by donald dusinberre imartsyfartsy@gmail.com
I wish there were more wholesome things in the world that made me as happy as I was when I visited my first corn maze. I thought corn mazes were only in Iowa and Oklahoma, but lucky for us, we have one right here in North Florida.
Fall is my favorite season, and having grown up in Western New York, I miss the colorful leaves, brisk wind and cool evenings with an orange glow. Here in Florida, those things don’t usually come until after Thanksgiving, if at all. Conner’s A-Maize-Ing Acres is a wonderful place. Amazing even. They’ve set up just about everything you and your kids need to get into the autumn spirit.
Obviously, they’ve got a maze carved through a cornfield. Each year features a new and different design, and this year boasts an impressive Noah’s Ark design. The maze is a full eight acres, and trust me, it’s big. You can’t really see where you’re going, which makes it as authentic as can be and fun, too. If you want to expedite your trip through the maze, then brush up on your knowledge of the Bible’s story of Noah’s Ark. There are trivia questions posted along the paths that will point you in the right direction if you know the answers. Don’t worry though, even if you’re not a studious Christian you’ll still find your way through with a little prayer and determination.
Conner’s A-Maize-Ing Acres offers many more fun activities for the family. Kids and adults can ride the Cow Train, play on the haystacks, race the pedal go-karts, play on the playground and go for a hayride. There’s a General Store with craft items and a Feed Trough with beverages, hamburgers, fries, wings and pulled pork sandwiches (which are really delicious, by the way). They also have a Pumpkin Patch full of Navajo pumpkins and gourds, with 25 percent of the sales going to cancer research at Nemours Children’s Hospital.
The hayride is a trip in itself, as it takes riders to many features of the 40 acres that can’t otherwise be experienced. It ventures past the field with vegetables planted for the hungry, which will be harvested around November 3rd and yield collards, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce. They also stop at the petting zoo in the barn and the hydroponic garden, which has strawberries for you to pick.
The Conners call their hydroponic garden “bi-organic”, which means that the fruit is grown organically, but due to the expensive and extensive process for organic registration, they can’t really call it “Organic.” They believe they have a responsibility to the public to produce food that is as clean and natural as God intended. God has made strawberries, but man has made pesticides. We don’t know for sure what our creation will do to us over the long term, but we do know that God’s creation is safe for us.
This is the fifth year that Conner’s A-Maize-Ing Acres has offered us a classic fall afternoon, and I believe that they’ve become much more valuable to the area since they started. Before they opened the A-Maize-Ing Acres, the Conners raised chickens for Tyson, but now their farm nourishes more than the body. Take the opportunity on one of the upcoming fall weekends to boost your spirits.
Conner’s A-Maize-Ing Acres will be open through November 24th, which is Thanksgiving weekend. They are open to the public on Saturdays from 10 am to dark thirty, and open Monday through Friday to field trips and other reserved groups from 10 am to 2 pm. Visit their website at connerscornfieldmaze.com.
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