Secret look into the idea machine that drives Maize Quest’s quest for “The Next Big Thing.”

“You can’t have all your good ideas at once.” – Farmer Hugh.

Sometimes a new idea seems so obvious once you say it that you can’t believe it took you so long to come up with it in the first place. When we came up with the mountain slide idea, it made so much sense!

Other times, we’ve had an idea on the back burner, waiting for the right time, the right technology, the right moment to bring it to life. Our Maze Tracker Game was like this. We long wanted to allow you to track yourself in the maze LIVE on your phone, but the programming hadn’t caught up to the idea. We found another farmer in Wisconsin who could do the programming in 2014, and we finally could execute our concept!

Some of our best ideas come from cross-pollination. Our Super Mega Ride-n-Slide attraction idea came from a field trip my son and I took to the International Assoc. of Amusement Parks and Attractions convention in Orlando.

In a chance meeting in a trade show booth talking about something completely different, my son plopped down on a snow tube that slid smoothly across the floor material, and, like lightning, the idea for the Mega Slide was born!

Timing is everything, but can’t be forced. No matter how hard you want to have a new, ultra-creative idea, you cannot force it to happen. You can set the right conditions by which the right idea can form. We like to read new things, visit new places, go to other farms, attend trade shows (in regular times!), and specifically be astute when thinking about taking from one industry and moving it to agritourism.

Give it your own spin. The sliding floor was meant for ski slopes, not farms! The Super Mega Ride-n-Slide we adapted to our farm environment in a way that brings the fun to life here on the farm, where we do not have a steep ski slope.

Adapting a concept to your local environment is key to success. Drive-Thrus were invented decades ago, but we adapted it to our farm market and winery products this spring and summer.

Sunflowers are grown commercially by farmers for oil. Sunflowers are grown ornamentally by florists. We took the idea and applied farm scale to the ornamental grower varieties to create our Sunflower Festival each August for guests to fill their Instagram feeds with gorgeous pictures.

So that’s how we do it! You’ve had a look inside the secret idea machine that keeps us growing and changing for the future.

How do you come up with new ideas? Let us know; we’re always learning!

All good things must come to an end, which is the END of the corn maze season. Thank you so much for your visits this year!

We’d love to host you for ONE MORE adventure this Fri-Sun, Nov 6-8. The weather is going to be incredible at high 60’s low 70’s, so make the most of it by visiting the farm.

We’ll be waiting with one more NEW idea at the pedal kart track…

Thanks for all your support this season!

Farmer Hugh
PS Keep December 5th OPEN, at least an hour, on your schedule and stay tuned for next week’s BIG announcement!

APPLES: Get York Imperial, Rome, Smoothee Golds, Red Chief, and Stayman Apples in the farm market while supplies last this weekend.