Essex Farm

Full diet, free choice, horse powered, year round CSA!

Essex Farm offers a year-round, full diet, free choice membership. We produce grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken, eggs, fifty different kinds of vegetables, milk, grains and flour, fruit, herbs, maple syrup, and soap. Members come to the farm on Fridays, from 3pm to 7pm, and take what they need for the week, in any quantity or combination they choose. We sometimes limit scarce items, like maple syrup or the year’s first tomatoes, but most food is available on an all-you-can-eat basis. Members are encouraged to take extra produce during the growing season for freezing or canning, to supplement what is available from the root cellar during winter and early spring. In addition to food, we offer members the opportunity to hike the farm, visit fields and animals, and join us as volunteers for harvest and field work.

We currently farm 600 acres and feed 222 members. We are powered by fifteen solar panels, nine draft horses, ten full-time farmers, and three tractors. We do not use synthetic fertilizer, herbicide, or pesticide. Our animals eat feed we’ve grown ourselves or local hay and local, certified organic grain.

This is our wonky-but-useful mission statement: We strive to produce an abundance of high quality food while fostering the health and resiliency of the farm, the farmers, the members, and the community. Our desire is to build an agro-ecosystem that is sustainable economically, environmentally, and socially. We work to make a farm that is better tomorrow than it is today.

Membership Info
The all-you-can-eat membership price for 2013 is $3700 per year for the first adult in a household, and $3300 for the second adult, with a $400 discount for each additional adult. Children over 3 are $120 per year of age (e.g., a five-year-old is $600 for the year, a seven-year-old is $840, etc.). Every person in a household must be a member. Payments can be made annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly or by special arrangement. Member contracts are renewed in January, but new members may join at any time. Partial-year memberships are available on a per-week basis, with a 25% markup. We offer a sliding scale for low income members. If you are interested in becoming a member, please email us at essexfarm@gmail.com, or call Mark at 518-963-4613.

Visits
We host farm tours four times a year, and farmer-only tours once a year. Please see the events page for dates and details. We offer signed copies of The Dirty Life for sale at the farm on Fridays from 3pm to 7pm. We can occasionally arrange tours for schools and other groups. Otherwise, the farm is not open to non-members; we don’t sell any food outside of the membership.

Employment
We hire a limited number of farmers every year. We have two types of employees: management level and worker level. Management candidates should have five years of farming experience with some management experience, and expertise in one or more aspects of our farm (dairy, rotational grazing, draft horses, vegetables, etc.). Worker candidates should have one or more seasons of farming experience, a love of hard physical work, and an excellent attitude. We do not offer an apprenticeship program. If you’re interested in a position at Essex Farm, please submit your resume with references to essexfarm@gmail.com.