Johnston's Farm — Attraction in Valley View

WATCH OUT!

The farmer who runs berry picking is a nasty curmudgeon from a different era. Don't bother going.

After ignoring my cheerful greeting and sullenly handing us baskets, he took us to a row to pick. Then yelled at the kids about not running (they were not) or hopping rows (they were not). He turned to shuffle back to his tent, but would turn to scowl at us at various points, holding the angry stare at us for whole minutes at a time.

He took the trouble to shuffle back a few minutes later to ream my neighbor's daughter (9 years old) a bit more (she was doing nothing wrong) -- and made some angry allusion to how food doesn't hop into your basket at the store -- not sure what that was supposed to mean.

When we went to weigh the strawberrries he picked through one basket and angrily discarded berries he felt weren't ripe enough, throwing them aggressively to the side. He yelled at us for a bit about that, and ended up with, without any provocation from us "Don't come back if you're going to pick strawberries like that!"

My friend tried to calm him down by offering to pay for the berries and he looked up angrily at her, raised his hand and yelled "DON'T START!" and stared at her like he was going to lunge over the table and strike her.

Oh, and the vegetables they sell by the road? Not home grown. They buy them at farm auctions in...

Absolutely terrible. They sent a coupon in the mail that said open daily 9-7. No end date, no expiration. We call at 6:15 for directions because we couldn’t figure out exactly where they were and two people were incredibly rude. Said they were closed and when I pointed out that the coupon said they were open until 7, I got a rude response that that’s what their hours were 2 months ago. Number one, this coupon isn’t two months old and number two, if those are their hours for a limited time, it’s their responsibility to clarify that. It’s ridiculous to be annoyed that I tried to visit during their stated hours. Honestly take your...

They were closed when they said they would be open. After driving 30 min to get there, the old man said we could come in. Apparently it was just to be mean, though, because by the time we unloaded the baby and kids, he just wanted to argue with me. He looked as if he was fuming and wanted to hit me. The 3 and 4 year old tried to share their toys with the man because "he was grumpy" and he was mean to them too. We ended up leaving because I thought the man might lash out. Very...