A leader on the field

My Dad can be sort of tough on us kids, he keeps sayin’ “Life doesn’t grade on a curve” whatever that means. I get good grades, Mom and Dad are proud but they say that is not enough.

Last night I got to wash dishes till about 9:00. We do a “Wine’d Up Wednesdays” weekly event which is mostly a ladies thing at my families winery and I pulled dish duty. Not really “farming” I guess but work that needed done.

But growing up on a farm with a winery, vineyard and agritourism destination has meant

Dad out in a different field

When I was eight years old and barely big enough to see over the wheel my Dad put me in Grandpa’s BIG 4 door diesel dually pickup and told me to “drive”! He was picking up round bales and didn’t want to have to move both the truck and loader by himself. He says I’ll remember that like a “Alan Jackson song”. Whatever all that means? But I do recall that day.

Seeding Basil

The Morton Building

Snow

Tough Truck, that was a lot of snow.

Little pink houses

“I’ve got cancer”, those words were spoken to me on August 31st 2009 as I stood on the dock behind our farm market and winery. On the other end was my wife of 23 and on half years who I let go to the doctor alone because I had grapes to haul that day. And besides, we were pretty certain they were just “calcium deposits”, they were so small. Looking back I’m glad they were. One and half year’s later I now have a wife of over 25 years and a Breast Cancer Survivor.

Komen for the Cure

We are so lucky. How did we react, how else could we like we do everything else. We ran straight at it. Our (My wife Michelle’s) journey was thankfully pretty short compared to so many. I can say that because I was not the one who had a lumpecotmy, which was not enough, but the lymphnodes were ok. So a “double” followed and now we are finishing up reconstruction things look good! No chemo, No radiation.

All the while, we thought we will get through and also how do we do that. The Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure Cleveland walk turned out to be a big part of that. About a month after my wife had her major reconstuction surgery she took her first steps toward really healing. 3 days, 60 miles sound hard? No not really when you see the journey some of the other 900 walkers in the Cleveland walk have endured. We are lucky.

Opening Ceremonies

What does Ohio Wine and More and Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery have to do with all this. Well I will try and explain over the next few blog posts about what the 3 Day Walk is about. It’s a little about marketing, its a little about wine, its a little about giving back what we can because everyone deserves a life!

Santa getting warmed up!

We like we say “There is Always Something Happening at Maize Valley”! And this year the big guy was back again! He parked the reindeer on the barn roof and spent the morning with us. We ended up having TWO seatings with Santa this year due to poplular demand. It looks like we will have to see if he can stop by more than one weekend next year.

Everybody had a great time. Mary, Todd and crew kept the food coming out hot and plentiful from our kitchen and our elves kept everybody moving so that the lines were short and the fun was long. Thanks to all the great folks who picked us as their families “meet and greet” location with Santa.

And one of the really cool things is we do sell a whole lot of great holiday gifts during events like these, that is one of the reasons we do them. Yes we do sell a lot of wine too, after all how do you think all those little ones get here?

Merry Christmas from Maize Valley

Greetings once again from Farmer Bill the FunTSAR at Maize Valley! It has been a long time since I sat down and entered the blogosphere on a regular basis but I hope to be back now that I have more time to sit down and report on what we have been doing at Maize Valley. I have shot lots of videos about what has happened throughout the year and believe or not we are pretty busy right now getting ready for next years growing season.

This is the season of giving, but also thanking. We have put our farmers’ market produce trucks to work decorating them for the holiday season and welcoming guests as they enter our market and tasting room.

Breakfast with Santa is sold out with well over 225 guests set to sit on Santa’s lap and pass along their wishes, or at least get a photo with him. Gift baskets are rolling out strong, thanks to all the great folks who chose Maize Valley to be a part of their holiday giving. We are adding new dinner specials for weekend evenings starting now and going all winter and beyond. New events coming up for next year include a “winemakers dinner” new appetizer, entrees’ and more!

My what sharp teeth you have?!

Let me at em'

Well I ain’t braggin but hey, sometimes even a blind nut finds a squirl….. or somethang like that? You C right up the street from us not even five minutes away lives this big ole’ metal dinasaur, and he ain’t purple! I have driven by it for a couple of years and this year I just stopped in to see if he might be interested in coming over to play?

Well his owner Mike West of Wild West Entertainment is just about as nice of guy as you could meet and he said “sure we can come over”. We worked out a dinasaur dinner budget (he’s gotta eat ya know), and well two weeks now are history, and the crowds just love to come to Maize Valley to see Megasaurus do it’s version of “Making Pumpkin Pie” Maize Valley Style. We are reloading for one more show on October 24th to highlight Megasaurus’s unique dinning style of cars and pumpkins. Now This is what I call Eating Local!

This fall has been a weather diasaster for us. We have had rain EVERY weekend since we opened the corn maze and fall harvest activities. But ya know what, our sales are down but not like they should be with the terrible weather we have encountered. We have lost all our Friday nights, and most all our haunted nights due to either direct rain or mud that made things unsafe. We upped the anti this year, the new maze games outlined in previous posts I think are paying off . The maze is staying in pretty good shape considering the weather, crowds and poor condition of the corn to start with.

I addition even though the haunt has not opened (one night so far) it allowed me to leverage marketing dollars from a local sponser excited about working with us and I was able to purchase several thousand dollars in radio that has in turn leveraged some other unique marketing ideas.

With this promotional push I had the confidence to go ahead and book Megasaurus which is a national quality act seen at Monster Truck shows all over North America (A similar machine sold for over $500,000 recently). And the story goes on with an agreement for next season as well and possible additional sponsors due the momentum and scope of our efforts to date and plans for next year. “And the beat goes on…..and the beat goes on”!

It’s all fun and games till somebody pokes an eye out or something like that I think Mom used to say… But hey when trying to carve our your place in the pumpkin selling world….sometimes it’s better to be lucky (have a megasaurus live up the street) than good!

Green Farmers' Market

Readying for Battle

Chelle getting Blood Pressure Check at Cruise In

Wow, what a summer, the heat is here! I love it! Or at least I HATE plowing snow more, skiing on it cool, plowing not so much.

Things get sorta crazy in August, the weeds really pour the coal to it and grow like crazy as you can see in the Pumpkin update video. What a train wreck, nothing to be proud of there but as I said I would show “Warts and All”. Late season weed breakthrough with rain and heat, what a mess!! Frost should fix it lots of pumpkins out there.

Vintage Ohio, The Civil War Re-enactment, Farmers’ Markets, Kids in cross country, Did I mention weeds, Rain making grass grow everywhere, Did I mention weeds? Oh yea my main computer took a total CRASH, (all files backed up except “outlook”)

Thanks to all the folks visiting our ole’ green trucks at the Farmers’ Markets!!! Really getting some good sales! Thanks to all the folks coming out and buying wine and in the stores, sales good! Thanks to all the folks e-mailing and calling about fall activities like the Corn Maze, Pumpkin picking, campfires, wagon rides, the pumpkin cannon, pig races and more!!

Right now we are re-tooling and beginning the shift from growing season to harvest. Grapes changing color, pumpkins turning orange, fall is in our sights. Stay tuned for big news on the fall harvest agritourism events and activities. I might just be able to pull off a way cool added attraction this fall, check back too see!!

Check out the videos below sorry they jump around a bunch just trying to keep up with the work and the documentation of this summer’s progress and report it, it ain’t easy! Hopefully this winter I can sit down and make some better use of this data.

Take care

Fresh Cut Pathway

Corn Maze Paths just after cutting

Getting started cutting the corn maze

This is our Tenth Anniversary Corn Maze, wow has it been that long??!! Well we are getting started and combining the maze with our new Civil War Re-enactment set to go on August 15th and 16th. Corn looks kinda short we will see, just not enough sun and heat so far. If we don’t make Aug. it will be Labor Day Weekend.

I have been getting several inquiries as to how we do our mazes and why we do things certain ways. Keep in mind this agritourism thing is a process of evolution. Not all things work at all locations. You can learn by seeing what others do and then trying certain aspects on your own place. But most of all keep asking questions. I don’t think “outside the box”, I crawl up on top of it, pick it up, & turn it over. I look at agritourism from all sides now!

We hire Rob Stoffer with Precision Mazes to handle the cut and Hugh McPherson of Maize Quest for the design and activity content. We have done it all in-house over the years but we just have too much going on now and have created such an expectation of excellence with our guests that it is now time to rely on the professionals. My brain just ain’t big enough to get it all done anymore, I don’t know if it ever was, I think I was just lucky. We have done NASCAR/NAPA, Bridgestone/Bigfoot, Formula One Racing and more. It has been a fun ride and a great way to make money while bringing such fun to families!

Keep in touch as we install the games, trivia, and all the other stuff that makes a Maize Valley an Adventure, not just a walk in a corn field. Check out the links under “Agritourism” to learn more about the great partners we have!

Cabor Toss

Bill Kennedy attending to his family obligations

Frances Acar with the Scottish American Society

It has been said you don’t know where you are going if you don’ know where you have been. This past weekend at Maize Valley the Scottish American Society invited the world to see where their members ancestors came from and all the really cool stuff that made them very unique.

This group of hard working Scotts has been developing this festival for 5 years now and it has begun to really come into its own and get a great feel and flow to it. Every year they add new vendors, displays, entertainment and events for a full day ladies in layers and men in kilts of Tarten and Plaid.

They have developed a real nice “village” atmosphere as you step out of our market and tasting room and move onto the gateway pavilion to find music and dancers, flow down into the grass and check out the clan tents and vendors then make you way up the hill past the Highland Cattle and watch the Heavy Highland Athletic competition.

Oh, Did I mention we sell Wine and More that day too??? Oh well check out some of the videos below to see just how the day unfolded and be sure and visit Maize Valley next year to come and “get your Scott on” and have a meat pie!

Let’s face it for all the fuss about “Big Bold Reds” etc. if you really want an alcoholic beverage with “body” search out and find a good Dark Beer! But that is just my call on that one. Wine by nature is just more delicate and suited for a different role in persons lives. And isn’t that what it is really all about, people? Yes you have to have a quality product but I like to always say you can always go back and buy more wine but you can’t go back and make more time.

I have been talking a great deal about what we “Do” in the spring time around the farm but have not mentioned our market where we sell most of it. The other day I shot a walk through video of our retail farm market, and tasting room. My camera is not the greatest when it comes to lighting so don’t think this is going to be showing up at the Sundance Film Fest. or anything.

Take Care and Hakuna Matata!!