Steere Orchard — Local services in Smithfield

My wife and I took the kids (ages 2 and 5) to Steere Orchard this morning for their Applefest event. After walking about halfway down the first aisle of the orchard, our 2 year old tumbled and we realized that we were in a sea of poison ivy (I'll try to post the photo). Figuring that this was an isolated situation we cut through to the next aisle. Nope, same thing throughout the whole orchard. At this point we decided to leave. I asked my wife to take the kids to the car and I headed to the main building to give them a heads up about the situation. When told, the initial response I received was, "Well, I sprayed" and the conversation ended with me being told "F... you". Now reading the reviews posted by others about Steer Orchard's rude employees, I'm not surprised with our experience.

Over the last five years of bringing the kids apple picking at multiple orchards, we've never had this type of experience. After the fact, I wondered if I just hadnt noticed the volume of poison at other orchards. Later in the afternoon, we went to another local orchard to pick apples. I specifically paid attention to the condition of the aisles between trees. Low and behold, the aisles were generally clear with no signs of poison ivy. I understand that there are times where things just happen, but that doesn't seem to be the case at Steere Orchard. The combination of a poorly maintained orchard, abismal customer service, and relatively high prices makes Steere Orchard an unattractive venue to bring a family, especially with the large number of high quality orchards in the area.

Lastly, I thought it was worth noting that it appears Steere Orchard deletes negative reviews posted on their Facebook page. It's not surprising, but worth keeping in mind when you see the contrast in reviews on Google...

I’ve been to this orchard a few times and have always found it way overpriced. We have avoided it the last few years because every orchard section we’ve been to is COVERED in poison ivy. While they have lots of trees, I find the selection of apple varieties very limited. They cart you out to a specific section of the orchard and you’re only allowed to pick that small section. This weekend, our section included Cortland and Macintosh. That’s it. Really, only the Macintosh were any good. I really only went because my SIL wanted to try it out, and sure enough the section was absolutely covered in Poison Ivy. I tried the best I could to keep my kids away from it, but with three small children, that’s pretty impossible. My 9 year old slipped on a smashed apple and landed hands and knees right in a big patch of it. The last few years we’ve been going to Sunset Orchard and have been able to pick a huge variety of apples and I’ve seen any notable amount of PI there. I doubt I’ll ever go back to Steere Orchard, which is a shame because it’s SO close to...

Terrible experience. 25 dollars for the smallest bag. All of the grass in the Orchard is overgrown up to your ankles. We went where the guy directed us to go to pick apples when we got there and went to pick an enraged man on a tractor came screaming at us we apologized and explained we had been directed there but he just kept screaming and was very rude. We didn't even pick an apple we left and demanded a refund. There are much better farms with better customer service. Don't...