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Farm, Maze & Winery Open Hours
Pick-Your-Own: Mon-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM
Farm Market: Mon-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM
Bakery: Fri-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM
Winery: Sat 12PM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM
Maize Quest: Saturday 10AM-4PM, Sun 1PM-6PM
One of the joys of being “The Mazemaster” is working with the team to bring vision into reality. For all you kids out there, that simply means that we are taking an idea from our head, and creating it in some fashion in real life.
How Sand Monster was born.
We tore out our Step-over Maze this summer with several different options to replace it. We quickly found that the supply chain and material shortages would not allow us to do a number of our ideas, so we had to come up with something we could build quickly, make fun, and fit the park.
I love playing in the sand. One of the principles of everything we do is it has to be big. Go big, or go home. So in a fit of inspiration, I sketched the picture above on a 3×5 index card and titled it “The Big Mound of Sand.”
Having ideas is one thing, but bringing them into reality is another. It’s hard to know what you don’t know.
For instance:
- Would it take 2 truckloads of play sand or 10? (Turned out two was enough.)
- Should the eyes be 24 inches across or 48 inches across? (That’s Dan holding the eye size options we cut out of cardboard.)
- Will it take 4 bumpers to contain the sand or 8? (Worked with four bumpers.)
Some of these things you cannot know until you try, and these are good lessons:
- If you wait until everything is perfect, nothing will ever happen.
- Build a tolerance for the unknown. try things, and if they don’t work, move on quickly.
Once we got the bumpers and dumped the sand, we took a few pictures with different-sized eyes, then pulled the trigger, ordered the sign company to print the eyes, THAT made Sand Monster feel real.
Even after all of that, we mounted the eyes, realized they were not strong enough to handle the sand mounded against them, took the eyes down, and reinforced them. We are constantly tweaking to make things great!
And so, Sand Monster LIVES! Each day we’ve been open, Sand Monster, who started life as a doodle on a 3-by-5 card, has made kids smile, climb, dig, build and explore.
That’s why we do what we do, and we can’t wait to host you THIS weekend.
See you soon on the farm,
Farmer Hugh
PS LAST CHANCE – we’re releasing FIVE coupons for the farm for FREE – Just click here to register for yours! The first one is $5OFF a $35 purchase in the farm market!
Weekend action at the farm:
- Flashlight Night – Saturday 10AM-10PM, last ticket at 9PM! Get lost in the dark with your flashlight, but don’t worry, we never scare people here 🙂 Flashlight Nights are good for EVERYONE!
- Apple Picking – TONS of crisp, juicy apples are EARLIER than you might expect, including Reds, Smoothee Golds, Jonee, Empire, Stayman, Jonagold, Macs, Fuji.
- Pumpkin Picking: INSANE pumpkins, fewer but BIGGER makes for some incredible deals as pumpkins are just $.75 per pound, but NO pumpkin costs more than $15! Yup, that 40-pounder – just 15 bucks.
- Maze Fun Park this Saturday features the FIRST Flashlight Night of 2021, so you can get lost in the DARK. Everyone LOVES exploring the maze with flashlights, and we NEVER scare people at Maize Quest, so it’s the perfect, fun date or family adventure.
- Donuts! We are making our signature Apple Cider Donuts and much more this weekend in the bakery – make this your final stop of the day!
- Cider: Who doesn’t want to kick off the harvest season with sweet apple cider!? Made with our apples by Kime’s, it is THE taste of Fall – plus we have cider slushies, too!
- Open Air: EVERYTHING at the farm is a breezy, beautiful open-air attraction, so you can RELAX and enjoy acres and acres of space with your friends and family!
Check your forecast – it’s pretty nearly the PERFECT Fall weekend, and the farm is open for you!
