I have always wondered what happened to a corn maze after Halloween. I think about all of the work just put into raising the corn. Having to figure just what plants to omit so that a pathway could be identified as a trail. A corn Maze is always fun, and it generally built in conjunction with a pumpkin patch. All of this opens to the general public about 5 weeks before Halloween.
I needed to know where these corn plants (stocks) went. Is there a great corn maze in the sky? Does maze corn require a special seed. How long does it take for a corn maze to grow? How close do you plant the seeds? I could go on and on with questions.
The Sonoma County Farm Bureau identified all of the local corn maze growers located in Sonoma County and published a small clip about each one in their last month’s Farm Bureau News. Included was information about the Petaluma Great Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze. The owner, Jim Groverman who runs this maze is a close friend of mine. I visited his maze a couple of times this season. Once with a 5 year old and once with a 7 year old, both precious girls, the best fun I have had in 8 months. The parent of both of these girls are very special friends of mine.
Jim’s corn maze is located just north of Petaluma west of highway 101 at the intersection of Stony Point Road. It could not be located at a better location. The entire parcel is about 20 acres. This lets Jim carve out a 4-acre maze, a likewise sized pumpkin patch and then an area for a food stand, a smaller corn maze for younger people, a pony ride, and up to this year a slide. A large parking area is provided all surrounded with just one row of corn at various locations to help identify different areas. The entire venue is preciously laid out.
The weather this year cooperated for all of the Pumpkin/ Corn Maze growers. This is not always the case.
On Monday, November 1st, I called Jim to confirm when he would remove the corn maze. He called on Thursday and told me to come down on Friday around 9 am to see the demise of the corn maze. The corn maze harvest was already in process when I arrived. Converting the corn maze to silage was a very large John Deere implement. The cab was two stories tall. The cutting bar was 36 feet wide. Processing ten rows of corn at one pass. The equipment was moving at a fast walking speed spitting out the green silage into a receiving hopper truck which kept right up with it while filling up the hopper. As soon as one truck was full another truck was right in line to receive more of the green mixture of corn and stocks now silage feed for animals
It’s a good thing I got to the maze when I did. By 10am the Great Petaluma Corn Maze was gone. Ground up into green feed and sent to a dairy in Sonoma to produce milk. So, the answer where does the Corn Maze go when it is gone, it goes into milk. When you have a glass of milk today you just might be consuming a little bit of the Petaluma Corn Maze.
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