same Saturday. Typical picking windows for six crops, from USDA census acreage.First and last frost datesThe NOAA normals behind every growing season on this site, state by state.

Farmers markets by state

Every market on this site comes from USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory, run by the Agricultural Marketing Service under OMB control number 0581-0169, a US Government work in the public domain. Snapshot taken 2026-09-04: 7,067 markets, of which 653 filed a season as two real dates, 664 typed a month range that this site reads as one, and 1,563 file weekly hours. Listings are written and maintained by the markets themselves, so a season is the operator’s statement as of that record’s own date. Farmers markets in every state