Farm and farm stand website: what gets the visit and the order

People open a farm's site to answer one question: is it open, and what is ready right now. Then come the rest: what does it cost, can I order ahead, how does the CSA work, can I bring the dog, will it rain out the pumpkin patch.

In October 2026 we opened 38 farm sites in 21 states, on a phone. The farms were great and the pages were thin. Only 17 showed hours on the home page, only 4 had a phone number you could tap without scrolling, and only 4 of the roughly two dozen that sell produce said what was actually ready. Of 12 CSAs, only 3 mentioned what happens if you can't pick up. This guide goes through what matters, with the steps for each.

Say whether you are open today

A season is not a paragraph. Set it once and the site does the rest.

1. Click Business info. In Regular hours, set the days and times you are open.
2. In Seasonal hours, click Add seasonal hours for each change: "Summer stand", "Fall hours", "Closed for the season". Pick the start and end dates. They switch over every year.
3. In Holidays and special hours, add Thanksgiving, an open house or a market day.
4. Put an Open today section near the top of your home page. It says "Open now until 6pm", or "Closed for the season".

See Set seasonal hours. For an unattended stand, say so in Note under hours: "Self-serve, open dawn to dusk. Cash box and QR code."

Close for rain or a sellout

Rain, mud, a frost, a sold-out day. Use We're closed today in Business info, then publish. It comes down by itself tomorrow. For a longer message, turn on the Announcement bar and use the Weather delay or Sold out quick start, with a Last day shown. See Close for today and Announcement bar.

Don't leave your daily news on Facebook alone. Visitors and Google read the site first.

Show what is ready this week

Only Almosta Farm in New York had a clear one: a month-by-month list and a shop that said "Only 5 left". Do it like this:

1. On your home page, click Add a section and pick Price list / menu. Call it "Ready this week, updated Oct 30".
2. Take a photo of your chalkboard or price sheet, click Fill in from a photo or PDF, and check every line. See Fill in a menu from a photo or PDF.
3. Write each price with its unit: "Tomatoes $4 a pound", "Carving pumpkins $10 each", "Eggs $6 a dozen".
4. Change it every week. A date that is a month old reads as closed.

A short News post works too ("Peas are done, beans start Friday"). See News posts. Say what is usually ready next month in a Highlights row.

Make calling and finding you one tap

1. In Business info, check Phone and Address.
2. Click Menu, set the Header button to "Call" or "Order ahead", and turn on Call bar on phones. See Add a call bar on phones.
3. Add an Hours & location section with the map. Say where to park, where the stand is on the farm, and landmarks: "Red barn, third driveway past the church".

Most farms are down roads GPS gets wrong.

Let people order ahead

Eggs, boxes, bread, a holiday turkey: the Online store add-on ($10 a month) takes the order and the card, and the money goes to your Stripe account. We take no cut.

1. Click Lists, then Products, and add each item with a price. Turn on Sold out when it runs out.
2. On a product, add a question under Questions for the customer, with the answer type Date, for "Pickup day". See Made to order.
3. Click Store, then Settings. Turn on Customers can pick up orders and fill in Pickup details: "Wednesday 3 to 6 at the barn, order by Sunday 7 pm."

See Sell products with the online store. It can't limit orders per day or offer pickup times, and it ships for one flat price, so it isn't a way to ship frozen meat. If you already sell on GrazeCart, Barn2Door or Local Line, add a button instead. See Add online ordering buttons.

Run a CSA

We can show the CSA. We can't bill it: there are no recurring charges. Link to the system that does, or take one payment for the season.

1. Add a Packages section: one card per share, with the Price, Price note ("per season"), What's included and a Button to your sign-up.
2. State, in text beside the price:
   • The season dates and the pickup places, days and times.
   • When payment is due, whether it is refundable, and whether the season renews by itself.
   • What happens if someone can't come: how much notice, what happens to the share (a farm in Illinois donates a missed one and lets members transfer a share), and vacations.
   • Share size in plain words: "feeds two, 5 to 7 kinds of vegetables".
3. Use a Form for a waitlist when you're full. Mark it clearly, as Shortt's Farm does with "2026 CSA is FULL". Take down last year's banner: one farm still said "Sign up for our 2024 CSA season".
4. List pickup places in an Events list with Repeats, or in a Photo + text section. See Repeat an event.

A recurring box or "Subscribe & Save" renews automatically, and renewal laws apply. Say the price, how often it renews and how to cancel, beside the price. See the car wash guide for the idea.

Take SNAP and EBT, and say so

"Farm that takes EBT" is a search of its own, and only 4 of 38 sites answered it. Say you take it only once you're authorized to, and which items it covers. Hot and prepared food can't be bought with it. Put it in a FAQ answer and next to the price.

Say the rules for u-pick and visits

1. Add a FAQ section on your u-pick or visit page. Answer: what to bring (buckets, boots, sunscreen), what it costs, whether you can pick in the rain, whether dogs are allowed and why, strollers, age limits and parking.
2. Say how to tell if picking is open today. Link to your Open today section and your banner.
3. Put the year and the date on prices. One farm's corn maze prices were from 2022.

Give the reason for a no-dogs rule. Cedar Circle Farm's FAQ explains it, and the rule reads as fair. Service animals are always allowed.

Show where you sell this week

1. Click Lists › Events and add each market: its name, address and hours.
2. Set Repeats to Every week, and Skipped dates for the weeks you're not there. See Skip a date.
3. Add an Events section to your home page.

Change Status to Cancelled for a rained-out market. See Mark an event sold out, postponed or cancelled.

Sell meat and eggs honestly

• Say how the animals are raised, then what is certified. "Pasture-raised" and "grass-fed" are claims about the life of the animal. Say what they eat, where they live and for how long. Skip "natural".
• Meat sold by the cut must come from inspected processing. Meat from a "custom-exempt" plant is marked "Not for Sale" and is for the household that owns the animal. Say who processed it, and what a deposit on a half or whole animal covers.
• Eggs: rules on licenses, cartons, grade and pack date differ by state. In Iowa, for example, no license is needed to sell to home consumers or at a farmers market, but a retail sale needs one. Put your state's label on the carton, not just on the site.
• Raw milk is state law. Keep it out of the store and out of shipping.
• Baked goods, jams and honey from a home kitchen fall under your state's cottage food law. See If you bake at home.

Say "organic" only when it is true

If you are certified, name the certifier. If you sell $5,000 a year or less of organic products, federal rules let you skip certification but not the production rules or the records. Don't use the USDA seal without certification. "Chemical-free" and "spray-free" aren't USDA terms, so say what you do. Leave health claims off: "boosts immunity" or "reduces inflammation" about food is a claim regulators watch.

Put the warning where the law asks

Many states have an agritourism law. North Carolina and Virginia, for example, protect a farm from some injury claims only if a warning sign is posted at the entrance and the same words are in every written contract. A ticket page, a field trip form and a waiver are contracts. Ask a lawyer for your state's words and put them there.

For waivers: click Pages, then New page, and pick Activity waiver, Photo release or Waiver for a child. Don't ask for health information. See Signed forms and waivers.

Events, field trips and weddings

Put the tour, the party and the wedding on their own pages: sizes, prices, how far ahead, the deposit. Add a Form and start from Catering or event inquiry. See Start from a ready-made form. With Bookings & RSVPs ($5 a month), people sign up for a festival day or a workshop with a limited number of spots. See Take sign-ups for an event.

Gift certificates and your newsletter

Add a Gift cards section. Certificates can't expire sooner than five years after sale. See Gift cards and coupons. A Newsletter signup and one email a week, "what's ready", is what the farms that did it used. See Newsletter signup.

Photos that sell

Take them in morning light: the stand from the road, this week's table with the price cards, the farmer holding a crate, eggs in a carton with your name on it, a child's hands in the u-pick row, the pumpkin patch from the gate, a packed CSA box, the animals on pasture. Until you have your own, Free photos has good ones for "farm stand vegetables", "pumpkin patch" and "fresh eggs carton farm". See Free photos.

Questions customers ask

Add an FAQ section: Are you open today? What's ready? How much? Can I order ahead? How does the CSA work? Do you take EBT? Can I bring my dog? What if it rains? How are the animals raised? Suggest questions drafts more from your site. See Use suggested questions.

This isn't legal advice, just what we found looking at farm sites. Check with your state department of agriculture and your local health department.