The Valley Voice: Baby I'm Amaized about new East Conway maize [09/22/2007]

New agritainment attraction opens Saturday at Sherman Farm

It's looks as though the most popular song around Sherman Farm starting this weekend and continuing until the end of October will be Sir Paul McCartney's, Baby I'm A Maize (the Way You Love Me All the Time)... That's right. With the grand opening Saturday of Sherman Farm of East Conway Road's new, N.H. Bicentennial coin-themed maze, a lot of people will not only be humming that McCarthy tune, many of the less direction-gifted visitors may also be singing J. Geils' I Musta Got Lost!No crop circle sightings have been spotted in East Conway of late, but many pilots have flown over the elaborate pattern that has been cut in the eight-acre cornfield off Route 113 and River Street over the last month or so, and the pilots' banter has been abuzz with accounts of seeing the maize and maze from above.The media was given just such a sky view opportunity this Tuesday, as Phyllis and Al Sherman,their daughter, Kathy Sherman, and grandson and granddaughter Jeff Hatch and Michele Dutton welcomed the press to go for a ride with pilot Chris Thresher of MTM Helicopters of Lewiston, Maine, to get a better view.As the helicopter blades revved up, reporters climbed onboard for a ride with Thresher, who works fulltime as a paramedic in Boston, lives in Manchester, and flies parttime for MTM.The Shermans hired the chopper for the media's use the day of our visit, and will not be available for rides. But the helicopter rides offered every fall at the Fryeburg Fair will no doubt make a swing if asked over the new oversized East Conway attraction, which is said to have more than three miles of paths leading through the big corny coin in the field.The Shermans contracted with world-renowned maze designer Brett Herbst to build the maze as a way to add to their family-owned farm's agritainment offerings to go along with their popular farmstand, pumpkinfests and hayrides.They are rounding out the offerings by also providing Moo Express train rides pulled by a tractor and providing lots of udder delights for the young crowd. They are also filling a plastic playpen with corn kernels for toddlers to get up to their ears, literally, in all sorts of corn. A petting area of goats and other farm animals will be available.Phyllis said the maze will be opened weekends through the end of October, and that school tours will be available by reservation during the week.Phyllis, who serves on Conway's Zoning Board of Adjustment when she's not helping the family sell the farmstand's array of baked goods, farm produce, soups, fruit, locally raised beef and chicken, and fresh ice cream, said the family hopes the new attraction will help to lure families to the farm so they can be educated about agriculture.The maze is kind of an extension of the farmstand, done not only with the idea of augementing the income of the farm, but also one of the interests is to educate the public about agriculture; to provide a place where people can not only learn about agriculture but also have fun doing it, said Phyllis.The Shermans note the maze will give New Hampshire and Maine residents as well as those from away the chance to get lost Sept. 22 through Oct. 28. Hours of oepration are Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday through Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Columbus Weekend.The Shermans came up with the idea of making the maze a corny oversized reproduction of the state's Bicentennial coin, which depicts the Old Man of the Mountain, the state's emblem which slipped off its perch off Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch May 3, 2003.We thought it would be a nice tribute to the Old Man, said Jeff Hatch, the Shermans' grandson, who grew up working on the farm his grandparents have owned, expanded and operated since moving from Massachusetts to East Conway in 1964. He tried a semester at college, but decided he prefers being in the outdoors, working on the farm and helping out his grandparents and mom, sun-up to sundown. He loves farming, as it is in his blood. And now, so's the art of creating a maize, er, maze, out of corn.The maze phenomena started in Utah in 1996 with Herbst's Maize Company. The company has now designed more than 600 mazes throughout the country, as the maize craze has grown to cornfields throughout Canada, Mexico and Europe. And to think may of us just thought that sweet native corn was only good for eating. Or ethanol. But now, entertainment or more to the point, agritainment! Call it the Zea mays maize craze.The Maize Company the ones who took our idea of what we wanted; they did the design and then they cut it and they have helped us with the media promotion as well, said Phyllis, during a post-flight tour of the maze Tuesday.She said the design is more complicated than just a local version of England's much ballyhooed and still mysterious crop circles. The intricate design bears the Sherman Farm name at the top, along with New Hampshire 1788, the state's motto, Live Free or Die, and E pluribus unum.Jeff Hatch said the Shermans planted silage corn (the corn used for cattle feed) in both directions to give it a cross-cross pattern, like a huge piece of graph paper. The design was then gridded out, with the Maize company spray-painting the design in color and then cutting it with chemicals when the corn was 4 to 6 inches tall this past July.The Shermans have a 50-mile contract with the Maize Company which gives them exclusive rights (there's a maize in Moultonboro, but they're not with the Maize company).Corn cops (the family's crop of attendants) will offer corn passports will be given out to all maze visitors, for example, which ask pertinent corn questions such as what is the key ingredient in corn: sugar, water or starch? Depending on their answer, the person will be directed to turn right, left or go straight ahead in the maze. Only the correct answer will lead them in the right direction, however.The Shermans say the correct pathway can be walked in 15 minutes, but that most wandering maze-goers will require about one hour ro travel the three miles of twists, turns and decision points.So, along with Cranmore Mountain Resort's upcoming Ghoulog attraction in which visitors will be whisked to the summit in October as part of its scary Halloween celebration, along with Wildcat's Zip Ride, Attitash's Oktoberfest and the traditional Fryeburg and Sandwich Fairs, foliage season will have a lot to offer this year here in Mount Washington Valley. For further information, go to www.cornfieldmaze.com or call the Maze Hotline at 455-5471 or the Sherman Farm at 939-2412.