BOISE, Idaho — Fall is right around the corner and fall weather will soon be settling into Idaho. Along with raking leaves, picking pumpkins and getting ready for Halloween, an adventure through a corn maze might be part of your fall plans.
For Thursday's You Can Grow It, KTVB Garden Master Jim Duthie traveled to the heart of a Canyon County fruit orchard for an up-close look at the newest corn maze in the Treasure Valley.
"It's easy to get lost in a corn maze. After all, that's the fun of this traditional part of fall," Maurina Rowley of Cherry Hill Farms said. "Here in Idaho, there's a new corn maze out in the western part of the Treasure Valley at Cherry Hill Farms. Let's show you around."
Cherry Hill Farms is known for its delicious apples, peaches and, of course, cherries. Whether you buy it by the case, or come and pick the fruit yourself, there is plenty of fun and delicious treats waiting for your family.
This fall, Cherry Hill Farms will be a destination for something entirely different — a 7-acre corn maze in the middle of the orchards. In fact, it is a corn maze that is made up of a few smaller corn mazes.
"We are super excited this year to be able to offer the corn maze, because one thing that we've learned as we started opening our farm up to the public is that people want experiences, people want to be able to be outside and be able to do something and connect to the world that they live in," Rowley said.
The corn maze incorporates some interesting designs that are special to the family-run farm.
"So, when we first were thinking about doing a corn maze and we were trying to come up with ideas of what we could do, we thought it would be really neat to be able to incorporate a chicken somehow, because we are on Chicken Dinner Road," Rowley said. "Most people know about it, it's very well known. So, when we did it, we did it with a chicken, and then also, this is our 10th year of being here in Idaho. So, it has 10 years in it, as well as our name Cherry Hill Farms. It also has some of the main fruit that we grow — cherries, peaches and apples — in the corn maze as well, with the chicken."
Modern GPS technology makes designing and planting the corn maze fairly easy, unlike in previous years when you would have to mark out the design on the ground, and then plant the corn within the lines.
"So, we designed it and we sent it to the corn maze planters, and then they came in and they have a GPS system on their tractor. They came in and the corn is just dropped wherever we wanted the corn," Rowley said. "Then, the path where our design is, there's no corn planted in those areas. When they came and they did that, it really only took them probably about a half day. It's a 7-acre corn maze."
So, the corn maze actually grew up along with the corn, but if you do not want to tackle the entire seven acres, there are smaller mazes within the big maze.
"There's actually three different mazes within this maze," Rowley said. "You can do all the mazes if you choose to. There are three different entrances for this corn maze. The chicken is one maze in and of itself, and then there is another one that is a little bit bigger and a little bit more tricky. So, if you wanted more of a challenge, you could do that."
The Cherry Hill corn maze is just part of the farm's Fall Festival that runs from Sept. 16 to Oct. 29.
"If they want to just do the corn maze, they can, and if not, they can come do other things," Rowley said. "So, then we'll have a scrabble maze. We'll have a playground area set up. We're going to have fire pits set up as well and we hope to keep adding some things as well as our season progresses a little bit that we can add more things."
For more information on Cherry Hill Farms, click here.
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