Chesterfield Organic Orchards

They tell you in advance what they have, you order, and then they don't have what you ordered. So instead of summer squash you get a potato. Instead of cabbage you get garlic. Not cool.

The whole order in advance thing is a failure. A farm should harvest what they have and then sell it to the CSA members or the public. The whole idea of ordering in advance and picking up doesn't work. They never have what you order, and often times there are other products available that were not listed on the website. Those are for "loyal members" who have been around longer. What? Is this a farm or a social club.

Leafy products: yes I understand it's an organic farm and bugs will come through here or there. But we routinely expect to find leafy products INFESTED with bugs and dirt. A certain amount of dirt is healthy in vegetables and chlorinated water is bad for vegetables, but this is bad. The least they could do is rinse the stuff off a bit as other farms do. Other farms have water tanks where they soak the vegetables off a bit. No such luxuries here.

The CSA membership gives you no real discount on produce. You buy in at face value, versus Cherry Grove Organic where $400 buys you $500.

I wanted to try Honey Brook but We will head quickly back to Cherry Grove next year.

Notice that the good reviews are only from years ago.

We're long time members and ABSOLUTELY won't be joining again!

During this 2021 season, most of the array of vegetables were only offered to people who chose the largest plans. We would go to pick up the produce each week and see that our share size was excluded from ordering the majority of the produce. This huge change from prior years ,was not told to us before they asked for our $$ in advance.In past years, there were many many pick -your -own options that were included in the price of a share. Again, we were not told in advance of the full season payment, that there would be hardly any vegetables for picking. That is a huge change from prior years and yet it was not disclosed before the fact.
The big changes this year, can not be blamed on them outsourcing/trying software to track inventory etc.. Nondisclosure of changes ahead of time so consumers would know what they were/ were not buying, in our opinion, is the reason for our poor rating.

I've been part of this organic food co-op for the past several years. I love picking my own fruits and vegetables. The selection is plentiful and I am exposed to an interesting variety that I may not have otherwise tried. The herbs and flowers are an added bonus. I definitely recommend this farm!

End of season update: The quality of produce is great. But I was kind of turned off by the farm policies. I am non-confrontational, diplomatic, and understanding of aspects of life -- like weather and pests and crop yield -- which we have little control over. But I could not shake the feeling that I was seen simply as a pure profit to this farm. I had a bad taste in my mouth after the emails offering the cooking and canning lessons, with the very hefty price tags. I was really shocked by how much they were charging per ear of corn. It seemed some crops were abandoned or neglected too soon; some fields were never weeded. Ever. It was not worth the bugs and thorns and the need for a machete to clear a trail to harvest my stingy allotment of raspberries.

But really troubled me was the end-of-season policy -- and subsequent fall-out -- to offer an additional farm share at a steep price. Members already paid for those crops, back in January, but the farm was making members pay again to get produce through December. No thanks. It worked out to approximately $55 per pick up, for about 20 pounds of sweet potatoes and rutabagas - which is, pardon my frankness, stupid. What sealed my opinion was watching a Facebook discussion on the matter totally derail - one of my friends had commented, and the farm representative was not only kind of pissy on the thread, but later looked up my friend's phone number, and left her an insane phone message, in which she told her, among other things, "perhaps owning a share in this particular farm is not for you." Who kicks long term members out of their co-op for disagreeing with a policy? Honeybrook.

I won't be back. The rest of my review stands: it was, overall, a very nice experience until the end. It's a busy life and it was great to lose track of the outside world for a few hours, among the flowers and fresh produce. But I just bought a house, so I'll be planting my own garden this year.
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I'm only a month or so in to my first farm share with Honeybrook Organic Farm and I'm very happy. Every week, the farm offers a large selection of greens and some other veggies which you can grab from the distribution center; and you can pick your own berries, green beans, and herbs. The PYO is far more therapeutic than I would have imagined, even in lousy weather. I'm not a stickler for organic produce, but I prefer it, and it is comforting to not have to deal with chemicals on our food. They've introduced me to some new veggies too, encouraging me to get creative in the kitchen (fennel flatbread, beet and turnip tart with goat cheese...yum!). I look at their website a few times before my visit to see what's available and then I start researching some recipes. The staff is friendly, helpful, and accommodating -- my car needed a repair on my pick up day, and I called ahead to see if I could switch days, and that was no problem. I'm hooked and I'll definitely sign up again in the coming years!

Update, August 2015: my only complaint, and it's not enough to knock a star off...mostly because we are dealing with so many factors out of human control: weather, pests, abundance, etc, plus, I imagine it must be very difficult to manage so many members, with those factors that impact yield. But it seems to me that this farm can be stingy with how much of any given crop -- possibly because they're trying to make sure there's enough for everyone? -- until it's way too late. I don't know. But it seems that several crops (strawberries, green beans, dill) went bad/bolted on the plant before it could all be harvested. It might make more sense to allow members to take a bit more to avoid the waste. I've been watching some lovely purple grape tomatoes in the flower patch, wondering what will happen to them: there's a "do not pick here" sign there. They're ripe. But inside the barn, we can only take a 1/4 pound of yellow grape tomatoes. I hope the purple ones don't rot on the vine.

I love the vegetables and small quantity of fruit that I get from being a member of the Honeybrook Organic Farm. You buy a share and for 16 weeks from the late Spring to early Fall you go every week and get a certain quantity of vegetables which you pick out from bins. These local, organic, just picked fresh vegetables are out of this world delicious. This early in the session we get lots of greens from lettuce to collard green, kale, Swiss chard, and spinach. And this week Japanese turnips. You also can go out in the fields and pick a small quantity of certain products. Last week it was 1 quart of Strawberries and 2 quarts of snow peas or snap peas plus some herbs. I go through withdrawal when I am forced to buy supermarket vegetables from 3 thousand miles away in the winter and by the late Spring I am craving the greens from Honeybrook Organic Farm.

Beautiful organic farm with a wide selection of herbs, veggies, melons and berries. Their CSA is great, includes pick your own strawberries, peas, herbs, etc... Love this place!