2025 Barrett’s Mill Farm CSA GUIDE

CSA Schedule

The 2025 CSA starts June 11th. CSA pick-ups are on Wednesdays from 11am – 6:30pm and Saturdays 9am – 3pm. The farm store is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, but the CSA is not open those days. The last day of the CSA is November 22nd.

Pick-ups and Check-in

Members may pick up their CSA vegetables once per week* and have the choice of coming to the farm on Wednesday or Saturday. You do not need to come on the same day each week. The CSA includes crops that are already harvested and set out under the canopy tent for you to choose from, as well as a pick-your-own component. When you arrive to pick up your vegetables, please check in with the Shopkeeper at the CSA tent.

Hand washing stations will be provided at the CSA tent and at the PYO field gates. For better food safety, we ask that everyone wash their hands before entry into either.

*If you are a Flex CSA member, you may pick up your CSA for 20 weeks of your choosing out of a 24-week season. You may use no more than one pick-up per week.

Your CSA bag

Each new CSA membership will receive a Barrett’s Mill Farm CSA bag. There are two membership sizes: Small and Regular. If you are a returning member who signed up for the Regular CSA, your CSA size is the same as previous years, so please bring along your bag from last season. If you need a new Regular size bag, they are available for $12.75. As this is the first season that we are offering a Small CSA membership, returning members who signed up for a Small share will get a new Small bag. Regular CSA bags have our logo printed in maroon, whereas logos on Small CSA bags are printed in green.

Guidelines for filling you bag

The overall size of one Regular or Small membership is what reasonably fits inside your designated CSA bag (you should still be able to comfortably carry it with the handles fitting over your shoulder). Please write your name in your bag and bring it with you each week to pick-up. If you forget your Barrett’s Mill Farm bag, we will provide one for you to fill and then transfer to another bag to take home.

Each week we aim to have a nice variety of crops to choose from in the CSA distribution area. Please check the CSA chalkboard to find out what items are limited. If an item does not have a limit you may take the amount you’d like that fits inside your CSA bag. Those who have a Small membership will have access to the same vegetables in the CSA distribution area as the Regular membership, but there may be a difference in some of the limits in a given week. The shopkeeper will provide you with separate containers for pick-your-own crops. These do not have to fit inside your bag.

Please wait to process your vegetables (for instance taking the tops off bunched vegetables) until you get home. We are not set up to deal with customer vegetable scraps at the farm, but if you are interested in composting, there is a drop-off composting pilot for Concord residents, and there are several local companies that offer curbside compost pick-up!

If you would like a pre-packed bag, please email the Shopkeeper (shopkeeper@barrettsmillfarm.com) the day before and we will have one ready for you.

If you can’t make a CSA pick-up

The best option if you can’t make a CSA pick-up on Wednesday or Saturday during a particular week is to have a friend pick up for you! Our Shopkeeper will be happy to guide them through the CSA pick-up process. Unfortunately, if you miss a week, we cannot provide extra vegetables for you another week. Our field plans (and therefore the amounts of vegetables available for harvest each week), are determined over the winter. If you are unable to pick up your share in a given week, know that your vegetables will go to a good cause! We donate extra vegetables on a regular basis to Boston Area Gleaners.

Pick-Your-Own

The pick-your-own fields will be open to CSA members on Wednesdays and Saturdays during CSA pick-up, as well as Thursdays and Fridays during farm store hours, 11am-6pm. Pick-your-own fields will be closed in late October or after the first frost.

We plan to a have a set amount of crops available for picking most weeks. You do not need to put your pick-your-own items inside your CSA bag, as they are in addition to the bag of veggies. PYO crops will be listed on the chalkboard along with the amount that is available for picking and any special picking instructions. For those with a Small membership, available PYO crops may differ from those available in the Regular CSA in a given week. For instance, PYO strawberries are not available with Small memberships.

There is a map next to the board showing PYO locations, and we will also label crops out in the field. If something does not have a sign in front of it, it is probably either not ready yet, or it is not available as pick-your-own. If you ever have a question about where to go or how to pick something, please don’t hesitate to ask the Shopkeeper!

We encourage members to do their picking on the same day that they pick up their other vegetables. However, if you find yourself short on time on a Wednesday pick-up or there is inclement weather (pick-your-own is closed during thunderstorms), you may return on Thursday or Friday during farm store hours. On Thursdays and Fridays please check in with the farm store shopkeeper before going out to the fields. If you are unable to pick at all during a particular week, pick-your-own crops are usually available for purchase in the farm store as well.

Sharing a CSA membership

If a Regular size membership is too large for you, we encourage you to sign up for a Small membership. If you do split your CSA bag with another household, please alternate pick-up weeks. We do not have half-sized CSA bags, so the entire pick-up for a membership must be done at one time. Any limits in the CSA distribution and the pick-your-own still apply to shared memberships, so it is up to you to work out how you would like to divide up those crops. Additional quantities of vegetables are available for sale at the farm stand if you would like more.

Please communicate and coordinate directly with the person or household with whom you are sharing, as we are unable to keep a separate tally of which household has picked up.

We will email out a newsletter each week with a list of crops that will be available, as well as one or two recipe ideas. This information is also posted weekly on our blog at www.barrettsmillfarm.com/blog. If you are not receiving the emails, please check your spam folder or try resubscribing. The newsletter sign-up is available in the footer of our website, as well as on our blog page.

Children on the farm

We hope you will enjoy spending time here with young family and friends. Please note that children must be supervised by an adult while on the farm. In the PYO fields, please help guide younger family and friends in proper picking and in staying on walking paths. For safety reasons, please keep them away from the barn and farm equipment. For everyone’s safety, please do not walk beyond the white barn, as there are tractors and other vehicles going back and forth there.

Pets on the farm

For food safety reasons, as well as the comfort of all our members, pets are not allowed in the CSA tent, farm stand or the vegetable fields. Leashed pets are allowed on the walking trails around the Barrett’s Mill Conservation area.

Parking

Please park in the spaces in front of the farm stand and red barn. Overflow parking is available behind the red barn. Please be careful driving in this area as it is sometimes an access point for the pick-your-own fields. Staff parking is along the driveway past the white barn, so please leave this area for their vehicles.

Thank you for supporting the farm and helping to make this season a success!

Contact us

Email: melissa@barrettsmillfarm.com or lise@barrettsmillfarm.com