Reviews for: Windy Meadow Farms CSA

We were happy to see that Windy Meadow Farms started back up delivery locations this year. We missed having a pick-up location near us. Loved the tomatoes, cucs and squash! Thank you for your hard work and efforts!

We are already disappointed with the full share we are getting this 2013 growing season. The cost was half of the other farms, but for what you get, we feel we are overpaying. While the public market is busting at the seams with fresh beans, zucchini, lettuces, etc. We have gotten a few potatoes, onions, kale and collard greens every week. One week we received a pint of green beans. There is no variety, and no where near enough to feed our family.

They are very nice, and give ample opportunity to come pick up your weekly share, but I feel it is a waste of gas to go get such a small amount of food.

We've personally found the program at Windy Meadow Farms to be of good quality, abundance and value. We did research the CSA program and understood going into it, that there would be weeks where we would receive plenty of what grows well in Western NY. Namely, squash, cabbages, potatoes, etc. My family's eating habits have taken a turn for the better this year and we feel better knowing that the folks who are growing it are directly receiving the profits of their labor. Brenda and Tom, have ALWAYS responded to any questions or e-mails I have sent and are often found at the barn/receiving area. My children love going to pick up the produce, visiting with the chickens, cows and family dog. We're only half-way through our summer share for 2012 in what has been called the worst drought in 60 years. If this is as bad as it gets, we can't wait until next year! Thank you Brenda and Tom for a great experience.

I'm a first-time CSA member (Summer 2011), and I split a share with my neighbor. Our veggies were always ripe and in good condition. Variety was the weak point; there were too many cabbages, too many supersized zucchini, and I would have liked to get more tomatoes and lettuce for salad - but it definitely saved me money on produce, and I definitely ate more veggies than I otherwise would have. There were some unexpected apples that were FABULOUS! Windy Meadows was friendly and responsive to emailed questions. I think local drop-offs are key to the spirit of the enterprise - having to drive to Walworth once a week would take alot of the green-ness out of it, for me. Thanks for all your hard work, Windy Meadows!

I would not recommend this CSA to anyone. First, they never return any phone calls ... nor do the host sites who leave out the food for us to pickup. When we had to miss a day for our pickup, we were told we lose our produce to the people who host the pickup.

The variety they list on their website is severely inaccurate. And the quantity and quality of food just does not justify the cost. We were concerned about complaining as we do not want to jeopardize our future pickups, but after reading the reviews at this site and ESPECIALLY this CSA not returning any phone calls, we will be calling the Better Business Bureau.

I have to (sadly) agree with the bulk of the reviews from the 2008 growing season.

I was very excited about joining a CSA last year and this one came highly recommended. Food quality was good-The greens were extraordinary, the apples very bad, everything else was somewhere in between.

There were so many potatoes and hot peppers and many of the things listed we never received. There was no broccoli and one week we received one head of cauliflower that my child could have eaten herself.

The people were very nice. I even though of signing up again but with the (for me) large increase, I believe I can still get great quality at a better price at the Farmer's Market. I know of 2 other people who will not be joining for 2009 as well.

This was my first experience with a CSA. Based on the reviews from 2007, I jumped at the chance to join in 2008. It appears that everyone else did too, and the CSA grew way too fast for the farm to keep up. I generally was disappointed with the variety that I received each week. I had endless weeks of potatoes, summer squash and zucchini but never received any of more than half the items listed on their website. On the plus side, every item I did receive was of excellent quality. I never received any rotten items, as others apparently have. All the produce was fully ripe and obviously had been harvested within a day or two. The corn I received was better than most other local farms I've tried. I also liked having so many pickup sites close to my house. I did notice that the price has increased dramatically from the 2008 to the 2009 season. Also, there is a surcharge for local pickup and an even bigger one for local home delivery. Based on that, I won't be renewing my membership for this year.

I joined this local CSA with high hopes for the year based on rave reviews. I was excited about the projected vegetable offerings on their website.

The first few weeks were lean with little variety, which I expected at the beginning of the growing season. As the summer went on I went back and checked their website for what they had thought they would offer - and realized we weren't even getting half of it. That continued until the end of the season.

There were rampant rumors about their purchasing vegetables from other farms and it was noted that their website changed over the summer (growing practices was removed). I know some people who contacted the farmers with questions and offering help (financial and physical) and their concerns were never addressed at all.

They're very nice people, who I believe got too big too quickly and didn't know how to handle it. We won't be joining again this summer.

I too was very excited to join this CSA based on past reviews...although the lettuce was very nice (more than we could go through in a week)- I was sick of potatoes, peppers and onions constantly showing up on the list. I received 2 weeks of inedible corn, rotten green beans, and only a couple of tomatoes. Not a good variety of items.

We received better corn and squash from the local fruit CSA (G and S Orchards)- which I HIGHLY recommend- excellent quality fruit (and they throw in some beans, corn, cucumbers, squash and flowers when they had extra), wonderful people to work with too, where when I would email comments to Windy Meadows wouldn't get a response.

I was a recepient for one year....I will never buy into ANY CSA again.... I will never box myself in again.......The best option is to grow your own, and enjoy whatever you can harvest...second best option for great produce, is to visit the Rochester Public Marke REGULERLY.You will find exceptional value and a wide assortment of product each time you go, the best bet for your dollars...not all are Organic, but most are local..(any questions, ASK the vendor...a true NY farmer will be more than thrilled to tell you when they harvested, the variety, and offer cooking tips)..so you have to decide, freshness VS. Organic....I prefer to have the freshest possible,which means local....many private farms are " semi_organic"...they use no chemical fertilizer and limit pesticide use as much as possible....} many at the Market are USDA Certified Organic.CSA'a are a wonderful idea, but it is all determined by the year's growing season...some years are hit or miss....and you can't always expect the best "store" quality.Imagine growing your own veggies...some years are a bust, some years are a boom.Mingle at the Market for the best produce around!

I completely agree with Erin's review. For $10 a week I agree I could have also gotten much more from an organic farmer. It was A LOT of corn, potatoes and half rotten lettuce. All of my squash was completely rotten and I got no good response from the farm when I brought up this issue. There were at least a dozen or more items that we never recieved as Erin said earlier.

Then to top it off we were all asked to reserve for next year and the price went up to I think $350! That is a $130 increase.

I have to agree with Kevin's comments on a previous post. I was thrilled to sign up for this CSA after reading the reviews and checking out the farm's website. My only experience with a CSA was through a friend in the Albany area. I was very impressed with the quality, quantity, and variety of organic produce she received each week and was looking forward to the same results. While the price seemed reasonable, I found that it simply wasn't worth it.

We received two plastic grocery bags per week, usually each about half full. The quality at times was poor - - damaged, sometimes rotting, unripened. I was equally disappointed with the variety. Lots of lettuce and corn and potatoes, 3 or four produce bags of green beans, more hot peppers than the average person could ever use, one week of mushy apples, a week of flowering broccoli, some eggplant, onions, a few weeks of cilantro, squash, some cucumbers... We never received much of what was listed on the Windy Meadow Farms website harvest schedule. No beets, swiss chard, turnips, dill, basil, patty pans, mint, oregano, thyme, scallions, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, collards.

While receiving my share, I was pricing the same produce at the farm market down the road. For $10 dollars a week I could have bought at least one more grocery bag of produce, a greater variety of vegetables (and fruit), and all this from a certified organic/IPM farm in my own town. I think I'll be investing my money even closer to home next year and foregoing another year of enrollment with Windy Meadow.

We joined Windy Meadow Farms last year after a friend told us about the program. After a great first year experience, we are eagerly anticipating the 2008 season. This program saved us so much money and so many trips to the grocery store. Normally, we buy vegetables at the big name stores and many of them end up going bad before the week is over. Using this CSA really changed our habits for the better. The produce was so fresh and delicious that we wanted to eat it all up right away. All summer long we looked forward to getting our freshly picked veggies and fruit each Friday. We really enjoyed finding new recipes and new ways to cook. For the first time we were able to get our kids to try new foods (and they liked most them and asked for more!) We also froze certain things (strawberries, beans, tomato sauce and squash) and were able to extend the season through most of the winter.

There is just something about eating this way that really works for us - great taste, huge value and a wonderful experience for our family. Enjoying all of the benefits of eating close to the earth and low on the food chain without having to actually do the farm labor. A win-win for our family. We thank our friend for telling us about Windy Meadow every time we see her!

We started getting a weekly delivery of produce from Windy Meadow Farms last year; it's from June through November. You have the option of picking up your 10-16 lbs of weekly fruits and vegetables from a close local distribution point, or, for $5 more per week, having it delivered to your door each Saturday. I opted for the pickup, because it's more fun to run into others who are as pleased each week as I was. You can, if you like, head over to the Windy Meadow web site before Thursday each week and select which items you want and don't want, and they will tailor your delivery to your needs. But I only chose to do that during eggplant season -- otherwise, each week it was a surprise, like Christmas, to see what I'd be cooking and preserving each week. I devised a lot of new recipes, and my kids got introduced to some new vegetables that we might not have purchased on our own from the grocery store. It was all much fresher, and at a much lower price, than you'd get from the grocery store. I was so pleased that I even wrote about Windy Meadow Farms in my blog. Here is what I wrote on August 17:

"Today, My $10 bought me a LARGE head of romaine lettuce, EIGHT beefsteak tomatoes (six ripe and two green, to ripen), eleven Roma tomatoes for sauce, a bag of 30 cherry tomatoes, six ears of corn, about 2.5 pounds of potatoes, a big eggplant, a summer squash, three cucumbers, four green peppers, a red pepper, and three sweet peppers. Better than a partridge in a pear tree!"

--Debra Ross, Publisher, KidsOutAndAbout.com