A number of pumpkins have been stolen at a pumpkin picking farm that ditched its entrance fees to help families during the cost of living crisis. After a successful first day of the 'Pick Your Own Pumpkins' season last weekend at the popular Gower Fresh Pumpkin Patch, owners were "disheartened" to discover around 30 of their large white pumpkins had gone missing.
Gower Fresh Christmas Trees in Three Crosses Gower are now offering a £250 cash reward plus VIP tickets to their Santa's Grotto for anyone who comes forward with more information on the whereabouts of the pumpkins. On Sunday morning, a manager at the pumpkin patch noticed the missing pumpkins and found some of the large white pumpkins piled up by the farm gate which is adjacent to the road.
Gower Fresh Christmas Trees owner, Robert Morgan, said: "It's called a farmer's eye, you know when you look at the field. You might have an ill sheep or an ill reindeer. You know when something's not right. You could tell someone had been in the field that night. It just spoils it for everyone else who comes to the farm." The popular white pumpkins are very large and usually sell for around £7 to £10 each. Mr Morgan believes the farm was broken into on Saturday night by a group who took around 30 pumpkins.
"A lot of time and effort goes into it, same as Christmas trees," said Mr Morgan, whose site is also famous for its Christmas tree season which allows guests to wander around and pick their very own to be cut. "It was a pretty tough year growing them with the hot weather. It's not an easy crop to grow being a farmer.
"We're very, very proud of the pumpkins we've grown this year. We put in a lot of time and effort, we planted them in April, irrigated them, fertilised them and we weed them by hand. It's quite an achievement, it's not an easy crop to grow. We're looking forward to everyone coming to the farm now." You can read more stories about Swansea here, and subscribe to our daily Swansea newsletter here.
Read more: Gower Fresh Pumpkin Patch farm ditches visitor entry fee due to cost of living crisis
"On Sunday morning, we came to the field and there were loads of white pumpkins piled up by the gate. Obviously someone had been there in the night and made plenty of trips to the field to the track and stolen them."
The 47-year-old owner, who made the decision to ditch entry fees this year to help with rising costs for families said: "It's just disheartening. We've just come out of two years of lockdown. We're struggling with the business at the moment. Everyone comes to the farm to have a great day out which I want to see. It's a family day out, we're not charging for people to come to the farm this year to make it easier because it's hard enough for families at the moment. Now, someone just turns up and incurs costs to our business which is hard to take to be honest."
"It's one big garden to me. I've got the reindeers here, the Christmas trees - there's lots of things to look after. To me, it's like someone breaking into your house in the middle of the night. I've got to look after these animals, the crops and everything. After a long day's work, the last thing you want to do is wake up first thing the next morning worried about someone trespassing and stealing things."
Since posting about the incident on Facebook, Mr Morgan said it has been shared widely and he is offering a £250 cash reward to anyone who has any information or has been offered the large pumpkins. Mr Morgan said he would like to "nip it in the bud" and added that the pumpkin patch is still open for business. Other than the unfortunate break-in, they had a great opening weekend and lots of families came and had fun in the outdoors.
Mr Morgan would like to thank everyone who has shared his post online and said the stolen pumpkins have added to an already stressful period. "I'll have lots of sleepless nights worrying about getting my pumpkin orders, Christmas tree orders and how many reindeers there are. It just adds to the workload, which is just a lot. I enjoy my job, I love it to bits but it's just one more thing to worry about it. We should be enjoying this year after the past two years with the pandemic."
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