Farmers Market Season: When Markets Open and Close, State by State

By the Farmers Market Days editors · Updated October 13, 2026

• The most common opening and closing months
• Season by state
• Year-round and winter markets
• How we read a season

The most common opening and closing months

Of the season statements that name a start and an end month (2,444 markets), the most common opening months are May (819), June (694), April (263), and the most common closing months are October (1,144), November (447), September (343). The pattern follows the growing season: markets open when the first greens, asparagus and strawberries are ready and close after the last apples, squash and pumpkins.

Season by state

For each state with season statements on file: how many markets state a season, the most common opening and closing month, and how many are stated as year-round.

Year-round and winter markets

1,262 of our listings state that they run year-round. Most are in warm states, in cities with an indoor hall, or markets that move indoors from November to April with a shorter schedule and more storage crops, meat, cheese, eggs and baked goods. A "winter market" is often the same organization in a different building, so if a summer market page says the season ends in October, check its website for a winter location before assuming it closes. All year-round markets by state are on the year-round farmers markets page.

How we read a season

A season comes either from a state or city register that publishes one (for example the New York State and Massachusetts registers, the California WIC list and the Maryland register) or from the market's own website, read on the date shown on the market page. We take the text as written ("May through October", "June 7 to Oct 25") and count the first and last month named. A season from a register older than 2023, or text on a website that we could not tie clearly to the current year, is shown as unverified and is not counted here.