Farmers Markets near Maxwell, IA

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.

Nevada

Main Street Nevada runs this market out of City Hall on 6th Street every other Sunday, noon to 3pm, from May through September. It's organized less like a produce stand and more like a small-business showcase, giving local growers and food makers a direct line to customers without a storefront. Main Street Nevada's executive director, Emily Schaack, handles vendor applications through the organization's own site.

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.

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.

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.

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.

State Center Farmers' Market sets up at 100 West Main Street in this small Marshall County town, known locally as the rose capital of Iowa. Area growers sell seasonal produce direct to local shoppers.

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.

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.

Ames

The North Grand Farmers' Market sets up twice a week in the parking lot north of JCPenney at North Grand Mall in Ames — Wednesdays 3 to 6pm and Saturdays 8am to 12:30pm. Alongside the standard produce, flowers, herbs, eggs, and honey, vendors sell Iowa wine, crafts, and pet items, a wider mix than most small-town markets. North Grand Mall also runs a separate indoor market during the colder months.

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

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.

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.

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.

Newton Main Street runs this Tuesday market at Legacy Plaza Green Space from June through September, 4 to 6pm. The vendor rules are stricter than most: produce has to be Iowa-grown, and out-of-state goods are only allowed when the local season for that item hasn't started yet. Beyond vegetables, expect farm-raised meat and dairy, jams, honey, baked goods, and handcrafted items sold direct by the makers.

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.

Des Moines

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.

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.

Albion Farmers Market sets up on South Main Street in this small Marshall County community, not far from the county seat of Marshalltown in central Iowa. Markets this size run on whatever growers bring that week rather than a fixed vendor list, with the season concentrated between June and the first fall frost.

Marshall County Market sets up at 3700 South Center Street in Marshalltown, a second market location alongside the Linn Street Farmers Market downtown. County-name markets like this one usually run under a county fair board or extension office, pulling growers from across Marshall County rather than just the city itself.

Marshalltown

Iowa Choice Harvest is a food company owned entirely by Iowans that flash-freezes apples, corn, and aronia berries sourced from Iowa growers, then ships them wholesale to retail, foodservice, and institutional buyers across the Midwest. It's a processor and distributor built on Iowa-grown crops, not a roadside farm stand. Email [email protected].

Linn Street Farmers Market sets up at 103 E. Linn Street in downtown Marshalltown, the Marshall County seat. Downtown markets in county-seat towns like this one typically run weekly through the growing season, with growers and a few prepared-food vendors setting up within walking distance of the courthouse square.

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.