Farmers Market Hours: What Time Markets Open and Close, by Day and by State

By the Farmers Market Days editors · Updated October 15, 2026

• What time do farmers markets open and close?
• Hours by day of the week
• Opening times: weekend against weekday
• Morning or after work: weekday markets
• Market hours by state
• After-work farmers markets by state
• How we read the hours

What time do farmers markets open and close?

Most farmers markets open in the morning and close by early afternoon: 58% of market days open before noon and close by 3 PM. Across the 3,939 market days whose opening and closing times we could read, the most common opening time is 9 AM (25% of market days) and the most common closing time 1 PM (19%). The single most common schedule is 9 AM–1 PM (392 market days), and the median market day lasts 4 hours. 4% open before 8 AM, and 27% close at 6 PM or later, 87% of those on a weekday.

The day of the week matters more than anything else. Saturday markets most often run 9 AM–1 PM (17% of Saturday market days), and Sunday markets most often open at 10 AM (34%). On weekdays the picture splits in two: 48% of weekday market days open before noon, and 44% start at 2 PM or later, for shoppers on their way home from work. On Thursday, the weekday with the most market days in our data, the most common opening time is 3 PM.

Hours are as the source states them for the current or most recent season. A market can change its hours from summer to autumn, and some close early in bad weather, so check the market's own page before a long drive.

Hours by day of the week

Each row counts market days with a readable opening and closing time; a market that meets on Saturday and Wednesday counts once for each day. The median is the middle value when all opening (or closing) times of that day are lined up.

Saturday is the classic morning market: 76% of Saturday market days open before 10 AM. Weekday markets lean late, and their medians fall in the early afternoon only because morning and after-work markets average out; the most common opening and closing times show the two groups better. Which day each market meets is covered in which day is market day.

Opening times: weekend against weekday

Market days by the hour they open (2,109 on Saturday or Sunday, 1,830 on Monday to Friday). "9 AM" counts every opening from 9:00 to 9:59.

Morning or after work: weekday markets

Of 1,830 weekday market days with hours, 802 (44%) start at 2 PM or later. The most common after-work schedule is 3 PM–7 PM (120 market days), and 434 of them (54%) run until 7 PM or later. 884 weekday market days (48%) open before noon instead, and the rest open around midday. In all, 786 farmers markets hold at least one market day that starts at 2 PM or later on a weekday; they are listed by state below.

Market hours by state

States with at least 30 market days with readable hours (31 states). Coverage is deepest where state or county registers publish hours (New York, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina and Washington), so a state's row describes the markets in its sources, not every market in the state. The median market day opens earliest in Missouri (8 AM) and closes latest in Pennsylvania (5 PM).

State names link to the state's open-today page, which lists every market with days on file by day of the week, with hours, season and source. "Most common Saturday hours" is shown where a state has at least five Saturday market days with hours.

After-work farmers markets by state (786)

Farmers markets with at least one weekday market day that starts at 2 PM or later, as a public register (454) or the market's own website (332) states it. All of each market's hours are shown, with the season where the source dates it, and the source and date of the schedule.

How we read the hours

A market day counts here only when a public register or the market's own website gives both an opening and a closing time for that day in text we could read ("Saturdays 8 AM to 1 PM", "Thursday 3-7 pm"). Registers older than 2023 and website text we could not tie to the market are left out, and nothing is filled in from typical hours. Farm stands, pick-your-own farms and markets open five or more days a week are left out, because they keep shop hours rather than market hours. Times are local time at the market. A market that publishes a schedule but no times is in the directory with its days only. The same figures, alongside days, seasons and SNAP, are on the farmers market statistics page, and today's markets are on farmers markets open today. Found a wrong time? Send a correction.