The Old North End Farmers Market in Burlington on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Vermont boasts more farmers markets per resident than any state in the nation, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, yet almost all of them say they are in search of on e common thing — the farmers.    For generations, growers have leaned on farmers markets as a critical sales channel. Now, most of the state’s markets — 34 of 58 — say their single biggest concern is attracting more farm vendors to survive, according to the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.  The reason, survey data suggests, is blunt: Farmers at the markets aren’t making the money they used to.  Average agricultural sales at each of the ubiquitous markets that the organic farming group tracks have fallen by nearly 60%, from $158,296 in 2022 to $91,790 in 2025 — even as the number of markets statewide kept climbing. With more markets, fewer farmers and thinner returns, growers are being pushed toward community supported agriculture shares and direct-to-farm stands as options that offer steadier money and less dependence on a sunny Saturday.  The result is a quiet reordering of how Vermonters buy local food, and a hard question for the longtime staples in the Green Mountain state: What is a farmers market without the farmers? “Markets close for many reasons, but a major reason that they close is that there just aren’t enough vendors, specifically agriculture vendors, to keep the market viable,” said Andrew Graham, the farmers market specialist at Vermont’s organic farming group. The biggest culprits for the plunge in sales over the three years, the data suggests, are the larger farmers markets, although it does not specify which ones.  While the number of these particular markets has stayed relatively the same, with four or five each year, the average agriculture sales dipped by more than half from $493,676 in 2022 to $213,234 in 2025.  For Gus Griffin, a farmer who co-owns Glinnis Hill Farm in Northfield, farmers markets can be a useful sales channel when partnered with other sales models, like CSAs and farm stands.  Participating in the Capitol City Farmers Market in Montpelier every Saturday, along with offering both market-style, where customers can visit a farm stand to choose their own produce, and traditional boxed CSAs, Griffin said farmers markets are seeing a new wave of farmers who might be more business-driven than older farmers.  Farmers markets help new farmers build a customer base, he said, but this generation is more willing than the last to explore alternatives. “We’re kind of selling a luxury product, and so when the economy is in trouble, we might also struggle,” Griffin said. “So, having those upfront sales, like a CSA, obviously makes your life feel a lot more secure.” Dairy farmer Lyle Edwards, who formerly owned Spring Brook Farm, offered an alternative sentiment.  Farmers markets never seemed like a viable option for him, he said, while he was running the farm.  “Time is probably the biggest thing,” he said. “I mean it wasn’t going to do good on the scale. I think it’d be good for the guys that got eight or 10 cows to market raw milk, but we just like to sell milk wholesale.”  While Edwards still helps in milking the cows on the farm, he sold his farm and explained that more and more farmers are simply aging out of Vermont, and the farmers market industry is likely feeling much of that shift.   For many farmers, it also becomes economically harder for them to participate in the farmers markets when the vendor fees rise. This is a trend specifically seen from larger farmers markets across the four-year span of the state organic farmers group’s survey data.  Hilary Martin, right, helps customers at the Diggers” Mirth Collective Farm stall at the Old North End Farmers Market in Burlington on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The total average market revenue from vendor fees rose from $7,101 in 2022 to $11,898 in 2025, the data shows. Farm Credit East, a financial cooperative that offers credit and services to farmers and producers in the Northeast, including those in Vermont, announced on Monday that they are awarding $92,000 in small grants to 175 farmers markets and farmers market organizations for National Farmers Market Week, which runs from Aug. 2-8.  The grant funds will support more than 3,000 producers with marketing efforts. Markets can also use the funds to improve access to fresh produce for those in underserved communities and supplement funds from programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the press release.  The need for more financial support comes as farmers struggle to keep up with the rising costs of attending farmers markets. As a result, farmers are more keen than ever on exploring alternative ways to sell their goods, said Abbey Willard, the agricultural development division director at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food Markets.  “Farmers are choosing the options that make them money and that are most viable for their business,” Willard said. “So, if they’re choosing not to be at a farmers market, that may be because the other markets or other tasks that they’re otherwise attending to are more viable options for them.”  Vermont is changing. So are the markets. According to statutes set by the state, farmers markets part of the Vermont Farmers Market Association are required to have at least two agricultural vendors in order to even be recognized as a farmers market.  The association has 61 known markets across the state — a number that has risen since 2022, when there were just 56 known markets.  While the data might not be ironclad, Graham acknowledged, it has become increasingly evident to him that most markets are expressing a struggle to find farm vendors.  The Winooski Farmers Market is one of them.   “We sometimes have to make difficult decisions in order to maintain the focus on agriculture at the market, turning away some really talented chefs, artists or makers because we do want to make sure we’re not crossing the line into becoming a different kind of event,” Sarah Brunkhorst, the Winooski’s market manager, wrote in an email to VTDigger.  Only 13 out of the 50 seasonal and half-season vendors at the Winooski Farmers Market sell grocery, produce and wellness, and only seven are exclusively grocery vendors, according to the vendor list on their website.  “New farm recruitment has undoubtedly been a challenge for many of us,” Brunkhorst added.  The farmers market consumer demographic is also changing, Willard, from the state’s agriculture agency, pointed out. That’s in large part due to the rise in tourists.  As more of them herd in to see and experience what is considered by many to be a signature part of Vermont culture, she said, most of what they are looking for is not fresh produce but rather crafts and local hot food.    Meanwhile, Willard added, Vermonters are not gravitating toward farmers markets as much as they used to despite the rise in the number of them.  “I think it used to be that a farmers market was one of the only ways that you, as a Vermonter who was committed to buying local food, could access local food,” she said. That is no longer the case for much of Vermont.  According to poll data from Farm to Plate’s 2023 annual report, Vermonters are buying their local food from grocery and convenience stores more than ever before.  For instance, in 2018, only 42% of Vermonters polled said that they purchased their local food from convenience stores. In 2023, the number has more than doubled to 87%.  A customer walks out of the Old North End Farmers Market with a shopping bag full of produce in Burlington on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger For areas in the state that are not abundant with grocery stores, such as Winooski, farmers markets are there to help fill in the gaps.  “Right now Winooski has some really amazing cultural markets and corner stores, but we don’t have a full-scale grocery store or supermarket,” Brunkhorst said. “So, our focus has been not just on farm products, but all kinds of foods and goods that the community might be missing easy access to.”  While the Winooski Farmers Market has grown over the years, she said, it is seeing a much larger volume of applications from hot food and craft vendors than agricultural producers.  However, Brunkhorst refused to define farmers markets as exclusively one thing, whether it be cultural events or direct-to-consumer agriculture distribution channels.  Instead, she said she views them as a way for the community to have almost all of their needs met in one place, including the farmers who will often barter their left-over produce after a market.  In addition to the bartering, Griffin, from Glinnis Hill Farms, also noted the positives for farmers attending farmers markets, such as face-to-face time with customers and brand recognition.  What he’s also noticed, however, are the major uncertainties that come with it.   “We want to farm, we want to do something that is good for the earth, and we also want to make a living, and so we’re coming at it from a pretty business-minded perspective,” Griffin said. “On a rainy day at the farmers market, we might make 1,000 less dollars than on a sunny day. And having a business that is so reliant on sunny Saturdays is kind of just not necessarily resilient.” Read the story on VTDigger here: What’s a farmers market in Vermont without the farmers?. ...read more read less