Murray Wood: When words fail, stuffed animals can say a lot
Murray Wood says people in Foam Lake and communities across Saskatchewan are putting stuffed animals outside to remember...
The towering stalks at a corn maze outside of Lumsden are a crop Jamie McCormick will remember.
“We’ve had probably the best year that we’ve had in 10 years,” she said. “It’s gotten so high in some places.”
The manager of the Happy Hollow Corn Maze is one of several Saskatchewan businesses seeing healthy, tall corn stalks this year.
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McCormick said lots of timely rain and dry heat helped the corn soar above people trying to escape the maze.
“It’s tall. It’s thick, and it was really lush and very green in the beginning,” she said. “And now, as you can kind of see, as it’s starting to turn brown, it’s still very full.”
McCormick’s children run through the the Happy Hollow Corn Maze. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)
McCormick said it’s nice to see such a strong crop because they had to cancel the maze last year.
“We had an early frost. We had a weed issue,” she said. “This year it’s so full. It’s so big. It’s back. It’s bigger than ever.
Typically, the maze will grow between six and eight feet tall in an average year.
This season, the stalks stand between 10 and 12 feet above the maze escapists.
Taller stalks mean more cobs of corn to harvest.
McCormick said the corn variety that’s grown is primarily used as livestock feed, but its used in a unique way for fall festivities.
“We have a corn cannon,” she said with a laugh. “So in the morning we gather up as much corn as we can for the day, and you can actually shoot the corn at targets.”
McCormick said the business won’t run out of ammunition this fall.
The Happy Hollow Corn Maze is between 10 and 12 feet tall, higher than previous years. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)
Chelsea Snow, the manager of the Corn Maiden Market north of Lumsden, said this is the strongest corn maze she’s ever seen.
“It’s beautiful. In the centre it’s about 12 feet tall,” she said. “We have two mazes, and I’ve honestly never seen it so tall.”
Snow said a combination of ideal weather conditions helped the corn reach impressive heights.
Jacob Wielinga, a staff member at the Youth Farm Corn Maze near Rosthern, said its corn crops have been consistently tall over the past decade.
“It’s typically fairly thick,” he said. “It grows tall. This year, it’s a little taller, but the extra rain this year did not per se affect the experience that people are having.”
There was no wildfire smoke to delay the corn’s growth this season, Wielinga said, so the crop came in on time.
“I would say it’s definitely prayer and just a lot of fertilizer that makes the corn grow every year,” he said.
