Make your way to the Aiken County Farmers Market where we’ve been connecting friends and farmers for generations! Located at 115 Williamsburg Street in the heart of Aiken’s downtown district, you’ll find tables filled with produce and farmers willing to share stories with passersby. Our market is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 pm and Saturdays from 7:30 am until 2:00 pm (or until products sell out), with Saturdays providing the highest concentration of products and farmers. As an added opportunity, the market is open Tuesdays and Thursdays as well.
Originally, our market was located on Williamsburg Street in a raised wooden structure that was open to the elements. The market sold cotton, produce and homemade goods. On Saturdays, beginning in the late 1920’s, farmers also sold produce from a shed on Newberry Street. By 1935, both locations proved to be successful ventures. However, in 1951 the markets found themselves struggling to remain open.
In 1952, the City of Aiken, using the county chain gang labor, erected the current structure located in the Williamsburg Street parkway. Farmers and their families built the 45 tables, still used today, and completed the market in 1954. From that day forward the Aiken County Farmers Market has served as a location for farmers to sell their produce, flowers and even homemade delicacies. In 2003, the Aiken County Farmers Market was designated as a historical landmark of Aiken.
Today, the Aiken County Farmers Market operates as the oldest (in continuous operation at the same location) county farmers market in the State of South Carolina. Live oaks now shade the newly restored market while descendants from the early farmers’ families continue to sell their goods on the same tables. The Farmers Market, now as then, is a place where goods are offered for sale and recipes (and stories) are swapped with friends, old and new.