The Current - Pick-Your-Own Apple farmers say theft is out of control

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Farmer Paul Brooks is ringing the alarm over a surge in apple thefts on his farm in Uxbridge, Ontario. He is one of many other farmers across Ontario experiencing this and it's threatening the cultural-favourite activity of apple picking altogether.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. It is a Canadian fall ritual, heading to an apple orchard and picking your own. What kind of apples are you going to pick today? I'm going to pick yummy, yummy apples. I know I'm going to pick super apples. Some super apples. How about some Macintosh? Look at that!

Super apples. The farmers will pick your own, or you pick, farms have a big concern this year. It's people stealing those apples. A number of apple and pumpkin farmers across the province of Ontario say they are dealing with theft. One woman from Guelph, Ontario was charged after she was caught loading 19 pounds of apples into the trunk of her car. Some farmers have even banned wagons, strollers, and backpacks from entering the orchard to make it harder for people to steal. Paul Brooks is co-owner of Brooks Farms in Uxbridge, Ontario, but an hour north of Toronto. Paul, good morning.

Good morning. You have been farming for, what, five generations? Our family, yes, and yeah, we're happy to do it. It's part of our tradition of Canadian farmer at work, you know. I've been out of for 30 years, too. And what do you grow? We try to grow everything. We start with maple syrup in the spring,

and we go all the way into pumpkins and apples in the fall, and it's just part of the process of growing everything we can to keep it local. And as I said, one of the great traditions of this time of the year is you pack the family in the car, you head out to an orchard, you pick your own, you fill the bags full of apples, you take them to the stand, this is how much we got, and then you head home. How much of an issue is theft for you at your orchard at your farm this year? It's beginning of more and more of an issue, and we started about three years ago. It started to be really, really challenging. So that's when we chose to ban backpacks and

ban wagons and strollers. And that was helping, but we find that dishonest people find a way around all our prevention. And that's the most challenging part of it. We have our fall festival on right now, and to get that thing going, it's just good weather, lots of people,

and again, dishonest people will find a way. How much are people stealing? I mean, it's not just an apple here or there, right? No, apples are, I figured Appleware is worth about a dollar to me. And when we find a trunks full of them after a day, and we're asking the customer, hey, this is

stealing, this is not right. Can you please go in and pay for what you've picked? A lot of people oblige. And a lot of people cause trouble too. So it's up to $500, $600 easily. And we've got police involved. We've never pressed charges,

but it's a part and process of what we've been facing in the last few years here that I've found. You've found people with a trunk full of apples that they're taking? A trunk full. They keep on loading their bags and they walk back and forth and keep on dumping them off. So when you see them with their pick your own bag, you think nothing of it. But when they've come back five times and they jumped their fences to avoid our staff, it's super challenging.

Did you chase some people down the road? I did. Two years ago, unfortunately, they had taken off and I had jumped in my truck. I didn't know which way they were going. I just took a guess. And sure enough, I end up at our traffic light, two kilometers from the farm. And I jumped out. I asked them to roll down the window.

I said, you've been stealing from me? Can you please open a trunk? I take my apples back. And I reached into the trunk and unloaded them all, put them back in my vehicle, and they left. So these are the moments that you really not super proud of yourself either because you don't need to, you don't feel. great about trying to chase people town. It's not something that is part of our lost prevention platform, but anger does simmer up, and that's what's happened. When you chase someone down the road and pop their trunk and they have a trunk full of apples that they've lifted from your orchard,

what do they say to you? How do they explain what they're doing? There's no explanation. Their jaws are kind of dropped that I would bother doing this. But no, there is, sometimes language vary, but most times people are driving these nice cars and they're not, this is not an issue of hunger. So that was the, that was the other question I was going to ask. Life is expensive and food is expensive and we know that people are, you know, they're trying to make ends meet. You nailed it. And that's exactly what we are, we are, we cannot sell our produce at what grocery stores sell that. We just, it's impossible. We'll never make a profit. They can sell lost leaders all they want, but a farm isn't a lost leader. It's every single

piece of fruit is trying to make ends meet. And after we've planted our crops, we grow them. We avoid frost, drought. We avoid all these immense pressures of every season. And then the goal is to, yeah, come out a little bit on top. Pay our bills, pay our property taxes, and prepare for the next year. Your point is that you don't think this is about people who are hungry, who are stealing the food. If people are hungry, we will give their share of their back. We will anything to help. If you were, I would say to my customers who are stealing, I'll give you whatever you'd like if you're hungry, but please, just ask, don't steal from us. What happened? Last Sunday, things kind of tipped over, a bit of a free-for-all in your field. What happened then?

Yeah, we, it's our fall festival here. So we have, like, all this fun things for families to do. Apples are on, pumpkins are on. So it also has been, luckily, we've had great weather. And so, unfortunately, during those great weather days, it brings out droves and droves of people. And then it becomes, like you said, a free-for-all where we cannot manage the crowd. We can't manage where everybody's going. And then it becomes a point where people just load their vehicles up, whatever they feel like. Oh, no one's watching.

Just take what you'd like. It's extremely frustrating. And I want to stress you, we're not pessimists. We're optimists. We wouldn't have, get past our first season of growing if we thought it wasn't something we wanted to do. It's so we were optimistic that it could happen and do well. But the problem is,

is like you mentioned in your tagline, this is a bad, some bad apples. These aren't everybody. And unfortunately, these bad apples are making it very, very difficult for the rest of us. But they cost you, right? I mean, again, it's not just you. There's other stories from folks. And we've heard this largely from parts in Ontario,

people outside of Guelph, Ontario, who said that they were losing, you know, 500 pounds of apples, they think. over the course of the last couple of weeks, that's real money for you. Yes, and 500 pounds is a drop in the bucket, really. We also see over the course of the season, everybody takes five, ten extra apples,

they just put their pockets full, they fill a stroller. It ends up being like tens of thousands. And we grow 80 acres of fruits and vegetables. And all throughout that whole season, it's a massive, massive problem. But we, there's some things we can do, but most things we can't, you know. And like I said earlier, dishonest people will find a way. What would you say to people?

I mean, one of, going to picking apples is one thing. You know, there's those honesty boxes on the side of the road where you stop and I buy asparagus every spring and I will pick up a pumpkin or squash in the fall and you put your money in the box. And the whole system exists because we trust each other to do that. I'm not going to rip somebody off and they trust that I'm not going to rip them off when I get a dozen eggs or something like that from the side of the road. What would you say to people about what's at stake here? When they say, well, it's just an apple or two.

Come on, Paul. Well, that's a really great point. And we as farmers are getting tired of it. And part of our associations, we all communicate among each other. I've had conversations with four different farmers in the last five days. Everybody's in the same boat. It will affect, A, the cost. It also affects the fact that farmers are just going to

give up. They're going to say, you know what, we don't need anybody picking your own anymore. We're sick of the stealing. Let's just pick the stuff, pick the product, get into our farm market, and then if they want to retail it, just like you would if they went to a grocery store. Buy the bag of apples rather than pick your own bag of apples. Yeah. Just so they avoid this nonsense. Has it been a good, I mean, the weather this fall in Ontario has been amazing. Has it been a good year for you? Beyond this, just in terms of the, the, the, We have, unfortunately, it's been a drought all summer here in Ontario, and that really did hurt. Now, we also say during September or October, the crops are already done.

We've, you know, you can't get any better. So now that it's fall, hopefully we get no rain so we can at least have the customers come out and enjoy themselves. And that's part of the process, right? Like, we've been welcoming families to our farm for over 30 years to enjoy themselves and have some fresh air and experience. is what real farmers do. And we don't want to ruin that, but it does become very, very challenging. Pay for what you take.

Paul, good to talk to you. Thank you very much. Yeah, so thank you very much for your interest. Paul Brooks, co-owner of Brooks Farms. He's in Uxbridge, Ontario. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30am at all time zones.

You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBCListen app. wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.