My friends and I took our kids to Justus Orchards last week. They did not have apples to pick and recommended we go down the road to Grandad's. Here's our experience and reason for a poor rating. It was a quiet weekday at the Grandad's. In fact, at the time, our group were the only kids there. The kids played outside in the kid zone, while we waited on another friend to arrive. In the store, there are stations with employees handing out samples. The kids asked politely and were handed samples of apple varieties and baked goods. I purchased 3 apple cider slushies. We were getting ready to buy tickets for the corn maze when, Leslie, an employee, walked up to our group and abruptly told us that we could not, in fact, do the corn maze. We asked why and she matter of fact answered, because the kids would destroy it. We assured her they would not go unaccompanied in the maze and she again firmly said no and rudely reiterated "your kids will destroy it." We were ostensibly confused and the kids were even more saddened. She said our kids were rowdy and were eating up the samples in the store. The kids said that had one sample each and my child, admitted to having two. After wrapping our heads around the situation, we decided not to leave since we had come all this way. We were gathering some clear plastic u-pick bags when Leslie plodded back up and informed us that we could not pick apples. She coldly asked us to leave. In hindsight we should have left after the maze incident but we honestly felt like our kids were not in any way misbehaving. There was an instance, when a child sat in a small wheelbarrow, and was asked to get up by their parent immediately. We all respectively responded to Leslie's rude remarks about our children. I told her that someone at Justus sent us and how saddened we were at this whole experience. She explained that "oh I knew you were coming" as she had been warned by her "friend" at Justus. She proudly pulled out her phone and showed me this text. "Please don't hate me for sending them your way" it read, "they are a wild bunch." Later, we called Margo, the woman at Justus. Margo seemed nice when we were there and we even bought several baking mixes from her store since they did not have apples. Upon leaving Justus, one of the children had a quarter and put it in a Skittles machine on the deck. Unexpectedly, Skittles began gushing out and the kids held out their palms to catch them. They giggled of course at the scene, then it was over and we left. We asked what we did to deserve the unkind introduction and she explained that she was extremely sorry for her choice of words. She said she was simply warning Leslie at Grandad's because she knew that Leslie did not fair well with children. Apparently Leslie has a reputation if you read another reviewer's story. So is this a nice orchard? Yes. We respect all the hard work it takes to maintain such a business. However I feel like we treated unfairly. I would forewarn anyone with children who might enjoy all the wonder of a u-pick apple orchard in the Fall and refrain from taking them to Grandad's. I would definitely recommend two other Hendersonville u-pick orchards - Stepp's and Sky Top. Both orchards have plenty to do, see and learn and above all they are warm and inviting to school children and families.
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