Friday, October 23, 2009

Corn Maze 101

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, on Tuesday I was a chaperone on my son's pumpkin patch field trip.  I also mentioned the corn maze.  

I need to elaborate on the corn maze.



Ariel view of the awesome maze.  I tracked down a farmer and asked how it was created.  

Here's the rundown.
  1. Corn is planted in a criss cross X pattern.
  2. Drawing of the maze is created on paper.
  3. The farm actually has a surveyor working on the property who is able to translate the drawing into the field of corn.
  4. GPS devices are used to map out the maze.
  5. The appropriate corn stalks are then removed from the desired paths.  If done early enough in the season, this is an easy task.  If they wait too long, an ax needs to be used to cut down the stalks.  I got the impression the ax was used more often than not.



Maps were provided should you need them.  You need them.  It's very disorienting in that sea of 7-8 feet tall corn stalks.  We had a guide, a map and there were marked signs with John Deere Trivia to let you know you were on the right path.

I still got lost.



4 comments:

  1. Wow, that looks cool, and a little scary at the same time - I wonder if there's anything like that at night as a Halloween thing? I don't know if I could do it! Really interesting to find out how they build the maze though.

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  2. makes you appreciate the maze a little more wen you know all the work that goes into it. kind of like with shopping handmade

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  3. OH! so cute :) I'm never been in a corn maze! or a maize maze, which is probably what i would be calling it over and over!

    just stopping by to say hi! super cute blog :)

    xo, Katie
    www.kateandoli.blogspot.com

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  4. I've always wanted to go to a corn maze!!

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