Frequently Asked Questions

Why Purchase the RTF Membership Basket?
• Enjoy eating freshly-picked, delicious, veggies
• Make a healthy choice by eating what grows each season
• “Homegrown” means grown here in Milford on our 30 acres
• Try new varieties and recipes (we’ll even give you a few recipe ideas)
• Teach your family where your food really comes from
• Help support local business and preserve farmland
• Save money vs. supermarket or bulk food stores

Did You Know...
• Supermarket produce travels thousands of miles and can sit in a warehouse for several days before it sits again on the supermarket shelves waiting for you to buy it? These varieties may survive the travel, but they tend to loose nutritional value on the way, and don’t necessarily taste good.
• Supermarket produce is usually treated with chemicals so it can last long enough and look good enough for you to want to buy it?
• Many children don’t know where food comes from. Did You Know at the Robert Treat Farm...
• Produce is fresh, often picked hours before its out for sale—for sweet corn each hour makes a difference.
• The only travel our veggies make is from our fields, to your car, and then to your kitchen. Now that’s one way to lessen a carbon “footprint”.
• We stand behind what we grow and we are always happy to talk with you about varieties, preparation, and preservation.
• The plants we sell at our Farm Market are the same we plant in our fields. This yields the produce you will receive in your RTF Membership Basket.
• Our Farm Market has been open for more than 60 years, and our farm has been in operation since Milford was founded in 1639.

Is the RTF Membership Basket really a CSA or Farm Share?
Yes, it is! A Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA) is commonly called a “Farm Share”. It means you support the farm by purchasing a share of the year’s harvest. As amember you pay for your share in advance which helps fund our operating expenses for seeds, compost, utilities, etc. At Robert Treat Farm our farmers arrange seeds in February. By March our seedlings mature. Depending on the weather, our harvest begins late May to early June. With our first harvest we’ll set a start date, and you’ll come to the farm once a week to pick up your share. At Robert Treat Farm our pick up day will be on Thursday or Friday. You will select your pick up day upon registration. Our season runs twenty weeks from June until October.

What happens if the weather doesn’t cooperate?
We grow a wide variety of vegetables. We also plant in succession, so our yield should be plentiful. But there is a risk that all farmers take each year, and as an RTF Member you are taking on some of that risk. Weather events like hail, strong winds, hurricanes and early snow can cause crop losses that are unrecoverable. Insects and animals can also cause crop damage, continue reading to see how we handle these situations. As an RTF Member you are taking on the rewards and the risks of farming. Before you enroll, please consider that we do not refund due to weather related or other crop damage.

Is the RTF Membership Basket certified Organic?
We believe in a sustainable way of life.We are not an organic farm but we use IPM (Integrated Pest Management), which means we only spray when necessary, and try to use sprays approved for use on organic farms.

What does a typical basket look like?
Pictured above is a sample RTF Membership-Family Basket. If you find you can’t use some items you can always gift them to a friend. If you find you prefer certain items over others, or have dietary restrictions, please let us know. We may be able to accommodate your needs. Our basket should feed a family of four for one week. Of course, you can supplement your basket any time at our Robert Treat Farm Market and Garden Center.

Contact the farm store to enroll or for more information.