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Balloon Lift off September 27th 2014, Corn Maze wagon rides and a whole lot more.

Thursday, September 11th, 2014

Lots of hot air!

We open our Corn Maze in Mid-September but our Balloon Lift has grown into our sort of unofficial Kick Off for the fall harvest season. It takes a few crisp mornings and few trees changing color to get people thinking about a trip to the pumpkin patch or corn maze.

Up close and personal

Our balloon lift started over a dozen years ago when I asked a neighbor who owned a balloon if he would get a few friends together and take off from our farm. It has gotten to be a fall tradition. We launch between six and eight balloons from the meadow up back near our corn maze and campfire site area. Folks are welcome to get a up close view of the balloon crews at work as they prepare to take to the skies.

Grab a seat wherever you can!

You can bring a blanket a lawn chair or grab a seat wherever you can! Our giant hay/straw crawl is a favorite place to relax as the balloons unfold and inflate and take to the skies.

Or just keep crawling!

Kids just love to climb on things! One thing we learned over the years is if it sticks up out of the field, Kids love to climb on it so we just go with it. We try and build as many farm theme consistent safe and fun fresh air opportunities to get out and have fun!

Wide open spaces!

One unique thing about our farm is the setting. We sit up on a nice gentle hilltop surrounded by fields. The field we launch balloons from we make hay off of.

Somebody left their "sippy cup" unattended!

Some people ask can you have alcohol at a “family event”? We say yes you can. There are three to six hours worth of activities depending upon your level of abilities and interests. Folks can easily enjoy our wines or now new craft beers responsibly and be safe going home.

Did I mention kids like to climb?

We encourage parents to get out and have fun with their off spring! We have lots of places for fresh air and exercise. So come on out September 27th, visit the balloon lift link on our web site for more information.

Tags: Agri-tourism, Buy Local, Corn Maze, Family Farm, Family Time, Farm Market, Farmers' Market, Homegrown, Ohio Winery, Ohio Wines, Pumpkin Chunkin
Posted in Breweries, Corn Maze, Fall Harvest Fun!, Food and Wine, Things to see at Maize Valley | No Comments »

Corn Maze Disaster!! Oh my what a birthday present!

Friday, September 5th, 2014

It was my 50th birthday and I’m REAL hard to buy for so my wonderful wife planned an awesome trip over to the Finger Lakes wine country in Western New York state. It was a great time, we took our camper just the two of us and I made place to haul my motorcycle on the back. We had a blast, we spent a few days riding around the area then headed back home on my birthday July 10th.

And we are ready to roll!

On our way home we drove in pouring across 90. It got so bad I pulled off as I was afraid I might get rear ended because visibility was so bad. We got through it and drove home. As we got close we heard Akron had huge flooding and it stormed pretty hard but didn’t think much about it. The next day I went out and checked the fields not expecting what I’d find.

What was 5 feet tall yesterday was 1 foot tall today

We got about 2.5 inches of rain in about a half an hour with heavy wind gusts that bent the corn over to the ground.

Flattened near the observation tower.

Corn is a tough plant and I’d seen it blown over before and stand back up but not when it was this tall. Much of this field was over five feet tall and it was bent and broken just a few inches above ground level.

The flattened corn fell into the maze paths

The flattened corn had fallen into the maze paths I had proudly cut just a few weeks earlier and made me uncertain would I be able to still craft a maze into this field. I still needed to roto-till these paths yet, and I wasn’t sure what I had in the way of design left. The soil was saturated and if you tried to pick up a stalk it snapped off at the ground.

What to do with this mess?

So I took the advise of my father in law Kay and my buddy Dave from Iowa, walk away and come back in a week.

About 10 days later this is what I found!

I came back and this what I found…..It mostly stood back up, at least enough to make a corn maze!

Bent at the base but still standing!

The stalks were “Goosenecked” and bent but the plants had mostly righted themselves. The field sort of shifted over about a foot but it all moved in a relative fashion so the paths I had mowed earlier were maintained.

Roto tilling went well!

Tilling the paths went well and we were able to clean up the edges nicely and it made for a great aerial photo.

2013 LoCo Motion final photo

We ended up getting a great picture and had a record year for the fall. And best of all when we harvested later in November the field yielded over 140 bushels to the acre even with all the paths cut out of it!

Tags: Agritourism, Buy Local, Corn Maze, Ohio Winery, Pumpkin Chunkin
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Craft Beer, More of the “More” to what we are

Saturday, August 30th, 2014

Well maybe we need to change this Blogs name? It is hard for us to get across the marketing message that is Maize Valley. We span a lot of different things.

Here we grow again

Briefly “Maize Valley Farm” was began by Kay and Donna (Rohor) Vaughan my wife Michelle’s parents in the 1960’s. Kay’s ancestors were the third settler’s in the township dating back to the 1800’s. Donna’s parents moved into Marlboro township in the early 1900’s. After graduating from Kent State Kay and Donna were married and started the farm and family. They taught school and farmed as many as 6,000 acres. The farm included grain crops and dairy with their son Steve as well as other livestock over the years.

Michelle lower left, Breanne upper left, Donna upper right and Brett

In the late 90’s the farm changed again selling the cows and some equipment and adding a produce market and agri-tourism venture including pumpkin picking and a corn maze. As houses closed in more in 2005 a winery was added and now in 2014 a craft brewery is set to open on Labor Day, September 1st 2014. Today we still farm about 600 acres, with a wide variety of crops ranging from garlic to green beans to grapes to pumpkins and hops.

Harvest 2014

Todd Vaughan is the wine maker and overseeing the beer production with the help of brewmaster Jake Turner. Michelle (Vaughan) Bakan manages the market and food service with the help of main staffer Scott Mann and a whole host of great employees. Bill Bakan is the Fun TSAR in charge of most all outside operations from grounds maintenance to all things “Corn Maze” and such.

Marlboro Madness our Pumpkin Cannon

Stay tuned as we work at using this blog to give “The Rest of the Story” of what goes on and how we try and manage folks expectations. We hope we do well for you. Thanks for stopping by.

Hot Chicks, Breanne and Cara Bakan at Maize Valley

Tags: Buy Local, Craft Brewery, Family Farm, Farm Market, Sustainable Agriculture.
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Ohio Corn Maze Cutting the design part 7

Friday, August 29th, 2014

In past blog posts have talked about what we do to get the corn growing in the field that we use to create a corn maze. Now it is time to bring the field to life you might say!

Our 2013 Corn Maze Aireal Photograph

The above photograph is of our 2013 “LoCo-Motion” corn maze adventure. Each year we theme our mazes to reflect an idea we think our guests will find enjoyable. Inside the maze are games and activities to do that reflect the designs theme. We have done NASCAR, the BIG FOOT monster truck, the Pony Express and more over the past 13 years. At first we cut the designs by “hand” with flags and grid paper. Later we hired it done by a professional maze carver. Two years ago we purchased our own Global Positioning Satellite guided system to guide us as we cut the corn. Yes we plant the corn first as discussed in a previous blog post, then we carve the design into a solid field of corn.

Maze design in file form on computor

The above pic shows what we start with. We hire a graphic artist to design a cool design and put it into a share able file that we can load onto software on a laptop that we connect to a specially designed GPS system. The the design for 2014 features a Sea Turtle and the trivia games in the maze will be Sea Turtle related as well.

The 2014 Design displayed on my laptop

The GPS system is very accurate so you need a machine that is very maneuverable to take advantage of the detail in the designs. We do what we call “Art Mazes” for a reason.

Commercial Toro Zero Turn Mower with GPS system mounted

You could say you cannot tell what the maze looks like when you are in it and you are mostly correct. But we do more we wrap a whole game and experience around the maze and the photo needs to reflect that. We take pictures and hang them on the walls of our winery/brewery for people to look at all year long, people love to stop and stare and take in that we can actually take the design and actually transfer it to the field so well.

Path right after cutting

The above photo shows what the paths look like right after we cut them. We do not stop there. About two to three weeks later we go over the entire design with a roto-tiller to kill any remaining corn, grind up the cut off stalks and level the paths better for strollers and power or wheel chairs.

Paths after roto-tilling

The above photo shows the paths after roto-tilling. In order to get the proper look to the design we sometimes take our wider sections of corn. The below pic is what it looks like before we hit it with the tiller.

Pre-rototilling, a lot of corn survives the mower!

Following the mowed paths

Click Here to watch a video I made using my Go Pro as I cut the maze.

Now we wait till a few weeks before opening day to come back in and set the games and activities portion of the corn maze. It usually takes about an hour to complete the game sheet and find the various trivia questions and other things to follow along with if the guest choose to do so. The corn maze at one time was all we were about along with picking pumpkins. Over the years we have evolved into a unique fall harvest destination with a winery and new for 2014 we will be one of Ohio’s newest craft breweries also.

Tags: Agri-tourism, Buy Local, Corn Maze, Family Farm, Homegrown, Ohio farm market, Ohio Winery, Ohio Wines, Pumpkin Chunkin, Sustainable Agriculture.
Posted in Corn Maze | No Comments »

Corn Maze, planting the field part 6

Wednesday, August 20th, 2014

Since the fall harvest season makes up a huge part of who we are and what we do we spend some time talking about it. People ask us many questions about how we create some the designs. From a produce market and pumpkin patch with a corn maze we have grown into a winery and now a craft brewery. This summer’s weather has been very challenging. In fact we got about another 2-3 inches of rain again last night.

Sweet Corn field

This blog post about our Ohio Corn Maze shows how we actually plant the corn. We are “old school” by modern agriculture standards in the sense our planter is about twenty years old but it gets the job done.

John Deere 7200 Corn Planter

The corn planter plants six rows at a time each row is 30 inches apart. Our planter can plant No-Till or conventional where you till or work the soil from plow to field cultivator as discussed in past posts. Click here for tillage information Our planter is a vacuum planter.

Seed box for an individual row

What that means is we use the tractors hydraulic pump to run a air vacuum pump like on a floor sweeper that draws the individual seeds against a depression with a small hole in it positioned around the rim of a circular planter “plate”.

Seed box removed, black disk top of photo is the plate.

One bag of seed plants about 3 acres.

Bag of seed corn

Seed corn in planter seed box. We “drop” or plant, between 24,000 to 35,000 seeds per acre (an acre is approximately the area of a football field) depending upon the type of corn, and the end use. For corn mazes I shoot for the low end because we plant the field twice at a right angles to each pass.

Seed corn in planter seed box

A individual planter “Plate”. Plates come in different sizes depending upon crop and seed size to be planted. The larger the seed the larger the “cup” in the plate, you also adjust your vacuum if the seed is heavier to hold it in place as it travels around the until it is dislodged by the brush.

Planter plate below seed box

A chain drive turns the plate and as it rotates once a revolution it comes in contact with a brush that pushes it away from the plate.

Chain drive

The seed travels down a tube and into the soil where another part of the planter creates a trench and then closes it after the seed is deposited. Row wipes lead the way directly in front of the seed disk openers. Which are located under the above mentioned planter boxes.

Row wipes are mostly used for No Till planting

A Fertilizer Disk opener is positioned two inches to the side of the seed opener and a depth of two inches below the seed. “2 Down and 2 Over it is called. This helps to ensure the fertilizer is where the plant needs it when it needs it and is not wasted.

Fertilizer Disk opener

A closing wheel travels last closing the seed trench to ensure good soil to seed contact.

Closing wheel

When planting you try a drive as straight as possible, it is a matter of pride and it also helps to maximize field area and yield. Our planter uses old style row markers. An arm extends from the side of the planter towards the side of the field yet to be planted. At the end of the arm is a disk that leaves a small trench that you line up the center of the tractor on. Today’s modern planters use a Global positioning satellite system to do this. Many tractors have this tied into their steering systems such that the computer/satellite actually drives the tractor.

Row marker trench you follow

The difference when you plant a corn maze field vs. a normal field is you make a second pass at a 90 degree angle to your first pass thereby creating a grid. This makes for a denser field of corn with great vegetation coverage which makes for a better corn maze experience.

View looking back toward planter from tractor seat.

If you have good weather and soil temperatures are good your corn should emerge in about seven to ten days.

Corn coming up in rows!

We wait now about five to six weeks to start the maze carving process where we carve the corn maze design into the field from a solid field of corn. We like to have the corn be large enough a mower will kill the majority of it but not too tall to make cutting difficult.

Cutting the paths that make up a corn maze design

Coming soon the “nuts and bolts” of how we create those crazy Maize Valley Ohio Corn Maze designs!

Tags: Agri-tourism, Buy Local, Corn Maze, Family Farm, Farm Market, Ohio Winery, Ohio Wines
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Corn Maze, What’s next when building one…. part 3

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

Oh poo, well more like manure that is. In order for any crop to grow well a lot of things need to happen. In the first blog post we talked about harvesting the crop at the end of the growing season. In the last one we discussed taking a soil sample. Over the winter months not much happens in the field but “weathering” does occur. Weathering is a natural process where the weather works on the soil. Do you remember science class and what happens to water when it freezes?

Rock cracked by water freezing inside of it.

While things appear “solid” to us not many things really are. Practically everything has small spaces or pores within it. Rocks are no different, they have little spaces inside of them and depending upon the type of rock some are larger than others. Water finds its way into these little spaces and when it gets cold and freezes (below 32 degrees Fahrenheit) it expands. It is an enormously powerful force, strong enough to lift buildings, crack metal or rocks.

Copper pipes that cracked because of water that froze and expanded

The same weathering forces act upon the soil in the fields. In fact we like it to happen especially in corn maze fields. All those foot falls of people walking across the field pack the soil down and freezing and thawing really help break it up. Over winter the snow and rain falls on the field and finds its way into the soil.

Rain water seeps into cracks in the soil

Soil is about 50% air and water and about 50% mineral and organic compounds portions are called soil colloids . It is the water in these spaces that freezes and thaws over the winter months that push the soil particles apart allowing for air and water to move between them more easily that we get the benefits of this process. When the soil “heaves” (not good for alfalfa fields, but that is another story) the soil loosens, actual cracks get formed which allow for later rainfall and other nutrients to find their way into the soil where plants can use them.

japanese bettle life cycle

Another upside to a good long hard freeze is it kills a lot of critters living underground. Some actually have a form of anti-freeze in their blood but a good freeze still gets a lot of them.

liquid manure after application before plowdown

We also can use this time of year to apply fertilizer both animal manure based as well as other forms. We like to put a small amount of pellitized lime and ammounium sulfate.

Lime Truck spreading lime

You try and catch the ground when it just a has bit of frost on top that holds you up but not frozen so much you have a hard time plowing it. And frozen is no substitute for proper moisture. We don’t plow when it is too wet! This is sort of a delicate balance and not always easy to hit.

Plowing maze immediately after manure is applied.

Well this post about our Corn Maze has gotten a bit long! Time to go, we started to talk about plowing and preparing the soil for planting. Next time we will talk a bit more about how we approach overall fertility.

Tags: Agritourism, Buy Local, Corn Maze, Ohio Winery, Ohio Wines, Sustainable Agriculture.
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Winery Open house and Anniversary!

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

Newest winery construction summer 2012

Well nine years in the wine business has flown by oh so fast! Thank you to everyone who has visited with us in person or who has supported us by picking up our some of our wine at your local wine store. The winery may have just saved our family farm market, it sure has at least changed it a great deal.

Progress on the Winery....soon to be Brewery!

In 2012 we built the biggest addition yet pictured above. To that point we had been “re-purposing” other old buildings or “farmer building” structures. We originally began producing wine in a renovated “potting shed”. That was the small poll barn we had attached to the greenhouse that we originally used to pot plants and baskets for the greenhouse business.

Original Potting shed

As we grew we built an addition off the East side of the Potting shed or “Head House”. We built this ourselves on a shoe string budget and it came out okay but didn’t last us too long.

Farmer pole barn addition

A lot changed since we opened the winery in 2005. There were about 75 wineries in the state of Ohio that year. This year there are over 200 Ohio Wineries currently in operation. They range from growers/farmer style wineries that grow large quantities of grapes, to what are known as “kit wineries” that focus on just the wine making process separate from growing fruit. We are somewhere in the middle. We farm about 700-800 acres of cropland a year. We grow about 40-50 different types of crops from garlic to grapes, peppers to pumpkins.

Lettuce growing up in the "Hartville Swamps"

We have a wide variety of soil types on the farm, and we are on the Southern edge of the Hartville Swamps a very special and unique growing area and soil.

Inside of new Winery/Brewery building

The latest building will open. It will help us open the next chapter in Maize Valley’s history. It will house the new expansion of the brewery.

Newest outdoor patio seating area

But don’t think we have just built a bunch of buildings. NEW this year we have expanded our outdoor seating area behind the “Gateway Pavilion” which is directly attached to the back of the winery/market building. The new area should seat between 40-60 people and we have also built some gentle walkways that take you up the hill to the Hill top party barn.

Walkways leading up the hill take the long and easy way up.

So soon the snow will stop falling and the sun will shine! This hill has a South face and we will put seating along the paths, a perfect place to relax with a nice glass of wine and enjoy the Ohio summer that is in store. Check out this link for details on our web page.

Tags: Agri-tourism, Anniversary, Buy Local, Family Farm, Farm Market, Homegrown, Ohio Winery, Ohio Wines, Open House
Posted in Things to see at Maize Valley | No Comments »

Corn Maze, yea we do that!

Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

Ok, yea what does “Ohio Wine and More” have to do with an Ohio Corn Maze? We make great wine (and soon beer)….FUN! Agritourism, corn mazes, wagon rides, pumpkin picking and a whole bunch of other “Fall Harvest Activities” are a big part of what we do. We start planning and getting ready for a corn maze season soon after the last one is finished. We get a lot of questions that go something like how do you make a corn maze? This is a big subject to we will try and break it down into a few blog posts not to get too long.

2013 LoCo Motion Corn Maze

Harvesting last years crop. As one season winds down we start looking to the next. While one maze is up and running we watch to see how it performs, how the design actually works for people. Are there paths that didn’t get used, if so why? Were there things that made this maze particularly good? Once we close the season we roll the combine as soon as possible.

John Deere Harvester or "Combine"

Why is it called a “Combine” people ask. Because it does a combination of things. First of all it is self propelled. That may not seem like a big deal but did you know that self propelled harvesters were part of the War Effort in the 1940’s? There were self propelled machines before that but it took a war to get them mass produced.

Pull type combine

Tractor and pull type combine

Not to take the “way back machine” too far but pictured above is a combine that was pulled by a tractor. The real early ones had a separate gas engine on the combine itself and you had one on the tractor as well. During World War Two this was a big deal because if you could get that down to one engine you saved both raw materials and fuel. Learn more about the History Here.

Battle for bread

It was about 1942 when they came up with the idea to mass produce self propelled combines. Steel was rationed and you had to get approval from the government to build things like this. The 1952 Massey pictured below is one we have on our farm. A neighbor sold it to us in the summer of 2013, it’s engine finally gave out he was heading to the field to combine some oats.

1952 Massey Harris

Ok, so these machine combine the tasks of cutting the crop with a cutter bar. Then elevate it up a feeder house into the machine where a rotor (modern machines) separator or a concave and screen (older machines) begin to remove the grain from the seed hull or cob. The material passes back through the machine where further separation and final cleaning takes place with the “trash” or chaff being expelled out the back and the grain moved up into a storage tank. This used to all be done by hand or animal back in the day and was very labor intensive as well as slow.

Corn head or cutter bar in this case.

Corn head or cutter bar in this case. There are things called “snapper rolls” underneath that “snap” the ear off the stalk.

Tractor pulling a grain cart runs along side

Tractor pulling a grain cart runs along side. This allows the combine to keep rolling and not have to take the time to stop to unload the grain tank on the combine. This saves time and weight the machine needs to carry. When a single machine can cost between $300,000.00 to $500,000.00 you need to keep them rolling every second you can.

Semi trucks on the fields edge waiting to take away the harvest.

Semi trucks on the fields edge waiting to take away the harvest. You try and never drive on a field more than necessary or when the field is too wet. You stay off not to compact the soil. And this field is done for the 2013 harvest season! Look for our next blog post about the steps we take in making a corn maze. Thanks for stopping by!

Tags: Agri-tourism, Buy Local, Corn Maze, Family Farm, Farm Market, Fun, Homegrown, Ohio Winery
Posted in Fall Harvest Fun! | No Comments »

Bra-Vo! We are fighting Back at Breast Cancer…please join us if you like.

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

Bra-Vo! but why? Our story behind fighting Breast Cancer.

We get numerous donation requests and we try to honor as many as possible. As a business we focus in on two charities because we have personal experience with them, Veterans and Breast Cancer.

My brother lost his wonderful wife Mary Ellen who helped us launch our pumpkin picking patch years ago, and it took a swipe at my Mother in Law Donna and my wife Michelle, they have survived. Now we fight back.

My Brother Tim, my Mom and Mary Ellen at my daughter's Cara Birthday

I remember the day I got the “news”, I had to run to New York to get some wine making supplies so I couldn’t go to the doctor with Chelle. I just got back, I was on the back dock, she called what we thought were calcium deposits were cancer….I dropped to my knees, the energy of my life instantly drained out of me, why didn’t I go with her today? She had to drive home herself, my Mom taught me to open doors for ladies, I vowed to never let her go to a Dr. appointment again.

The "Racks" behind our bar!

March 1st kicks off our Bra Decorating Contest called Bra-Vo that culminates in our PINK Party in May. It is how we Fight Back, last year we raised $7,000.00 in an emotionally charged, brightly decorated, sometimes loud, sometimes “pin drop” quiet evening. Bra-Vo helps get that started.

Opening ceremonies

Chelle and I walked over 50 miles (sometimes in 100 degree heat, they closed the last 10 miles) last year as Susan G. Komen walkers in the twin cities. It is quite an event, it raises more than just money, it lifts souls.

At the end of day two

We took every penny, nickle, dime and dollar and put it towards the cause. We paid our other expenses ourselves, just so you know if you came out last year.

I think this was Day Two about mile 10

If you, or someone you know, love or care about has been affected by Breast Cancer and you are looking for a way to fight back please consider joining us. If you feel compelled please share this with someone.

Here is an idea for you!

Last year was the first year for the PINK Party….It is a ticketed event, to our surprise and delight it sold out! That was over 100 people! We will working at expanding our ability to hold more people while keeping the quality standards we strive for. Please look at our Face Book event page for details or visit our website calendar event page as well.

Tags: Bra-Vo, Buy Local, Susan G. Komen, Susan G. Komen 3 day walk
Posted in Family Time, Things to see at Maize Valley | 1 Comment »

Ohio Wine and More… and Pigs???

Friday, February 14th, 2014

Ok, If you are a “Hoytie-Toytie” wine snob….you are not going to like me or my blog. Save yourself some time and click on that little red “X” in the upper right hand corner. This is a story about how we ended up raising hogs (pigs, farmers call them hogs more than pigs) again, and how they end up in the hands of Chefs in and around the HOT emerging Cleveland local food scene.

Hi, Watcha' doin'?

I am a family farmer, winery owner and soon to be brewery owner along with my wife, brother-in-law and my in-law’s. Brace yourself we are incorporated so technically a “corporate farm” I guess, you have to be for liability concerns. I drive a 2000 F-350 with 194K+ miles on it, I bought my wife a “new car” last year it was a 2007. We don’t live large we work hard. We are a Winery with ADHD, basically I shoot pumpkins out of a cannon for a living and also build corn mazes.

Me, on the deck of our pumpkin cannon getting ready to fire.

I was scanning the web and stumbled across a article about a local Chef in Cleveland following his dream and opening a butcher shop behind the West Side Market. I thought cool, so I followed up and read about it. His name is Adam Lambert and is currently a chef at bar cento . He will open a butcher shop in the “Palace of Fermentation,” Sam McNulty’s multi-faceted project currently taking shape in the Culinary Arts Building behind the West Side Market. You can read the story here.

As I read the article I came to realize the hogs we raise end up with him via Fresh Fork Market ! But here is the story behind how we got back into raising Hogs…..

My brother in laws Steve and Todd getting ready to load some hogs.

We used to farm “large” about 15 years ago. 3,000 acres, milked 150 head of cows, trucks, grain lots of equipment. We eventually got run out by houses and low commodity prices. We sold stuff off and tried to survive. We opened a farm market and started raising small vegetables. My wife’s family has lived here (Marlboro) since the 1800’s. Her family has done everything, sheep, hogs, cows, dairy, tanned leather, taught school etc. etc. But one thing they had never done was “Agri-tourism”, corn mazes, pumpkin picking, hayrides and such.

2013 LoCo Motion corn Maze

After a few years corn maze’s were just not enough we needed to add more things for people to see and do. So we heard about racing pigs and thought we know pigs lets give it a try. But we don’t just race pigs…..we do NASHOG! The finest in Flat track pig racing in Ohio! We even built them a new track this year without a “Sin Tax”!

NASHOG race track

Our pigs have lots of room to move, run and have fun. They mostly just like to eat and sleep however. To train them to race you need cookies! Pigs like to eat pretty much the same stuff humans do and they run for Oreo’s!

"Pig Pile" soaking up some rays

We do “NASHOG” races on fall weekends starting at about noon and going till dusk. We get enough pigs so no one has to run too much but still have enough time to get cookies. They get a BIG shot of grain at the end of the day. Even giving them full feed they still grow slower than their buddies back at the farm who don’t get the opportunity to run the flat track every day. Maybe the stress of “celebrity” holds them back too? They do have lots of fans.

A small crowd catching a pig race

But at the end of the Corn Maze, Pumpkin Picking Season what is there to do with a bunch of highly trained athletes that have a bit of ego and celebrity? At first we took them to auction and took an absolute beating not even getting back our costs. It is the wrong time of the year for people to want pigs to feed out. So we took them to the home farm and started feeding them out ourselves for our freezers. We had few people buy one here or there but not too much of a consistent market for them.

Feeding time, that's all the time really.

That’s where Fresh Fork market and the patrons of Cleveland area restaurants and other customers of Trevor and Fresh Fork came in. Trevor starting buying our “Surplus Racing Pigs” and soon more. We starting raising hogs again year round now. Some regular breeds some special breeds depending upon what is asked for.

Now That's FAST FooD!

So thank you for supporting local folks doing cool new things and next time you sit down in Cleveland for a special dinner with friends, it may not be McDonalds…..But it still could be, “Fast Food”!

Tags: Agri-tourism, Buy Local, Family Farm, Farm Market, Ohio farm market, Ohio Winery, Ohio Wines, Sustainable Agriculture.
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Ohio Wine and More