SEPTEMBER 2013


Mazing Around Wayside Farm


Wayside Farm Fun debuts this fall with a 10- acre corn maze, pumpkin patch, hay rides, and much, much more.


STORY AND PHOTOS by Jennifer Lee


Tyler Wegmeyer and Mark Shenk on the farm. Take a flat, open piece of


prime farmland. Put it next to a busy highway. Add a family that’s been farming it for over 50 years. Mix in a young farm- ing entrepreneur, a healthy dose of ambition and imagina- tion, and a lot of prep work. This very recipe has cooked up Wayside Farm Fun, home of that angry bird sitting next to Route 7 and Clarke County’s newest destination for farm and family entertainment. Wayside Farm Fun opens September 21, providing fami- lies a plentitude of activities in a farm setting with 180-de- gree views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In


addition to a


10-acre corn maze welcoming children and adults, there will be hayrides around the farm, a pick-your-own pumpkin patch, pig races, a combine slide, a pedal


tractor track, rubber


duck races, a straw pyramid, concessions, and more to en- joy on a weekend fall day. “We


hope families will spend four or five hours with us,” said Mark Shenk, who co-owns and oper- ates Wayside Farm. “There is plenty for everyone to do and see.”


Kenneth ‘Peanut’ and Phyl-


lis Shenk bought Wayside Farm in 1960 from Hobson McGee, whose uncle owned Audley Farm at one time, and raised beef cattle, corn, wheat, soy- beans, and hay for over 40 years with help from their sons Philip and Mark. After gradu- ating from Virginia Tech, both returned to the family farm and were actively involved in the farm operation until a few years ago. “The cattle paid for our college,” Mark says. Mr. Shenk died in 2004, Mrs. Shenk in 2008, and Philip and Mark pursued work outside the farm. The cattle were sold about ten years ago, but corn, beans, and hay continued to be harvested from the 120-acre farmstead. Meanwhile,


Tyler Weg-


meyer and his wife Harriet, who both grew up on dairy farms in northern Michigan and New York, respectively, were cultivating 25 acres near Hamilton in Loudoun County. “I’ve grown pumpkins since I was eight years old, and just always loved it,” Tyler said. “I used to sell them by the truck- load back home.” After he and Harriet went out to purchase a couple of pumpkins to carve one autumn—and were floored by how expensive they were— Tyler determined he would grow his own pumpkins again the following year in 2002. Over ten years later, they now raise strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and three young children,


in addition to the


pumpkins on their pick-your- own farm. (Their children are not part of the pick-your-own offerings.)


through


Tyler met Philip their


Shenk involvement with the Virginia Farm Bureau, and they began talking last


year about growing pumpkins on Wayside Farm. Then Tyler and his wife went on a cruise, but not the kind where you lie by the pool or buy souvenirs from exotic beachside markets. This was a crash course in all things “corny,” dedicated to creating a destination for fami- lies to learn about and enjoy a real farm environment, with some jollies thrown in. MAiZE, Inc. was founded by


a young farmer, Brett Herbst, in Utah in 1996, and has since helped design over 2,000 corn- field mazes around the world and amassed several hundred member farmers who are given the tools and counsel to es- tablish their own mazes. The cruise curriculum included maze layout and design, free kid-friendly activities, market- ing, and networking with other corn maze farmers. Also on that cruise were the Wegmeyer’s farmer friends at Dan-D Farms


in Knoxville, Iowa. “You have to have a theme for your maze,” Tyler explains. “When we got back [from the cruise], we started throwing around ideas, most of which revolved around


something


agricultural. ‘No, no, no,’ my 7-year-old son, Torsten, said. ‘You should do an Angry Birds maze!’ Well, kids know a lot more than adults do a lot of the time, especially about what kids like.” Tyler added that this whole experience allows adults to be big kids and use their imaginations, too. The Wegmeyers in Virginia


and Dan-D Farms in Iowa con- spired to link mazes, with the angry bird taking off from Ber- ryville and landing in Knox- ville. It is unknown how long that


journey will take, but visitors to Wayside Farm Fun will be given free admission to greet the bird upon its arrival and enjoy Dan-D Farms should they find themselves in Knox-


Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival


September 28-29, 2013 Berryville, VA


www.SVfiberfest.com


Celebrate the fiber arts and the many aspects of fiber. Fleeces, art, textiles, yarns, accesories, equipment, & more!


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