How we source listings

Short version: open public registers for the base, each market's own website for market days and season, clear labels for everything we could not confirm.

1. Base listings

Every listing begins as a record in one or more public datasets: the Overture Maps places dataset (categories such as farmers market, public market, farm stand and pick-your-own farm; open licenses per source), the USDA Local Food Directories (farmers market and on-farm market directories, self-reported by market managers), the USDA SNAP Retailer Locator (store type "Farmers and Markets") and state or city open-data registers where they exist (for example New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, South Carolina, Georgia, the District of Columbia and counties and cities such as Los Angeles, King County and Philadelphia; the full list is below). Records that describe the same market are matched by state, distance and name and shown once, with every source named on the market page. Records are places, not verified operating markets: a market that has moved or ended can still appear in a register.

Every source, and how many listings it contributes to

2. Market days, hours and season

When a state or city register publishes the market day, hours and season, we show that text with the register's name. Otherwise, for listings with their own website, we read the home page and up to two pages about the schedule or visiting. A schedule counts as sourced only when it names a day and a time; weaker text is shown as "unverified" or not at all. Every schedule shows its source and, for website readings, the date. Registers older than 2023 are treated as unverified; the year of each register is shown with its name.

For the open today view we read three things out of that sourced text: the hours for each listed day, the season dates (for example "May 9 – October 3"), and whether the market meets only some weeks ("1st and 3rd Thursdays"). When the text is ambiguous, such as two different seasons or a time we cannot pair with a day, we leave the value empty and show the text instead. Your browser then compares today's date with those values: a market is listed as open when today is one of its days and the date is inside its season or it is year-round. Markets with no stated season, or that meet only some weeks, are shown under "check before you go". Holidays, weather and one-off closures are not in these sources.

3. SNAP/EBT and other benefits

"Accepts SNAP/EBT" means the market or stand appears in the USDA Food and Nutrition Service retailer register under the farmers-and-markets store type on the date of our data pull. It does not tell us how tokens or matching programs work at that market. WIC, senior coupon and matching-program notes are shown only when a register or the market's own website states them.

4. What we do not do

• We do not visit markets, phone them, or verify that they are running this week.
• We do not guess parking, step-free access, restrooms or what is for sale.
• We do not copy text or photos from market websites; we record facts with the source and date.
• We do not accept payment for listings, rankings or badges.

5. Order of listings and which pages search engines see

Within a city, listings with the most sourced detail come first: a schedule with a source, a season, SNAP authorization, a website, a phone number. It is not a quality ranking and no listing can pay to move up.

A city page is offered to search engines only when it has at least 5 listings and at least 3 of them carry a sourced fact (a schedule from a register or the market's website, or a SNAP register entry). A market page is offered for indexing when it carries such a fact and a way to reach the market. Thinner pages stay available to visitors but are marked noindex and left out of the sitemap until better data arrives.

6. Updates

Base data is refreshed with new Overture and register releases. Market websites are re-read before each season and sooner when a correction is sent. Current data: 33,765 listings, 21,305 farmers markets, 3,985 with a schedule on file, 6,997 in the SNAP register, generated 2026-10-13.