Liberty Mills Fall Festival Features Nation’s Largest Corn Maze
As the cool, crisp autumn air makes its way into Virginia, more people will be looking for a way to make those fall memories, and Orange County residents are in luck. The nation’s largest corn maze is in our own backyard at Liberty Mills Farm in Somerset, and the farm has an entire weekend of activities lined up to celebrate the harvest season.
From Saturday, Sept. 30 to Sun, Oct. 1, Liberty Mills will host its annual Fall Festival, complete with a pick-your-own pumpkin patch, hayrides, food trucks, artisan vendors, and a 34-acre corn maze. If that sounds daunting, not to worry: visitors can choose from four levels of maze trails, from beginner to advanced.
“The easiest one is our story maze, and that has a short story in it to find the pages and read,” said Liberty Mills co-owner Evie Woods. “So, it's perfect for toddlers up to kindergartners and first graders, and some adults also just want to do that. It's a short 20- to 30-minute maze.”
Additional options include the trivia maze, which features a music theme this year, as well as a scavenger-hunt style hole punch maze and the most difficult level, the mystery maze.
Woods shared that with so many different activity options, the fall festival is an event that the whole family can enjoy. For children, the festival will include face painting and a playground area with a wooden tractor and corn tunnel.
“We've had groups here with four generations,” she said. “There's something for the great-grandchildren to do, and great-grandma loves sitting down and looking at the flowers that are still blooming while they're here and just seeing all the activity.”
The festival can also be a fun way to help community members develop a better understanding of agricultural practices, said Woods, whose farm hosts festivals throughout the year highlighting crops from strawberries to sunflowers.
“Every year we continue to see a decline in knowledge about how products are grown — the weather, the process, the timing of all the variables that go into growing something,” she said. “So, we find that it is of utmost importance that we invite people in so that they can see for themselves and understand what it takes to not only grow a crop but pick a crop.”
Tickets are required for general admission to the Liberty Mills Farm Festival, and can be purchased onsite or at www.libertymillsfarm.com/tickets. For those who can’t make it to the festival this weekend, the corn maze will be open through Nov. 11 and pick-your-own pumpkins will remain available while supplies last.
For more information on the Liberty Mills Fall Festival, visit the farm’s website at www.libertymillsfarm.com or Facebook page here.