My friends and I headed to The Big Apple in Wrentham to see if apple picking and their hayrides are wheelchair accessible. We were happy to see that there are handicap parking spaces right up front in the parking lot.
The parking lot consists of gravel and stone and is difficult for my manual wheelchair to wheel through. My Power Chair would be much easier to wheel on this terrain but my Power Chair died and I am waiting for a new Power Chair.
As we approached the barn/store we saw that there is a two inch cement lip. At that point my friends went to ask if the was a handicap entrance. The cashier said she would open the garage door to let us in.
We entered through the garage door. This door is a very narrow and my friends barely squeezed my wheelchair through backwards. Once inside the store we inquired about apple picking times and history of the building. The cashier told us that apple picking usually occurs the first two weekends after Labor Day and that the apples are usually all picked within a week. So we never got to go into the orchard farm. The terrain in the orchard appeared that it would be too difficult to maneuver my manual chair.
Inside the store they sell fresh produce, salsa, salad dressing, jarred fruits etc. The building itself it is an old barn that is over one hundred years old though these owners have owned the business for over fifty years. They offer hayrides on the weekends however they are not wheelchair accessible. There is no restroom. They do have one small Port-a-Potty but it is not wheelchair accessible.
Overall the whole experience was not a very accessible experience for me as there were many obstacles and hayrides and apple picking are not available to persons in wheelchairs.
I give The Big Apple ONE STAR for wheelchair accessibility. In order to earn the other Four Stars they would need to install a cement walkway leading from the handicap parking area to the entry door, install a threshold ramp at the entry, add a wheelchair accessible Port-a-Potty, place a wooden pathway in a small area in the apple orchard and get a ramp for the hayride so a person in wheelchair can get on the wagon. I have been on a wheelchair accessible hay ride at the old Spooky World.
