Some P.E.I. corn mazes closed early for season in aftermath of Fiona
SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Within the aftermath of post-tropical storm Fiona, which touched down in P.E.I. the morning of Sept. 24, some companies have needed to shut down their corn mazes before they’d have preferred attributable to harm to the crop.
Matt Compton, proprietor of Compton’s Farm Market in Summerside, stated that whereas his enterprise’s maze suffered some harm, it was not catastrophic.
Nonetheless, whereas the maze continues to be standing it’s a little shorter and extra tangled than it had been previous to Fiona’s arrival.
“The path continues to be there, the maze continues to be there,” he stated. “It seems to be to be in higher form than (after) Dorian, however it’s mainly see-through. It doesn’t actually current any problem anymore.”
Within the wake of the storm and the clean-up concerned, Compton opted to shut his maze for the rest of the season.
Between post-tropical storm Dorian in 2019, the pandemic in 2020, and post-tropical storm Fiona this 12 months, Compton stated there have solely been two years that he has not needed to shut down his maze early within the 5 years of its operation.
“It was at all times weather-dependent,” he stated. “In different seasons, we sometimes closed simply after Thanksgiving.”
This 12 months, although, Compton had hoped to maintain the maze open till it was time to reap the corn. Having to close it down before anticipated, he stated, is tough.
“I form of prided myself, however it was low-cost leisure for household and outside enjoyable,” he stated. “I really feel unhealthy that we’re form of shedding that.”
Like Compton’s Farm Market, Summerside’s Kool Breeze Farms additionally needed to shut its maze for the season following Fiona.
“The maze continues to be there,” stated co-owner Ian Simmons. “The problem is, it’s simply not a maze anymore as a result of the corn stalks (themselves) have been minimize down, bent over, damaged off.”
The corn, he stated, is about half the peak it was earlier than the storm – round 4 toes – which might allow individuals to see excessive.
“You may’t repair one thing that’s damaged over,” stated Simmons, including that the shop sometimes retains the maze open till the final weekend of October.
Regardless of the few misplaced weeks of the maze, Kool Breeze was in a position to preserve a few of its fall actions operating – together with its subject of enjoyable and pumpkin weigh-off contest on Oct. 8.
In Stratford, in the meantime, Tania MacKenzie of MacKenzie Produce instructed SaltWire Community in a earlier interview that whereas their corn maze survived the storm, it’s round 25 per cent shorter than regular.
She stated that the maze stays difficult, although, and had plans to open it again up for guests.
Kristin Gardiner is a reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island. She will be reached by e mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @KristinGardiner.
