frequently asked
questions
questions
General Ordering
We do local delivery to Chittenden County as well as Waterbury, Stowe and Montpelier. We use UPS to cover the rest of Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Our products are also available at local grocers, co-ops and farm stands in the Chittenden and Washington County areas.
We sure do! At checkout, when you select the "Pickup in Store" option, it will give you a drop down with several locations where you can pick up from. As always you are welcome to pick up at our on-farm market any day of the week. In addition, we are now bringing orders to Burlington Farmers Market on Saturdays, Essex Farmers Market on Wednesdays and both ICF veg CSA pick up days at Intervale Community Farm (you can select Monday or Thursday, depending on your pickup day there).
You will not be able to make changes to your order once you have completed the checkout process. If you need to cancel an order, please email orders@maplewindfarm.com with your request and we will make the change for you. If you want additional items, please place another order.
On-farm pick up is available next day. We pack orders every morning so any orders placed before 7AM will be packed and available for pickup that day. Anything after 7AM plan to pick up the following day or later.
Local home deliveries are on Thursdays, please order by 7AM on Thursday to get delivery that day. Anything after 7AM Thursday will be delivered the following week.
Shipments outside of our local area are sent out Monday-Thursday. The last opportunity for shipping on any given week is to have your order in by 7AM on Thursdays. Anything after that time will be shipped the following Monday.
Local area delivery: Free delivery for orders over $120. If your order is below $120, a $10 delivery fee will be applied. (Delivery order minimum is $40)
VT & New England Shipping: Free shipping with orders over $149. If your order is below $149, a $26.95 shipping and packaging fee will be applied. (Shipping order minimum is $75)
Local Home Delivery
We use zip codes to filter orders into local delivery or shipping. Barring any major weather disasters we deliver to all of Chittenden County, Waterbury, Stowe and Montpelier. If we are unable to reach your location with our farm vehicles we will reach out directly to make another plan.
It will arrive on Thursdays between 8:00AM-5:00PM depending on our route for that day.
Your order must be submitted through our online store by 7AM on Thursday (delivery day) to be on the route for that day. Any orders after that time will be packed and delivered the following week.
All you need is a cooler (with plenty of ice packs, weather permitting) left outside of your home, in a spot that will be visible to our driver. If there are any special instructions for your location, please share that with us, orders@maplewindfarm.com, ahead of time so we can make a note on our route.
NOTE: If there is no cooler we will not leave the delivery. Even if you are scheduled to be home all day, we need to deposit the order into a cooler to retain our box and packing materials and to keep our driver on schedule.
We require this year round for food safety and for ease of our deliveries. Our driver has lots of stops to make, and deadlines at our wholesale partners, so he needs to be able to drop and run. IF you happen to be standing outside of your home when he arrives AND you do not have a cooler out, he will hand the order to you. We prefer not to make a habit of that otherwise he might be waiting to connect with someone at every stop. This also helps us reduce overhead costs by retaining our packing materials.
The driver will try to call the number associated with your order. If they do not connect with you, Abby will reach out via email/phone to see if you want to come to the farm to pick-up over the weekend OR we will plan to deliver the following week.
Our driver will send you a text message once the order has been dropped off. Please be sure that the phone number on your account is able to receive text messages.
Yes, we have an order minimum of $40 for local home delivery.
We charge a $10 delivery fee for all orders under $120, and the fee is waived for orders over that amount.
Vermont / Non-local & Outside Vermont / Northeast
We pack and send shipping orders via UPS Monday-Thursday. Orders are packed and entered into their system first thing in the morning and are picked up by their driver in the afternoon. Your order will arrive to you within 24-48 hours of being picked up from the farm. If you have questions about your order or the shipping, please email orders@maplewindfarm.com.
This depends on the information you enter when placing your shipping order on our website. Your email or phone is included in the shipping label so you will receive updates and tracking info regarding your order. If you have any questions about the order, please email us at order@maplewindfarm.com.
We pack your order in an insulated box with plenty of ice packs to keep your frozen meats safe in transit. Sometimes, depending on delivery times, some of the packages might be thawed on the edges. This is normal. As long as the meats are still cool to the touch, there is no risk to the safety of the products.
We use a box liner that is locally made out of all recycled materials and is fully recyclable in your home bins or local transfer station. The ice packs are made to be re-used so feel free to save them!
As for returning packing materials, we love it! If you are ever driving by the farm please stop by and leave any materials you have received in your shipments. We have food and community events happening throughout the summer and would love to welcome you to the farm. Sounds like a win-win (or perhaps a winner winner {for you to attend our} chicken dinner) to recycle those goods AND see what we do IRL....
Yes, we have an order minimum of $75 for shipping.
We charge a $26.95 delivery fee for all orders under $149, and the fee is waived for orders over that amount.
Pick-up at the Farm
We pack orders every morning. If your order is submitted before 7AM it will be packed and ready for pickup that day. Any orders after 7AM will be packed the following morning.
Our self-serve customer pick-up space is open every day from 8AM-8PM and is located in our on-farm market. The frozen portion of your order will be in a stand up freezer that is labeled "online pre-orders". If you have any eggs or refrigerated product it will be in the market cooler clearly labeled for you. The cooler is to the left of the online pre-order freezer. If you are placing an order in advance, or picking up more than a week out, please email us to let us know -orders@maplewindfarm.com
Pick up orders are located inside the red barn, in our on-farm market. The market is located in the east side of the barn. Look for the painted blue signs with white writing, these will point you in the right direction. Your order will be labeled and located in the stand up freezer in the on-farm market. Any non-frozen items on your order(eggs, summer sausage, etc) will be labeled in the bottom of the fresh chicken cooler, to the left of the stand up freezer.
Orders are welcome to hang out in the freezer until you are ready to swing by to pick up. If it is a particularly busy time of year, and space is getting tight, we will reach out to get a better idea of when you are coming by. During these times, we often store orders that are not being picked up for a bit in our big freezer until you let us know. If we have not heard from you, and your order has been in the chest freezer for 10 or more days, we will send you a reminder email.
In the event that we have not had any response from you in 30 days (whether its over the phone or via email) and you have an order waiting for pickup, we will donate the order to the local foodbank. We will make multiple attempts over all available communication channels before doing so.
Pick-up at BFM / EFM / ICF
We are now bringing your online pre-orders directly to some new locations! We are attending the Essex Farmers Market, located at 208 Sand Hill Road, every Wednesday from 3:30-6:30. As usual, we will be at the Burlington Farmers Market (summer location is 345 Pine Street - winter location is 180 Flynn Ave / Burlington Beer Co.) every Saturday in the summer from 9:00-2:00. In the winter, every other Saturday from 10:00-1:00. Lastly, IF you are an Intervale Community Farm CSA member, you can place an online pre-order and we will drop it off at ICF on either Monday or Thursday, depending on which day is your pick up day.
Cut off times for all locations is 7AM on the day of the pickup. For example: Essex Farmers Market orders need to be submitted online by 7AM on Wednesdays. Burlington Farmers Market orders submitted online by 7AM on Saturdays. And ICF orders submitted online by 7AM on whichever day you are looking to pick up, Monday or Thursday.
For both BFM (Burlington Farmers Market) and EFM (Essex Farmers Market) we will bring your order back to the farm and reach out to you to coordinate another pick up. For all ICF orders, your order will be donated to the staff at Intervale Community Farm. There is not a freezer on-site at the farm so there is no way for them to properly store your order for a later pick up. We also consider it a kindness that ICF tells their customers about our farm so we can drop off orders to their CSA pick up twice a week. We want to keep this process simple since they already have tons to do to manage their amazing CSA program, the long list of customers, and the overall operations of the farm.
Once you have proceeded to checkout in the online store, there will be two options for getting your order: "Shipping & Delivery" OR "Pickup in Store". If you select the "Pickup in Store" option, it will have a list of the various locations. Select the correct one for you and that's all! Your order will come through to us sorted by the location you chose.
Food Safety
Yes, it is safe. As long as the product has remained cold, you can partially thaw and refreeze meat. It will not affect the overall food safety. It does affect the structure as it breaks it down a bit, and it will release more juices if thawed and frozen a second time. Please account for “shelf life” if you are thawing for several days and then refreezing.
Poultry - Well 165°F
Beef - Rare 125°F / Medium 145°F / Well 160°F
Pork - Ham 145°F / Medium 145°F / Well 160°F
Lamb - Rare 135°F / Medium 145°F / Well 165°F
Sausage & Ground Meat - Poultry 165°F / All Other Meat 160°F
We highly recommend always thawing any frozen meat in a bowl or tray to catch juices. When frozen meat is thawing, the seal in the plastic packaging is often lost, causing leakage. Thawing in a tray will avoid a mess in your refrigerator. As for safe thawing methods, there are two options. 1. Refrigerator thawing at 40°F or below. 2. Cold water thawing, changing the water every 30 minutes or so. You just want to be sure to maintain safe temperatures and never enter the “danger zone” (40-140°F) where bacteria can grow.
Please avoid thawing in a microwave, it is not recommended.
Refrigerator Thawing: Plan ahead and allow approximately 24 hours for each 4 to 5 pounds in a refrigerator set at 40°F or below. Place the turkey in a container to prevent the juices from dripping on other foods. Cold Water Thawing: Allow about 30 minutes per pound. First be sure the turkey is in a leak-proof plastic bag to prevent cross-contamination and to prevent the turkey from absorbing water, resulting in a watery product. Submerge the wrapped turkey in cold tap water. Change the water every 30 minutes until the turkey is thawed.
It is best to plan to cook the turkey immediately after it is thawed.
Subscriptions
Yes, of course. You can pause or cancel a subscription any time you want in the customer portal. The customer portal can be accessed through the magic link you received in the email that was sent to you when you placed an initial subscription order in the shop. If you have any questions or cannot find your magic link please email abby@maplewindfarm.com
You can skip or reschedule the charge in the customer portal. Each scheduled delivery will have a Skip payment button next to it, which you can use to skip the charge. You can reschedule the charge by clicking on the Reschedule button next to the delivery date.
We have a backup in place to skip any subscription that has an item that has become sold out. This stops our inventory from going negative and stops you being charged for something we are out of. Please reach out to abby@maplewindfarm.com for assistance and we can suggest a replacement item for anything out of stock.
Yes indeedy. You can add products to your subscription in the customer portal. Just click on the Edit button in the products card and edit, remove or add products to your subscription. You can also add items as a one-time purchase which will only apply to the next occurrence of your subscription.
If the subscription can't be renewed because a payment can't be processed you will receive an email with a link where you can safely update your payment method.
Wholesale Customers
Our deadline is Monday at midnight. At the ABSOLUTE latest orders can be submitted until 7:00AM on Tuesday, no later than 7:00AM. Orders after 7:00AM on Tuesday will not be included in that weeks order cycle.
Yes, our delivery minimum for wholesale customers is $96.75. If you would like to place an order for less than that, you are welcome to do so and come to the barn in Richmond to pick it up. Please email orders@maplewindfarm.com to arrange your pickup date/time.
We will create an invoice and request that one copy is signed upon delivery for our records, and we will have a printed copy for your records. We operate on a net 15 payment schedule and expect to receive payment within that time. Orders will be invoiced through quickbooks by actual weight. If you are a new wholesale customer we need to connect with you via phone or email before fulfilling your order.
Didn't find what you were looking for? Email us anytime: hello@maplewindfarm.com