Peach Season is PRIME Right Now with Messina & Autumn Star, Fantasia Nectarines, Blondee, GingerGold, Zestar & Gala Summer Apples, Get (3) fruits in (1) trip!

Orchard & Market Hours: OPEN NOW 8AM-5PM

Weekly: Hours are Mon-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM

Winery Hours: Sat 12PM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM

“From Apples to Zinnias on the farm.”

A to Z, it’s a saying and a depiction of trying a little of everything; or a store carrying a vast array of products. This coming Labor Day Weekend, it’s a description more of our willingness to try new things – We’ll try anything, from A to Z.

Back in the early 1970s, my parents tried pick-your-own fruit as America was now mobile and ready to save money by canning and freezing their own fruit, plus direct from the farm is always a big savings.

As we got into the 1980s, my parents were building a farm market before those were cool to serve as a retail outlet for the pick-your-own as we packed peaches for grocery stores in the big warehouse that still stands today.

In the 1990s, I returned late in the decade with a college degree and a crazy idea to fuse agriculture and tourism into a whole new experience on the farm. We began “Maize Quest, The Cornfield Maze Adventure” as a new style of attraction bringing FUN to the farm.

In the 2000s, the farm attractions grew as we added more mazes, school tours,pre-school tours, hayrides, indoor playgrounds, campfire rings, and new varieties of peaches, nectarines, and apples to expand seasons, fruit flavors, bakery products, and our now-famous apple cider donuts.

The 2010s brought new shifts, challenges, experiences, and products from the trackless train in the Fun Park to Maple Lawn Winery, the culmination of our fruit growing ventures.

So here we are in 2019, almost ready to close another decade on the farm. What better way to close these years than with some incredible new, gorgeous events – Flowers.

This past three weekends we held the 3rd Annual Sunflower Festival, and what a tremendous undertaking. In 3 years, we tried growing flowers for the first time, failed on half the plantings, kept going and now host hundreds per festival day for live music, food, wine, and flower picking.

Sunflower Fest has already become, like pumpkin picking, corn mazes, and apple trees before it, part of the fabric of this farm. It is now one of our signature outreach events that welcome new people to explore the wide-open spaces at Maple Lawn Farms.

Apples to Zinnias. But, we’re not done yet. Coming this Labor Day Weekend, we’re welcoming you to our newest experiment on the farm:

One and a Half ACRES of Zinnias that you can take a picture in, stroll, pick and enjoy planted right inside the Maize Quest Fun Park.

This is our very first try at growing this many zinnias, over 50,000 are blooming in all, so it might not be the most perfect version, but if there is one thing you can count on, it is that we will learn and improve each season.

Do you know someone who needs encouragement to take a chance? Who’s fearful to start a project? Who’s worried about looking foolish, so he or she doesn’t get move forward?

Encouragement and support go a long way in building confidence to start, and a helping hand or listening ear keep you strong along the way. Who can you encourage this week? No one needs another critic, but we all need more encouragers!

This farm’s team is not afraid to take a chance, get some things right, make some mistakes, learn and move forward.

We’ll try anything and YOU get to see the results, Labor Day Weekend, from “Apples to Zinnias.”

See you soon on the farm,

Farmer Hugh

PS GOOD NEWS: Peaches, Nectarines, Summer Apples all in ONE trip this weekend!