With the fall season beginning next week, area residents will begin looking in earnest for events and entertainment unique to this time of year, including finding their way through mazes in corn fields which provide more than a tasty treat. At right, Allan Davis, a worker at the Cobble Creek Farm on West Ridge Road, hoes a wider entrance to the corn maze which this year has a dragon theme. Designer Greg VerHulst said the dragon was hand drawn on paper and the path was made after the corn had four week’s growth. The maze will open the last week in September and weekends thereafter in October. Below, Pat Zarpentine peers into a partially completed corn teepee which stands tall next to the Maize Maze at Zarpentine Farms on Burritt Road in Parma. The 45 foot tall structure has a wood frame overlaid with corn stalks tied with twine which is stapled to the frame. Zarpentine’s maze is in the shape of Noah’s Ark, in honor of the 2006 rainy season. “It rained every weekend last year except Columbus Day,” she said. “Everybody who came out to try the maze remembers having mud up to their knees.” The Zarpentine maze occupies about 20 acres with almost seven miles of paths, making it one of the biggest in the state. It opened September 7. The Zarpentine maze is open Fridays 6 to 10 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m. At Cobble Creek the experience includes a trip through the maze, a hayride, a pumpkin, and other fall treats. Both sites book groups and offer various fall foods, produce and special features. Photographs by Walter Horylev. © September 16, 2007 - Westside News Inc. |
