Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Wynn Farms is making a splash to kick off the apple-picking season, unveiling this year’s corn maze theme as ‘Under the Sea.’
The pick-your-own apple season officially opens Saturday (Aug. 20)-also the opening day of the maze, which will run seven days a week through Oct. 31. Current hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but those hours will extend later in the season with Halloween themed events planned for late October.
As has been tradition for the previous nine years, the cornfield has been shaped into a brand new theme. This year the popular maze is challenging guests to navigate the ocean, working their way through a zigzag corn field that when viewed from above depicts a friendly crab, coral, submarine and a happy fish. Throughout the maze will be stations, each one offering a clue to help solve an ocean-themed puzzle and guide guests to find their way to 10 collectable images and take-home activities.
“We try to make it fun but also educational,” said Sarah Wynn, who owns the pick-your-own apple orchard with her husband Jim. “We’ll talk about coral and Mariana’s Trench and what the kids can do to make the ocean a better place: reduce, recycle and not using single use plastic, things like that. We’ll talk about sharks and all the creatures that will be found in the waters.”
Mapped out well in advance, designing the corn maze takes months of preparation, long before the first seed is planted. And despite what many assume, the corn isn’t planted into the desired shape and then simply grown into the intricate pattern.
“We always get asked that question, people think that it magically gets planted that way,” laughs Wynn. “I start the design process in the winter. I do all the design work on graph paper then Jim plants everything and then in early July is when we went out and cut it. Jim and I do that as a team, flag and cut out the maze which is a lot of math and then let it grow from there.”
All cuts are final, making for little room for error.
“It’s a big project every year but it’s always enjoyable, especially when you see that aerial image and it actually what it is supposed to be,” added Wynn.
This year’s maze is a bit more challenging than most, but participants are never far from an emergency exit if they don’t feel like navigating the whole path. Guests are also given a map when entering.
After the maze guests can wander the orchard and pick their own apples with the Paula Red now in season.
For the latest hours and updates on which varieties of apples are available, visit their website https://wynnfarms.ca/. Wynn Farms’ apple orchard is located at 9592 Hwy 33 in Greater Napanee.
Along with apples, Wynn Farm’s pick your own flower fields remain open, located just 4 KMs up the road from the orchard.