Farmers Markets near Des Moines, IA

Des Moines

Iowa's largest farmers market spreads across 12 city blocks along 4th Street and Court Avenue every Saturday from May through October, 7 a.m. to noon (8 a.m. in October). The Greater Des Moines Partnership produces it, drawing roughly 305 vendors from 74 Iowa cities selling produce, meat, cheese, eggs, baked goods, plants, and ready-to-eat food. SNAP/EBT, Double Up Food Bucks, and Produce Rx are accepted, and live music runs most weekends.

Des Moines

LSI Global Green Farmers' Market sets up in the parking lot of LSI's Refugee Connection Center at 3200 University Avenue in Des Moines. LSI is Lutheran Services in Iowa, a refugee resettlement agency that runs agricultural training for New Iowan farmers, so expect growers from that program selling alongside more typical produce stands.

Parks Neighborhood Farmers Market runs out of a Euclid Avenue address on Des Moines' north side. Little independent information is available online beyond directory listings, which suggests this is a small, neighborhood-scale market rather than one of the city's larger organized markets like the Downtown Farmers' Market. Confirm hours locally before visiting.

Des Moines

This market sets up outside Highland Park Lutheran Church on East Euclid Avenue, serving Des Moines' Highland Park neighborhood on the city's north side as a closer alternative to the larger Downtown Farmers Market.

Des Moines

This market operates on Des Moines' east side at 3200 Delaware Avenue, giving neighborhood shoppers a closer option than the larger Downtown Farmers Market across the river.

Valley Junction's market takes over the 100 to 300 blocks of 5th Street in West Des Moines every Thursday from May through September, 4 to 8 p.m. More than 80 vendors set up weekly with fresh produce, baked goods, plants, arts and crafts, and prepared food, alongside a beer garden with live music. The Historic Valley Junction Foundation, which also runs classic car shows on the first and third Thursdays through August, organizes the event.

Southridge Mall Farmers Market sets up at 1111 East Army Post Road on Des Moines' south side. Growers from the surrounding Polk County countryside sell seasonal produce direct to shoppers in the mall parking lot.

Johnston Farmers Market sets up at 6221 Merle Hay Road in Johnston, a Des Moines suburb in Polk County best known as headquarters to Corteva Agriscience's Pioneer seed business. Suburban markets in the Des Moines metro tend to run larger than small-town ones, with a wider mix of produce, meat, and prepared-food vendors on a given Saturday.

West Des Moines

Global Greens Farm, run by Lutheran Services in Iowa, reconnects former refugee farmers with the land on an 8.5-acre incubator farm at Valley Community Center in West Des Moines — providing land access, business training, and technical support that has generated over three-quarters of a million dollars in farmer sales. Shop the weekly Global Greens International Market on Carpenter Avenue Saturdays May through October, or join the CSA to support new-American farmers.

Pleasant Hill

The Community Farmers Market of Pleasant Hill meets Mondays, 4 to 7pm, June through August, at Berean Church on East University Avenue. Its vendor rule is stricter than most Iowa markets: if you didn't grow it, raise it, bake it, or make it yourself, you can't sell it here, no resale tables allowed. More than 40 vendors show up alongside a rotating lineup of food trucks, live music, and a free kids' train.

Uptown Ankeny Farmers Market gathers at SW 3rd Street and SW Maple Street in this fast-growing Polk County suburb north of Des Moines. Local growers sell seasonal produce direct to area shoppers.

Carlisle

Carlisle Farmers' Market sets up on Highway 5 in this Warren County town just south of the Des Moines metro. Carlisle has grown quickly as a bedroom community over the last two decades, and the market serves both the newer subdivisions and the older farm families still working the ground around town.

Bondurant

Bondurant Farmers' Market sets up at Main Street SE and Grain Street NE in one of the fastest-growing suburbs on the northeast edge of the Des Moines metro. Polk County's sprawl has turned Bondurant from a small farm town into a bedroom community within a generation, and the market gives the newer subdivisions a direct line to the row-crop country still surrounding them.

Indianola Farmers Market sets up at the fairground entrance on West 2nd Avenue, on the Warren County Fairgrounds south of Des Moines. Fairground-based markets in Iowa typically run weekly through the growing season, with growers selling sweet corn, tomatoes, and other produce straight from the truck bed. Indianola draws from the farm country ringing Des Moines' southern suburbs.

Waukee Farmers Market meets at Triangle Park, on 6th Street and Ashworth Drive, in this fast-growing Dallas County suburb west of Des Moines. Growers sell seasonal produce direct to local shoppers.

Huxley

Huxley's market sets up on West Railway Street in this fast-growing Story County town between Ames and Ankeny, giving area growers a stop in one of central Iowa's fastest-expanding suburbs.

Adel Farmers Market runs Tuesdays through the summer at 611 Nile Kinnick Dr. S. in Adel, Iowa, and is listed on the community calendar kept by the Adel Partners Chamber of Commerce. The chamber, reachable at 515-993-5472, handles vendor and event questions for the market alongside its other Adel signature events.

Pleasantville

Pleasantville's market runs Wednesday afternoons, 3:30 to 6:30, starting just after the Fourth of July and continuing into the second week of October, a shorter season than most Iowa markets, timed to the heart of the harvest. It sets up in the parking lot across from Casey's on Pleasant Street. The market marks its last week each year with a Homecoming event tied to the local school calendar.

Ames

Winterset

The Perry Farmers Market runs Thursday evenings, 4 to 7pm, from early June through late September, on 2nd Street between Willis Avenue and Warford downtown. It accepts SNAP EBT and matches purchases through Double Up Food Bucks, stretching grocery budgets for the Dallas County families who shop it. The Perry Chamber of Commerce organizes the market and books at least one food vendor most weeks alongside the produce stands.