Farm family turns to Red Sox to build cornfield maze

CORINNA (AP) – A farming family is betting that a 5-acre cornfield maze in honor of the 2004 world championship Boston Red Sox team will be a smash hit with customers.

Charlie and Barbara Peavey will open their maze to the public on Aug. 13 after getting the green light from Red Sox officials to create it in the shape of the team’s logo.

The Peaveys, who raise vegetables, are confident that if they build it, the fans will come. People stood in line for 45 minutes last year to get into their lobster maze.

Visitors will enter the new maze at home plate, travel around the bases, infield and outfield and then re-enter to wander through the Red Sox logo, complete with the title, “World Series Champions.”

“People are going to be talking about this for the next five years,” Charlie Peavey predicted.

The Peaveys wanted to build on the popularity of last year’s maze, but didn’t want a bear or moose. So they turned to the Red Sox.

“Whether you hate the Red Sox or you love them, they are America’s team, New England’s team,” he said.

The corn will be 10 to 12 feet high when the maze opens. The Peaveys’ Thunder Road Farm also will have a cow train, a hayride and a half-dozen farming-related games, including a miniature Fenway Park for Wiffle ball that includes the famed Green Monster left-field wall.

For 25 years, Peavey has run a farm stand across from the maze’s location on busy Route 7. Vegetables are what he knows, and when his wife first brought up the idea of a corn maze, he balked.

“I’m a vegetable farmer. What did I know about corn mazes and children’s games? It was too new,” he said.

But now they’re hooked.

“I saw kids laughing, everyone having fun and parents thanking us,” Barbara Peavey said.

Admission will be $7 for ages 13 and up, $4 for ages 6-12 and free for children 5 and under.

—

On the Net:

Thunder Road Farm: www.thunderroadfarm.com