Brooksby Farm

We have gone to the other places in the area for apple picking and this is just the best. We went the last weekend of apple picking and the trees were so full of apples we couldn’t believe it. For under $ 10 (combined) the kids got to do this little mini maze that they loved. They had an area set up for roasting smores and the hayride (which we unfortunately missed). The staff (which was mostly teenagers/​college) were so courteous and helpful. And it wasn’t too busy which is huge for us because we’ve been to the larger orchards with kids events and a maze and the crowds negate the enjoyment. Also the cider donuts were awesome!

I went there 2 weeks ago early in the morning with a few friends and we all loved it. They had 5 types of apples and the trees were full with apples. The orchard it’s beautiful and the apples were delicious ! I would love to go back.

My husband and I had a great time apple picking. it was very busy but they handle the crowd well. reasonable priced compared to some other places for apple picking.

Did these other reviewers go to the same Brooksby in Peabody? Maybe I’ve been spoiled by other pick your own apple places, but I was so disappointed by this place. The orchard is tiny and was really overcrowded with visitors. The trees were pretty well picked through (though I went there at the beginning of October, so maybe I was a few days late for peak apple picking season). The only apple varieties were macs and braeburns according to the website, and I didn’t see any braeburns. It was all macs. The bags were pretty expensive. And the worst part, for me, was the ample menacing signage leading up to the purchasing booth, threatening customers not to stuff apples in their purses or whatever and setting a minimum number of bags to purchase per number of visitors. Nothing like being treated like a criminal while being overcharged. Boo.

Love it here. It is conveniently close to everywhere and their produce and selection of other locally crafted items is really great. So many fun memories here and more to come!

I’m a bit biased because I live only 10 minutes down the road, but this place is really cute. Great for apple picking, nice little farm store, cider donuts… what else do you need? I wish they had more picking options the rest of the year (they tend to run out very quickly), but I understand space is limited given it’s suburban location. Haven’t been here during the winter, but I hear they offer cross-​country skiing and hiking on their trails. Will have to check that out!

Scenic and easy to get to farm that is somehow incredibly spacious whilst being smack in the middle of Peabody.
The grounds are gorgeous, the farm/​country store is a bit rinky dink when compared to the Russell Orchards of the North Shore– but the obligatory farm animals and cider donuts did the trick for the wee lads, and of course the wagon ride out to the fields.
Gorgeous rolling hill vistas over the fruit orchards, unfortunately our trip was a bit early in the year for primo apples.
Not mind blowing, but I’d surely come back

I loved this farm is just only 15 minutes drive from my home, is great for kids and adults. You can see few animals feed them, also has the hay drive I personally had so much fun with my family, has apple picking, raspberry picking…

I’ve come to Brooksby Farm in the past for apple picking, and I had a pretty good time! The bags for which you pay were reasonable, and the variety of apples they have were extensive.
The problem, however, was that trying to find good, ripe apples among this selection was hard to do. My roommate and I spent a few hours here wandering the orchards, but the pickings were scarce. I was fairly disappointed, to say the very least, that we didn’t have much from which to choose. It could’ve been Mother Nature’s fault (with a hint of global warming), but one may never know.
My favorite part about apple picking, in all reality, is the anticipation of apple cider donuts. I LOVE APPLE CIDER DONUTS! Brooksby Farm, unfortunately, didn’t have the best I’ve ever had.
Womp.
I would probably come back here, but I would be going with lower expectations than my previous visit.

Decided to stop here today and I’m glad I did. Got to feed the animals and picked up some goodies. The cider donuts are to die for and purchased a pot pie and other pastries. Cute place I will be back.

I’ve been going apple picking here with my family for the last two years. The main reason we started going in the first place is because it is only 10 minutes away from our home on the north shore. Most of the good orchards are out west and in the boonies, so we were excited that we found one so close to us! With a baby in tow, you really want to cut down your travel time, and make sure you can make a quick escape home if everything starts to go downhill with your fussy baby.
This isn’t the best farm I’ve ever been to, but it served our purpose well — apple picking and apple cider donuts. The orchards are ample, parking is plentiful and free, and depending on when you go, there is a good variety of apples to pick from (check their website beforehand to see what is in season). The price keeps on jumping and it is higher than even at a supermarket or a Trader Joe’s. But then again, you’re paying for the experience more than the apples (and they need to recoup some of the losses due to all the apples on the ground!).
The farm store is excellent — I wait in line to get the apple cider donuts as they are freshly made, and it is so worth it. You know the donuts are good when the paper bag they came in is already seeped in oil by the time you get to the checkout line. They also have a great monkey bread, and these delicious miniature Asian pears that I always pick up (I can’t find them anywhere else!).
The pumpkin patch is eh… it’s quite small. The animals there are also a sad little sight. But, this place is home to an incredibly evil, sadistic emu, so it’s always fun to watch kids try to feed it only to have him/​her scare the crap out of them.
We’ll definitely be coming here for years to come!

My experience of Brooksby is limited to only a wedding, with the ceremony behind a small building and the reception at the barn across the street.
There was no sign for the wedding. We were running a little late and missed the wedding shuttle bus so our driver (a random, really friendly young woman who overheard us trying to figure out how to get a cab to the farm) did not know where to stop and neither did we. We drove right by the house and the bard and all the way to farm store and had to turn back around. So a big sign would have helped.
As we walked to back of the house where the reception was being held, one of the girl that was with us wiped out as her heels got caught in the gravel stone walkway (eh, maybe she was drunk). The area for the reception was nice since it was framed by tall stalks/​plants.
After the short reception, we headed to the barn. There is nothing particularly fancy about it. There were only a few bathrooms, but they were clean. The entrance to the larger bathrooms is right next to the bar so one had to fight past the line of people waiting for drinks to get in.
The bar area is small and placed right in the middle where the main hall, entrance hall, and bathroom converge, creating a cluster of people in the worst possible space. The bartenders were quick and relatively friendly. I am not too sure how MA open bar laws work — I don’t think they are legal so there has to actually be a count kept of all the drinks served. One of the employees was ringing up every single drink, which is kind of funny seeing her doing it so quickly.
It was hot in there, especially with so many people. Opening the barn doors only did so much and staff placed fans all around, but I still ended up soaked in sweat at the end of the night.
The dinner was surprisingly good!
It’s a decent place for a wedding or other large event. I suspect the farm events are more fun, especially since the farm is sprawling.

If you want to see entire families of 200 pound rednecks and guidos with their kids climbing up apple trees, yelling and breaking branches, Brooksby farm is your place to go apple picking. I understand why the price is so steep. For every apple these monkeys will bring home, ten apples end up on the ground. What a waste. Not a surprise that most of the apple trees there are in such a bad shape. You would expect staff to do some policing but there’s no one to be found. They probably find it too painful to watch, or maybe they just don’t care either. The same thing is going on with the pumpkins. Kids pick these up and then throw them on the ground when they get bored. I am glad I wasn’t there during strawberry and peach season. There’s still some good things to mention about Brooksby farm like the hot and delicious apple cider donuts, and the scenery.

Did not enjoy my trip to Brooksby Farm this weekend. The staff at the farm were rude and unwelcoming. I quickly realized, though, that you kind of have to be rude when all your patrons are rude. The farm was full of people who didn’t seem to quite «get» farming or how to be respectful in a farm. We experienced lots of people smoking on the farm… even on the hay ride full of children. There were children climbing on the trees, even way up to the top, and basically kids running rampant without much parental supervision. It was generally just loud and chaotic. I don’t expect that these farms be all quiet and serene. But some amount of peacefulness is nice.
The apples we picked were fine, though. So no complaints there.

Smolak Farms is my usual go-​to for pick-​your-​own, but since I was unable to get them on the phone to verify they had fruit at the beginning of October, I opted for Brooksby. I had been warned by a friend who’d gone in September that the apples near the ground were picked-​clean, and she was absolutely right. The only way to get apples was to get one of those apple-​picking grabber things (no idea where folks got them!) or climb the trees, which some in my party opted for. Standing beneath a tree while my friend tosses apples down to/​at me is not my idea of apple-​picking, but might work for some folks. We found some young, trellised «trees» toward the edge of the orchard in many varieties with lots of great fruit. I didn’t feel great about picking these, kinda like cheating but the fruit was delicious. They have some amazing green-​hued version of Golden Delicious that’s really sweet and wonderful. The apples were inexpensive as well, which I appreciated.
Brooksby offers a free hay ride to/​from the fruit trees, which was cool, as many orchards charge extra for hay rides. I have to say I was amused watching other passengers dodge the tree branches slapping against the tractor as we passed. Lol.
There was a MASSIVE line in the farm stand store. Massive. But they have the standards, like cider doughnuts (with no cinnamon sugar, boo!), apple cider, pies, etc. They also had some unusual finds, like pumpkin fudge and maple candy, as well as a huge selection of gourds.
The prices were high though, so I stuck to the cider and doughnuts. Even without the cinnamon sugar, the doughnuts were pretty delectable.
They had pigs, sheep, roosters and hens, emus and llamas, but they were fenced-​off so you couldn’t really pet them. The farm is large and scenic though, some nice little walks if you’re so-​inclined.
I think I’ll return to Smolak from now on, but Brooksby was A-​OK for a day.

Went to Brooksby this morning with my gf and had a nice time. Empire apples taste great and were reasonably priced. We had a great time walking through the orchard picking apples.
Cider Donuts were ok… nothing special. Apple Cider was great (I bought a half gallon) but when I asked for a cup it was a big deal and they would not give me a styrofoam cup that they use for the hot cider. I asked why? I was then told that «they are too expensive», but that i can surely have a plastic cup. I thought that was very strange. I was then handed the smallest plastic cup I have ever scene. It was about the size of a shot glass and it reminded me of a baby cup. I guess I should have offered the person a quarter so I could have a big boys cup. Oh well… great place to go but be sure not to ask for a big cup because you’ll surely not get one.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the farm as a whole.
Good points:
–Iced coffee was $ 2 and good, doughnuts were $ 5 for 6 and pretty good too.
–Raspberries were plentiful, delicious and easy to access. Close to the store and mowed between rows.
–They have animals to look at.
–People were very helpful and friendly.
No so pleased conclusions:
–Animals were in pens that had many different places for kids to snag their clothes or hurt themselves on the loose wire. There was actually a large gap that my child was able to easily fit into to walk into the emu,
llama and sheep pen.
–Produce in the store was not fresh and really pricey.
–Raspberries were $ 4.75 a ½ quart.
I’ll keep checking out other places, since I wasn’t as pleased with the farm as I expected to be! It seemed a little run down — lots of weeds and old, wilted veggies. We had a really nice day, though!

This farm has everything! Great pick your own apples at great prices ($ 7 for a half peck, $ 12 for a peck, and $ 23 for 2 pecks) Lots of parking. Farm animals for the kids to see and play with.
Downside is that sometimes the line for the hot cider donuts is very very long, but trust me, it is worth the wait. When they first come out of the oven it’s like Christmas in your mouth. Totally worth it all! Their farmstand has so much else to offer as well including lots of locally made jams, jellies and marinades as well as some fresh vegetables.
The bathrooms are gnarly there though, so if you can, relieve yourself before you get there!
Brooksby Farms gets a big 2 thumbs up from me, and I will return next year for more apple picking!

The bf & I have always been loyal to Cider Hill in Amesbury so I have to compare, just a little. Unfortunately today we were strapped for time so we chose a more local farm to go apple picking in, Brooksby Farm.
We went on a Monday around 12pm. We thought it’d be quiet, but no, there were school buses in the parking lot and screaming children running rampant (sigh) we walked inside and waited in line to get our bag.
The farm was nice. We walked a while to get away from the crowds and realized the farm is much bigger than it appears from the parking lot. It was actually quite peaceful out there. After picking, we walked back and grabbed a cider donut and some cider as well. The donut had nothing on Cider Hill’s donuts, sorry. there’s just no competition. We walked out of the store to find my favorite part of the farm, the animals! The pigs stole my heart, just laying in the mud enjoying life.
This was a nice farm for a quick afternoon visit but if you’re looking for a day trip — the drive to Amesbury is worth it IMO.

Apple picking mania! Hot cider, warm donuts and farm animals… check!
Brooksby Farm was a great way to spend a sunny fall afternoon. It’s on vast acreage with tons of apple trees. They surely will not be running out of apples. I found the apple peck prices reasonable cause there was no separate admission charge. About $ 7 for 15 apples in a bag, then the prices goes up slightly with the bigger bags. You can take a hayride out to the orchards for $ 3 each or $ 5 for 2 people. Even if your not picking its a fun way to get a tour of the land. From the hills you can see beautiful foliage all around.
The country store inside is loaded with so many goodies, all home made or locally made. They had a huge selection of canned jars of everything from jellies to soy candles. Then bagged pastries, pancake mixes and bread. Even frozen dessert and chicken pies. If your looking to make a gift basket for someone you could get a bunch of neat stuff in there.
You must go into the back of the store and try one of the warm cider donuts with a hot cider. They are out of this world. Then take them outside and walk around the land. You’ll encounter hogs, chickens, turkeys, ostriches, llamas, sheep, goats and maybe some others I’m forgetting.
The pumpkin selection was in the hundreds, all shapes, sizes and colors, then around 50cents a lb. Also gourds and decorative corn too.
Go here for a country getaway! There is plenty of parking and so much space that you won’t feel crowded even if its mobbed on a beautiful fall day.