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A strawberry farm has captured national attention this week after issuing a heartfelt plea on social media, urging visitors to refrain from eating the fruit in the fields.
Vale Pick Your Own, located in Bonvilston, Vale of Glamorgan, compared the act to shoplifting. The farm has expressed serious concerns over the increasing trend of visitors consuming strawberries before paying.
“We’ve noticed a concerning trend on social media of people eating our strawberries before paying,” they said. “Unfortunately, this is significantly impacting our small family business, especially during our busier time.”
The farm warned that if customers were caught, they might be asked to leave. “We’ve planted enough strawberries to ensure we can stay open six days a week, but unfortunately, we are finding that our fruit is being eaten in the fields. We are running out and then having to close.”
While eating a few strawberries might seem harmless, it can be detrimental to pick-your-own businesses. Bryan Clatworthy from Berry Hill Farm in Newport shared similar experiences. He has not offered pick-your-own fruit for about six years due to customers’ tendencies to eat the produce on site.
“It is always a problem – particularly strawberries and raspberries,” Clatworthy said. “They’re easy to eat – same with plums. Some people are 'greedy'. They end up going out and they’ll have a belly full of fruit and end up not paying a penny.”
Clatworthy explained that this behaviour was expected and factored into the pricing. “I said to a little boy once, ‘Oh, you’ve eaten plenty of strawberries,’ and he said, ‘Not as many as my dad!’”
Over in Cheshire, Barbara Hughes from Magical Malpas PYO Farm highlighted another issue: bad weather. “We lost all our strawberry plants this year because of the weather,” she said, explaining why they could not offer pick-your-own strawberries this year.
Despite the challenges, Hughes has accepted that some people will always help themselves to a few strawberries. “I think it’s part of the deal. You’ve just got to put up with it. There’s nothing much you can do,” she said. “You could have huge evidence that would go in a court of law – their t-shirts would be bright red and their whole face, but you just have to say, ‘Oooh, you’ve been eating them, I bet your tummy’s full!’ But it’s something you can’t stop, to be honest.”
The debate over whether eating strawberries in the fields is part of the pick-your-own experience has sparked varied reactions on social media. “Thirty years ago, that was a part of the experience, going to the fields, picking your own with a bag of sugar and eating along the way,” one Facebook user reminisced.
Another user commented, “It's great to taste before you buy. Let the kids and adults enjoy rather than wasting them.” However, some expressed more sympathy towards the farmers. “Would you do it in the supermarket?” one Facebook user asked pointedly.
The plea from Vale Pick Your Own underscores a larger issue within the pick-your-own farming community. While some see it as a nostalgic part of the experience, the impact on small family-run farms is far from trivial.
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