This is why I hate Ken’s Korny Corn Maze

Place: Ken’s Korny Corn Maze
Event: Pumpkin stuff
Price: $25 when it was all said and done (for 2 adults and 1 2yr old.) For admission, the jumpy house, and the hayride, NOT for the maze.
Recommend: NO

Hmmmm…..maybe I’m just biased, because I’m from New England and am used to getting this for free.  But the one thing in NC that I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE, is that they charge you to go to farms.  One of my favorite things to do growing up (and even in adulthood) was to go to an apple/pumpkin farm in the fall.  We’d spend 1/2 day there, picking apples or pumpkins, taking a hayride, sampling and buying all the homemade fare…from pies, to apple cider donuts, to jams and jellies and even homemade fudge.  Then we’d take some pics, maybe have a picnic and then go home, completely full and totally tuckered out.  But here in NC we miss out on all that.  Or at least we do in central NC.  Yes, we can drive an hour or two to go to an apple farm, but they’re just not the same as in New England.  And the pumpkin farms that we have around here charge you to go in.  Yes, CHARGE you.  Even if you just want a photo op.  Ridiculous.  Talk about a bad marketing plan.

But since we were desperate for some fall, pumpkin-ish pictures of Finn this year, we packed him into the car and drove off to Garner, NC to Ken’s Korny Corn Maze.  Mind you, they don’t have pumpkin picking there.  There’s just a small pile of pumpkins at the entrance that you can take pics of.  And no barn filled with homemade goodies either.  What they did have, however, was a hayride around the cornfield maze (which was an extra fee on top of the entrance fee).  We didn’t pay to do the corn maze this year.  We thought Finn was still a little too young, at 2, to get much out of it, since it can take 45ish minutes to complete.  So we saved ourselves about $18 (this year!).  We still had to pay to come in though.  And for our entrance fee Finn got to play on the really cool wooden play structures – a monster truck and a tractor.  And there was also a maze for younger kids to run around in.  Not very exciting though, so we just sat on the edge of it for a family photo op.  On that particular day they also had a big blow up jumpy house.  And yes, you guessed it, it was an extra $1.00.  There was pretty much nothing that they didn’t charge for.

Maybe this is why, at the height of the season, there was only a small handful of people there.  Nothing like the turnout that you see at a farmstand destination in New England anytime from September through October.  Maybe these farms should take note and check out one of those farms someday.  One of my all-time favorites was/is Applecrest, in Hampton Falls, NH.  Now they know how to delight the crowds.  They even have a substantially better website, for that matter.

Applecrest has pick-your-own raspberries, peaches, pumpkins and apples.  They have festivals, music, a petting zoo, hayrides, a farmstand, and tons of homemade grub.  Now that’s my idea of a fun-filled, family activity.  None of this, pay $10 to play on a wooden structure, and then pay for the jumpy house, pay for the hayride, and not even have anything yummy to eat while you’re there.  Ugh.  No….double ugh.

NC needs to change it’s Fall ways.  And fast.

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Tagged as: Applecrest, apples, Fall, farm, festival, Ken's Korny Corn Maze, picking, pumpkins