The Ohio Wine and More Blog is as the title says, more! Part of our winery is also a strong agricultural heritage. But that heritage is an evolving one. Maize Valley was once a “Conventional Commercial Dairy and Cash Grain” family farm enterprise. Maize Valley is now a diversified direct to consumer and wholesaler producer of of a wide variety of fresh market vegtables, as well as a new up and coming line of peppers, salsas, sauses and of course award winning wines.
In 2009 we attended 7 weekly farmers’ markets in the growing and harvest season. This winter we have expanded to attending one winter market to test the waters and see how that works. I do not mean to imply that we are experts at any of this. We are just one family farm trying new things to adapt to a changing marketplace
This years attempt at raising spinich and lettuce in the greenhouse is far from perfect. A “greenhouse” is not the idea enviornment for this type of production but before we invested a lot we wanted to give it a try with resources and infrastructure we already had. To do this sort of production a “High Tunnel” type of cover would be better suited. This might be in the future for us if we see a market emerge to sell product in what was traditionally a off season.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again with more posts from The Ohio Wine and More blog. Come and see why Maize Valley IS the Place to BE!
As the saying goes “Back in the Day” yes this blog is called Ohio Wine and More and I usually have you looking at all kinds of stuff besides wine and that is true. We are a diverse agricultural family farm enterprise.
Part of our past was that of an agricultural supply center for other local farmers as well as ourselves. As the landscape changed in our community so did we as a result.
So what once was a 3,000 acre corn, soybeans, wheat, dairy, etc., diverse family agricultural “old school” production oriented enterprise changed into a direct marketing guest/consumer oriented farm market and winery.
At one point I managed our grain storage facility that had about 470,000 bushel capacity. A average semi truck dump trailer holds about 1,000 bushels as a reference point. Over the years we gradually starting growing more vegtables beyond the sweet corn seed my father-in-law threw in the 12 row corn planter on the last round of the season to a more direct oriented vegtable producer.
Here is a view of some of the “old” headed to the scrap yard.
I think people are best summed up with pictures rather than words. I hear they had an estimated attendance of about 70,000 of them so you are bound to get some great shots!
The Chunkin for the Cure Cannon
I even snuck a quick ride in over the the Atlantic Shore
I even snuck a quick ride in over the the Atlantic Shore
Cammo coat and a wedding dress!
Check out the Porta-Jon in the back of the pickup truck!
When you run out of Horse shoes
I just have a “wanna beee” beard! I’m the one on the right!
Move over “Corn Hole”, when in Rome…
Awesome
Improvised field games
Take corn cobs, black electricians tape, beer bottles, add corn field and friends!
Finally a good use for a Harley!
I had a Daiquiri for Breakfast and $$’s went to St. Judes!!
Above are just a few of the shots that made people watching at this event as much fun as watching the pumpkins fly!
The following video is way too long, sorry. Just drag and drop to the last 30 seconds or so to see the shot.
You can visit their link I have with the pics above to get the history to how all this got started but as you can see it has just gotten way out of control. Just as it should, I hear there are some machines here that have around $400,000.00 invested in them. That was just the word on the street, uh er chunkin line, I can’t say for sure.
My little air cannon (pictured below) has about a 20 foot 8 inch diameter barrel. It was a grain leg drop tube used for filling bins back in the day when we were a grain storage facility. The tank I found at a propane supplier that was surplus material, and so goes much of the rest of the parts. I have a range of about 2500 feet, these big guys much more with a bigger pumpkin too!
Marlboro Madness Maize Valley Pumpkin Cannon
Low buck, safe, make a profit was my motivation these guys take it too a whole other level. I think Tim Allen would be proud! Again you can go to the Science Channels website or You Tube to see more but I will put a video clip here that I took at the event. It is sort of long and the shot takes place towards the end (1:45) as when you are filming them you never quite know when it is going to go off.
Well this is post #2 of my journey to the Pumpkin Chunkin World Championships near Bridgeville DE. I am making several posts to show a spectators view of the chunk. I went as both a spectator and someone who built and owns a air cannon.
We have had ours for 5 seasons now and I am looking at expanding our fall events. One possible option is to create a chunk of our own on a smaller scale.
One thing about this event that struck me immediately is the sheer scale. It is just plain HUGE! From the Highway dept. signs you see coming in from miles away, the huge parking area and number of people working it, the walk to the grounds, big, just way big.
My first impression was that this event has a feel to me of a combination of events I am familiar with. If you are a Buckeye like me consider this. Combine the Farm Science Review, Hinneygate/Tailgate party, with a trip to the pumpkin patch and you begin to understand what I was walking into.
I have sooooo much to tell about this event I rode out to see that I can’t squeeze it into just one blog entry! I would try, but my man Corey over at The Karcher Group (TKG) who helps with all my web stuff says “take it easy, post less content per entry but do it more often if you have a lot to say”.
That being said I am going to roll this story out in stages. Here is the approach and long view of the grounds, (over 200 acres plus parking) then we will get to more details later. You can also go to the Science Channel Web site to learn more too.
As many of you know we have been throwin pumpkins at our place for a number of years now. The main reason I went to the “Mother of all Chunks” is to see how a event like this works, feels, and rolls.
My wife Chelle and I are going through a battle with breast cancer and I thought to start a similar event at Maize Valley on a smaller scale just might be a great way to raise funds, awareness and have fun doing so.
A special thanks goes out to John Huber president of the Pumpkin Chunkin association for helping me learn more about this great event.
Todd looking at progress of winter greenhouse crops
There is ALWAYS something Happening at Maize Valley! I understand the economy presents some unique challenges now, but I refuse to think that you can do nothing about it. It just forces you to try new things, think harder, work smarter, get better, get out of your comfort zone, move ahead.
That is what made our country great not “gov’t stimulus” or “Nebraska style” change, it is entrepreneurs getting out taking risks with the hope of reward. That lasts long after the handout is gone! Sorry about the “soapbox” there!
Winter time is always a tough time for business especially wineries but new this year at Maize Valley will be our Thursday evening “Vintners Dinners”. A chance for people to come out and learn a little bit more about wine, understand better how it complements different foods, and enjoy the company of others as you travel on this path together.
One unique thing about our Vintners dinners is that even in the winter months some of the entree’ will be grown by us! Right now just for starters it is going to be the salad and wine produced by us will be paired with it. Different dinners will have different themes and pairings.
The dinners will be the third Thursday of the month with limited reserved seating. Move your curser over the pics above and “click”, it will magically take you to a Maize Valley web page with details such as price, dates, menu etc.
Yea I do talk and shoot a lot of videos but here and there I try and do some real work too. I guess we bloggers who actually get out in the real world and actually do something that contributes to our nations GDP are few and far between but here is one of the jobs that we need to get after in the “off season”.
Water is an essential element necessary for plant life. However too much is not good. All things need balance. When soils become saturated plants don’t do well. I had an animal science professor Dr. Kline, that once told us “Water is TOXIC, right up to here!” as he held his finger just above his nose.
Much is the same for plants so we put pipes or drainage tubes in the fields to remove excess water and improve plant health. It is one of the most expensive aspects of farming and requires maintance. In this case we have several plugged or broken field tiles in this particular part of the field and are just getting started trying to identify the locations and dig them up and repair the spots.
The tile can break, get crushed, or get things like tree roots growing inside that leads to low flow and more plugs so we begin the task of “hunt and peck” as we move about the field. Today I had Galen helping me on hand shovel and Burt running the trac hoe. Here are a few videos as we dig into the soil in search of the damaged tile.
This particular tile drains part of our rear vineyard, corn maze, part of an alfalfa field, and haunted corn maze. We were able to find and fix one of the problems but have more work to do in other sections of the field later this winter.
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?
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!
