P.E.I. orchard owner ‘fed up’ after children damage apples during U-pick visit

A Prince Edward Island orchard owner’s social media post about children damaging apples has blown up online, sparking a conversation about how visitors treat U-pick farms.

Mark Ashley, co-owner of Wintermoor Orchard in York, said he wrote the post after coming home to find rows that staff had just cleaned now littered with apples.

“There was an incident in the orchard with several mothers and a decent amount of kids, and I wasn’t here for it,” Ashley said.

“But when I get back and I looked out at the damage that had occurred and the waste of food … I was just kind of fed up at the time, and after a long day of work too. And I said I’m going to post something about this.”

Ashley said his partner was alerted to children climbing trees, smashing apples and seemingly playing with a wooden sword in the orchard.

He said his partner went down to ask them to stop. Minutes later, he said, other visitors reported that the children were back at it while their parents remained “oblivious.”

So his partner went down to talk to them again.

“The children basically were made to apologize. The parents actually should have apologized,” he said. “Had I been there, I would have used it as a teaching moment.”

Ashley estimates about 100 to 120 apples were on the ground afterward.

While he said it’s not a huge financial loss, the damage means staff have to clean the same rows twice. He said it also shows a lack of basic respect.

“Just because there’s no sign doesn’t mean it’s an opportunity to let your kids just do what they want,” Ashley said.

Ashley said he posted on Facebook to raise awareness among parents and to talk about a broader problem he hears about from other orchards, corn mazes and even a lavender farm that closed after children mistreated a blind goat.

The post has drawn hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of reactions and about 1,000 comments, he said.

Ashley eventually had to turn off comments and spent the evening deleting racist and vitriolic replies. Some commenters assumed the family involved were immigrants. Ashley said they did not appear to be.

Now, Ashley plans to put up small signs around the orchard reminding visitors of some basic rules, including that parents must supervise their children, and that climbing trees, shaking branches and stomping apples are not allowed.

“I don’t want to hire more people. I don’t think that’s the solution,” he said. “That just means that I’m hiring somebody to supervise someone else’s children.”

‘These things can happen’

The incident struck a chord with Matt Boyle, who runs The Grove Orchard & U-Pick in Warren Grove.

“We know how much effort and work goes into growing these crops … but [I’m] not shocked because these things can happen,” Boyle said.

He said his orchard faced more frequent damage in its earlier years, sometimes daily, until they changed how they operate.

Now, with around 20,000 visitors a season, he said incidents are down to fewer than a handful.

Boyle said the difference comes down to communication at the beginning of each visit, as well as staffing.

Every visitor gets a spoken introduction that covers the orchard’s history and rules. There are also signs in the rows.

On busy days, about 10 staff are on duty, with four workers constantly cleaning rows and picking up dropped fruit and cores.

“Whenever people see the amount of respect that it’s treated with, I feel that most people have the obligation and feel the obligation to also do so,” Boyle said.

He said his team is adding more signage, including instructions on how to pick an apple without damaging the tree.