Man forced to close "Pick-your-own" strawberry farm

[Squatch]

Link

Anyone who claims to have picked their own strawberries and resisted the temptation to secretly gobble a particularly juicy specimen is almost certainly lying.

And for 50 years, Hacker's Fruit Farm was content to put up with a smidgen of deceit as people made their way through rows of plants weighed down by the brightly-coloured fruit.

<snip>

'The cheek of people was unbelievable. People were treating it like a giant open buffet,' he said.

<snip>

'We spotted one family sitting in the field with a bowl of water to wash them and then a bowl of cream they were dipping them in.'

:wow:

'One woman came up to the counter, covered in juice on her trousers, up her arms and even in her hair. But she handed over a punnet with four strawberries in.

'A mum walked into the shop with her family and her sari was bulging with fruit. But her husband handed over an empty basket saying they couldn't find any.'

[pt22]

1. Pigs. I watched a large woman eat 2 doughnuts from the case at the store

instead of putting them in the bag. :grr:

[NNN0LHI]

5. How do you know she didn't pay for them at the check out?

[Sundoggy]

21. Ummm... passing acquaintance with human nature?

[pt22]

54. I was watching.

...

[madaboutharry]

12. Moms let their children eat in the

market all the time and then put the empty wrappers through checkout. It happens all the time. I have done that myself. There isn't anything wrong with it as long as you pay. However, I must say I have not yet seen anyone over the age of 4 doing such a thing.

[kestrel91316]

20. Sorry. Eating groceries before you have paid for them is

really tacky and inappropriate. The grocery store is not your dining room.

I know, people will starve to death if they can't shove their donuts down their pie hole RIGHT NOW...........

[SidDithers]

25. But sometimes a bag of rice crisps...

keeps young kids happy enough to get your grocery shopping done.

Sid

[kestrel91316]

36. When my mom would take us shopping when I was little we didn't

get to open up stuff and eat it. The word was NO. And WAIT 'TIL WE GET HOME.

[SidDithers]

62. And look how you turned out...

all cranky-like :evilgrin:

Sid

(Joking! I know you're not really cranky :))

[Arkansas Granny]

41. Yes, I've opened a food package to quiet a fussy child in the store.

Of course, I always paid for the item and explained to the checkout person why the bag was open.

[kath]

67. maybe they should have been given a snack before leaving home.

Or they could be taught that you don't get everything you want *right now*, you need to develop some patience.

[krabigirl]

80. lol, try teaching that to a 16-month old. good luck.

[Arugula Latte]

91. Hah. Really. Sounds like this one hasn't had much experience with toddlers.

Of course, that poster would be complaining if there were a toddler having a screaming tantrum in a store because s/he was hungry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

92. Most likely LOL

[Kali]

28. yeah nobody shoud EAT in a grocery store.

That's why they have coffee shops, delis and tables INSIDE THE STORE, after all. So nobody would THINK of eating while shopping for FOOD.

[kestrel91316]

38. BUY your food before you eat it at the in-store restaurant.

That's how it works. Unless you are a greedy pig with no self-control or manners, which I KNOW you are not.

[lastliberalintexas]

78. Sometimes my usband and I are busy and one of has to take the kiddo

shopping during a bad time, like snack or nap time. It would be unfair to my child (not to mention the other shoppers) to refuse to allow him to eat a small box of animal crackers since he has no control over when one of us has to take him with us. I am sorry that apparently bothers some so much. But then, I do always pay.

I would never let my child eat any of the fresh fruits and veggies, though. I've never been able to understand people who walk through the store eating grapes before they've been washed.

[readmoreoften]

87. Do you have any other petty complaints you'd like us to entertain?

People who pump before they pay?
White after Labor Day?
People who shuffle when they walk?
Parents who don't regularly inquire into whether their child has been leaning back in the chair at school?
Parents who aren't concerned enough about thumbsucking?
Third world mothers who breast feed in public while picking your coffee?

[uppityperson]

93. I get something from the deli and eat as I shop, then pay with groceries

I'm not a greedy pig with no self-control or manners but frequently stop to shop when hungry and find if I get something small from deli to eat as I shop I can think better and shop more wisely than shopping when very hungry.

It is best to not cast asparagus since you really don't know.

[SoCalDem]

74. We called it grazing... People would "buy" stuff from the service deli

wander over to the chilled soda case, and then the night crew would find the empty soda bottle stashed on a shelf and the empty sandwich wrapper from the deli in a hand basket..

The deli started having a PAY NOW policy..or a will-call when you checked out.. But people still ate apples while they shopped and gave grapes to the kids.. It;s hard to weigh something that had been eaten :eyes:

[madaboutharry]

37. Well, you know sometimes it is not worth trying

to explain this concept to a two year old. I gather from your post you have not had a marketing experience with a toddler.

[kestrel91316]

39. No, but my sister and brother-in-law have, and I have heard this discussion,

and they did not do it, and thought it was just plain wrong.

The kids never suffered for being told no. They are both at top universities getting straight A's now, and are responsible citizens who have never been in any trouble.

[madaboutharry]

40. This is my last comment on this thread. I have seen moms

let there child have a box of animal crackers or something and then pay for it at the checkout. It is not stealing and no one seemed to mind. The child sees that it is getting paid for. I don't see all the sanctimony about this issue.

[Squatch]

51. Strawberry Flamewar!

:popcorn:

[CreekDog]

64. meets parenting flamewar!

scooch ovah. :rofl: :popcorn:

[readmoreoften]

81. FISA? Corruption in Congress? Iraq? NO! YOU'RE THE PROBLEM tacky eater!

What'll they think of next? Gas before you pay??? Oh wait.

[CreekDog]

84. nevermind that, your SUV is a hate crime!!!

:spank: :rofl: :crazy:

[readmoreoften]

86. But the Love Vans of the 70s had nothing to do with oil depletion because oil was so cheap back then

:crazy: and Love Vans were cool!!!

Everything will be solved through buying the right things at the right times!

[Submariner]

88. This thread is funny

I think these parents should duct tape the little bastards toddlers into their shopping basket restraint seat and then duct tape their mouth shut. :hide:

[leftynyc]

63. Me neither

I seen parents do it all the time and pay at the register - I have no problem with it. Some people bitch just to bitch, I guess.

[EFerrari]

83. I got baloney samples from the butcher and still managed

to get into grad school. :rofl:

[Gormy Cuss]

43. With a two year old, there are at least three other solutions.

1)Give them a snack from home before entering the market, 2)buy something as soon as you start shopping and reserve it until the child is cranky, or 3)leave the market without buying groceries if the child is so inconsolable.

It is difficult to deal with a toddler but I've seen far too many parents feeding older kids too --what's the lesson there, instant gratification? Worst of all are the adults who nosh through the produce aisle and salad bar and don't pay for a thing.

[SteelPenguin]

52. ^ this

I have a 3 and a half year old and a 1 and a half year old. They don't get to open food packages in the store. we keep a very basic tote/diaper bag, and before we leave the house we make sure to have a snack inside if we're going to be gone long.

It's part of parenting. Planning ahead. Worst case scenario you leave your groceries in the cart and leave the store, you're absolutely right. I've had to do that once. The funny thing is that by enforcing certain rules like that, my kids are generally much more even keeled and better behaved than most other kids I see these days.

[Gormy Cuss]

68. I feel for adults who end up with a cranky kid at an inconvenient time

and toddlers are the most unpredictable little critters but I've noticed that some very young children seem to 'get it' and that can only come from repetition and consistency in adult behavior.
My sib's twins were seat belt enforcers by the age of 2. Any time someone got into the front seat they chirped "seat belt" until they saw the shoulder harness pulled over. It was adorable.

[SteelPenguin]

90. Every Toddler has his or her moments

But you can see a very large difference between people who are strict about behavior and those that aren't. We see it in our friends. Of course we can't say anything. It's one of the biggest taboo's to question another's parenting style, but when they sigh and then complain abotu their monster child's behavior it makes me want to scream.

Follow up on threats! Use their currency! Enforce a timeout! End what they're doing! Anything!

My kids have their moments, but my daughter knows that if I ask her to do something, and she refuses if I start to countdown she immediately does it. All I have to do is sternly say "FIVE" and whatever I asked her to do is hurredly being done. And I've never used corporal punishment. Just timeouts, and taking away toys for the rest of the day if she doesn't do what we ask. Now she just occasionally fights against it, but she knows who is boss.

[eShirl]

47. I've asked the clerk if I could open a soda and drink it while waiting in the checkout line

because I was really thirsty... she said go ahead, that's why they put the soda coolers right there

[ellisonz]

59. Impulse buying.

Not because people are "really thirsty"

[eShirl]

65. no, I was really thirsty

otherwise I wouldn't have asked if I could drink it while waiting in line, then pay for it after I drank it

[mantis49]

71. When my daughter was a toddler,

I used to get a box of animal crackers for her and let her munch on and play with them while I shopped. Made my life easier!! Then I paid for a half empty box.

[pt22]

55. They provide BAGS with the barcode on them for doughnuts.

She just took them out of the case and ate them...there was no 'wrapper' or anything to scan for a price, plus (I didn't bother to mention before) she was looking around in a -way- that appeared to be furtive. I saw her leave the store...she didn't pay.

[Beacool]

69. Yuk, I hate doughnuts!!!

:puke:

[pt22]

70. You probably don't weigh 120 kilograms either.

:-)

[Beacool]

73. True.............

:7

[ingac70]

2. washed and dipped them in cream right in the field!

Now that is brazen.

[Blue_Tires]

85. yeah...VERY low class...

[sharesunited]

3. Being relentlessly exploited by capitalism has ruined the honor system.

[Codeine]

89. No,

being fat, tacky fucking pigs has ruined it.

[TwilightGardener]

4. It would not occur to me to eat even one that I didn't pay for. I hate the way

cheating and stealing are portrayed as "cute" and "normal" and that everybody does it--makes it hard for us parents to teach our kids that taking EVEN ONE berry, or piece of candy from the bin, or whatever, is still morally wrong.

[Johonny]

6. IDK

I imagine eating a few strawberries is part of picking. You have to know if the fruit in a particular area is ripe and stuff.

[TwilightGardener]

7. If it's red, it's ripe. No, I don't have to "sample" out in the field, any more

than I would have to "sample" in a grocery store by ripping open packages. It's stealing.

[miles 2 go]

9. I would have eaten a berry or two

but I would have paid for a lot. Even at the grocery store before I buy a lot of cherries or something like that, I eat one to taste them. Fruit is so questionable as to it's flavor. You get home with it and find out it sucks.

I don't think I would have made it through the fields without eating one or two. It probably would have been more because they look delicious than because I was confirming their readiness though. :blush:

[Clovis Sangrail]

13. I have *way less problem

with somebody 'sampling the goods' at Slaveway or Albertsons than at some small time farm or store.

it's still stealing though

[miles 2 go]

15. Yeah it is, but

I have bought fruit and bought fruit to bring it home and find out it sucks. I never get around to returning it as I should. So, I feel that sampling one before I buy is not that bad. They sell sucky ass fruit without remorse so me testing one prior to purchase only seems fair to me. THey certainly have gotten my money repeatedly over the years for the bad stuff. It's not
like I am not intending to buy and am just gobbling the fruit up. I am sure that if I took the time to hunt down the manager that they would allow me to test that cherry. I think I have done it in front of the employees as well. Haven't done it with strawberries as I have never had a problem with them. Wish I could do it with cantaloupe, oranges, watermelons and all of them.

The fruit in the field, well I think temptation would get the better of me. Have only picked fruit once like that. Don't remember testing the fruit but I am just supposing that I would most likely do it. I am not saying making a meal of it, just that I would probably lose out to the temptation.

[Clovis Sangrail]

44. you can usually get a pretty good idea of how good something is

if you pay attention to how it smells/looks/feels, when you're buying it, and who you're buying it from.

:shrug:

[Kali]

45. at my safeway, if the produce person is out in the area he OFFERS samples

Personally I don't eat stuff in the store while shopping (although I might cruise with a beverage) because I have a thing about clean hands and eating, but I just don't see the problem as long as people pay. Chomping too much produce that gets charged by weight is not ethical but tasting a cherry or a grape? I don't see the problem.

[kestrel91316]

24. Having a LITTLE taste at U-pick produce farms is allowed and

even encouraged, as it tends to spur greater sales.

Feasting in the fields is just theft.

[knitter4democracy]

31. We've eaten a few to check for ripeness and flavor.

I always make them add a bit of weight on to make up for it, too. If the kids have each eaten an apple, and I have, too, that's another pound. I've also just rounded up to the next whole number on my check, if I thought the kids had eaten too much. We support our local farms here, and I want to keep them in business.

[Runcible Spoon]

50. where we picked berries, it was assumed people would sample a LITTLE

it was part of the magic of picking strawberries, and as a modern kid it was one of the few times you might get to connect to the earth and see that food really really grows in the soil and it's delicious!

The signs always said you were welcome to a few but to respect the owners' crops.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

58. I don't give a flying fuck

about taking a grape or a strawberry. I don't care if it' stealing or not.

[DS1]

8. finally, a use for amateur sniper services

and it's already too late.

sad. thieves are thieves.

[RebelOne]

10. I used to go to a pick-your-own strawberry farm in Homestead, FL.

it was one for the basket and one for me. I usually had a full basket that I paid for when I finished.

[SmokingJacket]

11. This is in Britain.

Not that it can't happen over here -- it probably will. But I know the farms around here are doing well at the moment, at least in terms of thievery. I'm going this afternoon, and people hardly eat a thing in the fields.

[DS1]

14. What the hell?

[DefenseLawyer]

16. If you have a strawberry patch and I have a basket

and my basket reaches into your strawberry patch... I eat your strawberries! I eat them up!

[Squatch]

19. ROFL

I loved that movie.

[knitter4democracy]

33. Well, then, I just might let you into ours.

They're starting to really come in now, and then I got more with our CSA delivery this week. They're too watery for jam (too much rain last week), so I have to find a way to use them up.

[Squatch]

34. Turn them into wine!

[Winterblues]

17. I occasionally sneak a grape in the supermarket

And I am sure if I were to go to this pick your own berry place I would sneak a berry or two as well but what some of these people do is beyond the pale. I would not go to such a place unless I intended to bring home plenty of berries..

[madmom]

18. I see it all the time in the produce department, someone even said

that since it's not packaged it was supposed to be eaten like that.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

26. wrong place

sorry
sP

[Kali]

22. A few U-Pick places I know of just charge a fee to go in and tell the pickers

to go ahead and eat all they want, then weigh and charge for the fruit being carried out.

[Sundoggy]

23. Scrupulous honesty is a progressive value n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

27. weigh them in...weigh them out...charge per oz...mg...what have you...

need an accurate scale though :-)

sP

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. These kind of people would get round that

by, umm, 'watering' the strawberries before they leave.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

32. that would be a fun video to show at the checkout

just like those shots they get on the rollercoaster of you screaming your head off ;)

sP

[knitter4democracy]

29. Most here don't do u-pick for strawberries anymore.

People were ruining the plants, too. I'm fine with that as long as I can get my amazing Michigan strawberries picked just that day. :)

[AlCzervik]

35. i cannot imagine doing something like that.

we have many pick your own apple places in the fall and i would not just pick and then eat them without paying. And the people that open the bags of grapes and eat them at the supermarket and then do not buy the bag, stop it would you? Are your hands clean, how many bags must you open?

[windbreeze]

42. could always weigh the people as they go in, then when they come out??

orrrrr....let them pick and eat, but have a basic cover charge for 2 pounds of berries per person....either way should work...??I tell ya...taking a bowl of water/bowl of cream into the field....that takes a lotta _____(use your own imagination here)imo...don't think I have ever heard of anyone being quite that brazen before..wb

[ElsewheresDaughter]

46. I have had people do that to my private strawberry patch...many times a carload of them

actually the mother and her seven kids even lifted their long skirts and filled them to carry back to the car afterwards....i was stunned at the audacity!

Hasidim community near by and they are very brazen

[Kali]

48. wow

keep old grocery bags and confront them with "did you need some bags for those?"

[pt22]

56. If they did that to me I would shoot out their tires.

NOT kidding.

[Runcible Spoon]

49. this is so sad...some of my best childhood memories are strwberry picking with my mom and sisters...

It really bugs me that people can take something so innocent and cheat it. Unless those people are starving, I can't imagine stealing from small farmers!

[pt22]

57. Starving thieves don't steal strawberries.

:shrug:

[Runcible Spoon]

61. why not? it's certainly lower risk than lifting in a big supermarket..

and if you WERE caught, I would imagine a small farmer might be more forgiving than a manager.

I've never been that desperate myself, but when I lived out West stealing from small farms was the preferred way of getting food for some homeless...

Not saying this is what's going on here, just trying to imagine why someone would steal beyond sheer selfishness...

[dembotoz]

53. both funny and sad

i never had the guts to pull a stunt like that.
and i hope i never do.

[orleans]

60. that's too bad. seriously. n/t

[earth mom]

66. Wow, it blows my mind how some people have zero respect for other people.

A similar thing happened to us a few years ago when our cherries were ripe. One evening around 6 or 7 a kid knocked on our door and asked if he could have some cherries. I told him that my hubby would go out there and help him pick a few. The kid didn't like that idea and said never mind. Well, the next day there was not one cherry on either tree! :grr: Hubby thinks it was the birds, but I don't think so, because the timing was too coincidental. We've planted 9 more cherry trees since then, and last year the birds DID eat the cherries before we could. And now this years crop isn't so great because of the weather we've had this spring. So another year with few, if any cherries. :argh:

[Runcible Spoon]

76. have you tried bird nets? only thing that keeps our blueberries from getting ravaged...

http://www.pestawayaust.com.au/bird-net.html
something like this...
they WILL get a lot of the top berries but the nets keep at least the ones below safer...

[Ilsa]

72. I bet they don't think of it as "Stealing" since they were invited in.

The owners should pick their own berries and charge exobitant prices for them and the labor. I'd hate to see them close it down.

[NC_Nurse]

75. Wow, that's disgusting! I bet if someone had come to him and COULDN"T

afford to pay, he would have given them some...but these people are just thieves. :-(

[pork medley]

77. this is why i shoot at any birds and small animals that get near my

fruit trees. fear of death is a marvelous deterrent

[flvegan]

79. He wasn't "forced" he made a choice.

If one finds some idiot stealing, call the cops (or rozzers, since this is in the UK). Do that enough times, you know, enforce some rules, it shouldn't happen. If it's honestly worth 10,000 quid like the article says, get a camera or two. Or, hire someone to punch the lead male of the family right square in the face when caught.

Difficult running a business on trust these days. Just sayin'.

[EFerrari]

82. My boys used to do the same thing when I sent them out to pick blackberries.

But, they were four and seven.

Whatsa matta with people. :wow: