Garden of Eve Organic Farm — Attraction in Town of Riverhead

Every year, my friends and I take our kids out here to go strawberry picking. It has become a tradition of ours. We value organic farming and the farm is not too far out east so it makes sense for us to choose Garden of Eve. However, every year I am reminded of the unfriendliness of the staff and high costs of a few berries. Yesterday we were once again greeted with an unfriendly staff member who didn't offer us a discount to pick strawberries in the rain (we are serious about our tradition) or a discounted entry fee for our children to play on wet playground equipment. That was disappointing since we were clearly their only sale yesterday as far as picking. Then the staff member had the nerve to only offer us half pints. When I inquired about this she told me that they are saving the full pints for the weekend. I asked if that was because there were not many strawberries and she said "oh no they will be riper for picking this weekend", less than 24 hours after our visit. She also failed to offer us any tips on where to pick the berries and if it hadn't been for one of the field workers we wouldn't have found the better berry patch, which in fact wasn't much better. After one day, the berries are already mushy. Its clear that Garden of Eve is becoming like other farms out east and is trying to "cash in" on the weekend crowd. They should have been more concerned with valuing and appreciating some of the only customers they had on a rainy, chilly day. They even charged us $4 for a cup of lukewarm coffee in their so-called "cafe". All in all, if you are looking for a quaint, organic farm that truly values their customers, this isn't the place. They get 2 stars only because the kids made the best of it and still had fun since we let them run in mud and play...

Their prices were high, they have signs saying not to bring outside food. There was a strawberry "festival" promoted that was no different than any other day. Their marketing did not mention that when you pick your own strawberries the admission which includes a hay ride to the patch does not include an additional $5 for a basket, I had thought it was included with admission. I had been there several years ago where admission was free with paid baskets for picking.

Everyone with a bag was told that there were people stealingso you had to put your backpacks, handbags and various other bags back in your car. their flyer they provide with a small map of their farm even goes so far as to remind you that stealing is a crime.

I took my 4 year old son, wife, mother in law and daughter on a 90+ minute ride here to spend $20 on admission to their patch and $5 to pick my own small box of strawberries. Thankfully I didn't bring more family members!!

Half way through the picking the group of people in the patch were told they were closing the patch and sent us to another.

The line for their one toilet is slow, my wife waited 10 minutes to use it. Wish they had more available bathrooms!

Maybe I'll come back in 5 years to see...

We went here bc its one of the few farms that is certified organic. It is definitely NOT worth it. The kids activities and farm animals -- entertaining for very young children but you can get the same experience down the road for the cost of the berries. Price of admission is much too high for this kind of play. They advertised plenty of berries (6/18/22 check their instagram) but the picking was terrible and not ideal for children. There wasnt a lot of berries to begin with and the few still on the vine had sat in the shade or on the ground for too long and were going bad. There simply wasn't enough for u-pick.

Oh and they don't allow you to carry a purse onto the fields. Not even a small pocket book. They made a big fuss and inspected someone's tiny little purse while another family with the giant diaper bag went in and out with no issue.

All of this warranted one star but I gave a second bc the strawberries we did find were delicious. No review of the food as I was not going to give them more...