Five-year-old Brent Marston and three-year-old Brynne Marston ran around corn stalks three times their size on their family’s farm. Alongside their parents and their baby sister, Blair, the children have visited the field across from their home every day since the corn matured in May.
The corn itself wasn’t what drew the kids’ interest — it was the dirt path between the stalks that led in every direction. Despite choosing the maze design, the family still found themselves stumped on the right way to the exit.
The Marston Farm in Pittsfield will open its first-ever corn maze to the public on Friday, Sept. 5 through Saturday, November 1 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Brent and Brynne’s parents, Ben and Brittni Marston, run the farm alongside Ben’s cousin Steve, his wife Kayla and his sister Sarah. The farm dates back 250 years. Ben, Steve and Sarah make up part of the 9th generation of Marston farmers to work the land.
“It is definitely a whirlwind of emotions,” Brittni said three days before the opening. “We are excited and nervous. We hope that it’s as great a success as we’ve been trying to make it and hope that we have a good turnout.”
The idea of a corn maze cropped up around six years ago when Steve mentioned that his friends made a corn maze in Maine. The friend encouraged the Marstons to create one themselves.
Conversations had been ongoing among the family for years, especially with the rise in agritourism in the state.
“We decided that, ‘Why not? Let’s try it,’” Ben said.
The family sought out Utah-based agritainment company MAiZE to help plan and cut their corn field. The company had only worked with one other farm in New Hampshire, Sherman Farm in Center Conway, about 80 miles from the Pittsfield farm.
Brett Herbst, the founder of MAiZE, has helped design 4,000 mazes in 280 places since 1996 and described a corn maze as a “living labyrinth” that creates a unique experience for families.
“I can’t really think of any type of an activity that creates that similar of a dynamic where all ages interact on the same level,” Herbst said. “It’s just a very interactive experience that really just bonds people together because they’re trying to figure out a big, giant puzzle.”
The Marstons grew five and a half acres of feed corn at the start of the year and watched it reach maturity in the spring. Out of thousands of templates from MAiZE, the company pitched a design to the family that pictured country singer Lainey Wilson holding a microphone, with horseshoes in the top left corner and a heart in the top right.
“[MAiZE] had just signed some special deal with Lainey Wilson and they proposed it,” Brittni said. “We’re all Lainey Wilson fans too, so of course we’ll do Lainey Wilson.”
The company came to the farm and used a geographic digital map to carve out the path in the corn field — all done within one day. To ensure no corn grows in the path afterward, they sprayed the areas with herbicide.
In addition to the maze, the farm will have 22 food vendors, two smaller mazes for children, a sandbox with corn kernels and a petting zoo with local baby animals. On its first Saturday, the maze will have a special full moon event open until 11 p.m. The lights will go out at 8 p.m., and attendees will be guided by the moonlight.
Getting the word out about the maze took many different forms: regularly posting on Facebook, putting ads in the paper and creating signage on the road. This and “getting all the ducks in a row” with town regulations, Brittni said, was the most challenging part while pulling the event together.
“We all work full-time jobs on top of farming, so this has been a huge stressor for the entire family, making the time to get this up and running,” Brittni said.
She said she is excited to not only benefit the town and its businesses through revenue, but to also see “the community come together.”
“This is something huge for Pittsfield,” Brittni said. “They don’t really have any events besides the balloon rally, so this is going to be huge for the town.”
For more information, visit marstonfarmnh.com.