Amaz-ing Corny farms
Many people believe there is nothing north of Chicago, but in Spring Grove, Illinois, a village approximately an hour’s drive away, is Richardson Adventure Farm. You can imagine the eyerolls of the folks from Washington and NYC over having a good time close to Milwaukee. While the Richardson farm grows crops, it also sprouts a fall playground for folks from the city and the country. There in Spring Grove they have the second largest, but most creative corn maze in the world. The corn maze trail stretches 10 miles long and spans over a 28-acre area. This is just not curvy slots in the stalks but a well-planned, artistically designed and technologically grown corn maze that changes every year. In addition to the maze, the “farm” offers other activities such as pumpkin picking, hayrides, zip lines, barn rentals, a giant slide and big swings. Country entertainment for children of all ages as you can see in the video below.
The maze shows off the state of farm technology today. The family creates the design that you see in the picture above over the winter and then they digitize it and load the map into software that guides the planting machines to grow the corn in rows to follow the design. So the corn stalks grow up in place for the Fall fun. “After the corn is around 4’ tall, we rototill the trails with our own tractor to smooth the lines of the trails and leave nice smooth walking trails.” This season, the farm celebrates 40 years since the release of Back to the Future! “Every winter we are thinking about what the next corn maze theme will be,” he continues. “If the Chicago sports teams did something spectacular, we celebrate that because it’s popular with the customers and media. But, that didn’t happen, so we searched for anniversaries of great things. “One of our favorite mazes from the past is the Beatles maze we did in 2013, celebrating 50 years since their first recorded song, “Love, Love Me Do”—and the notes of the song were in the design.”
The world’s largest corn maze is actually in a small town outside of California’s capital. Cool Patch Pumpkins was founded in 2011 by Matt Cooley in Dixon, California, after his children started selling pumpkins on the side of their family pumpkin field. Since then, the pumpkin patch and corn maze have been featured in publications across the country and even earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. In fact, the corn maze was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records both in 2007 and 2014, as the world’s largest corn maze. In 2014 the maze was 60 acres, which gave them the world record, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This year the maze is 40 acres and is built from over 3 million stalks of corn. “It can be stressful and intimidating to get lost, but you are never trapped,” Cooley said. “Simply pick a row of corn and follow the furrow down the row until you pop out on a side of the maze. Then follow the maze around until you land in the front.”
Amazing farm humor
A fellow was walking along a country road when he came upon a farmer working in his field. The man called out to the farmer “How long will it take me to get to the next town?”
The farmer didn’t answer. The guy waited a bit and then started walking again. After the man had gone about a hundred yards, the farmer yelled out “About 20 minutes.”
“Thank you. But why didn’t you tell me that when I asked you?”
“Didn’t know how fast you could walk.”
The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us:
“Please Do Not Feed the Animals. Their stated reason for the policy is because “The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”
When did the Polish farmer get up?
At the Krakow dawn.
What did one Dorito farmer say to the other Dorito farmer?
Cool ranch.
July 30th Birthdays
1974 – Hilary Swank, 1956 – Delta Burke, 1985 – Gina Rodriquez, 1981 – April Bowlby, 1966 – Lisa Kudrow,
1961 – Laurence Fishburne, 1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1969 – Terry Crews, 1941 – Paul Anka
Morning Motivator:
Only those who can see the invisible can do the impossible.
World’s largest corn Maze