Hettmansperger's Haunted Corn Maze

A large barn provides a sitting area,
warmth and something to eat.

A friendly, but odd, old witch
told our fortunes before we entered.

We had so much fun tonight at the Haunted Corn Maze at Hettmansperger's Greenhouse. I just wanted to plug it for Monday, Halloween, as they are open one last night from dark until the last brave hobgoblins plan to venture through it. It's a great compliment to your Trick-or-Treat activities or even in lieu of them (our boys are at the age where this was the perfect alternative). Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for ages 12 and under (those in costume this evening get $1 off admission).

Don't go in the corn!

Located on the Casey County-Pulaski County line, on Highway 837 south in Mintonville, owner Jay Hettmansperger and his family have created a great family-friendly, old-fashioned attraction in the emergent trend of agritourism. Most of their visitors this month have been families rather than the groups of teenagers they were initially expecting and Jay added that the recent coverage in The Casey County News had brought in so many families and groups. During the spring and summer, the greenhouses offer a variety of locally grown flowers, tomatoes and other vegetables. This year the family planned a haunted corn maze for October and planted the corn in early July so it would still be somewhat green.

I was kind of sweet on this fellow and he kindly posed for the camera.

They are already planning next year's maze and have been pleased by the response to this year's––mostly from Casey County residents, Jay said. It's a great family-friendly outing, with a few fun scares in the corn, but nothing gory or too over the top as you might find in a haunted house with more elaborate special effects. In fact, the back-to-basics special effects––like what you might find in a low-budget, but somewhat scary, movie––were a delight and offered innocent, harmless fun.

A crescent moon hovered over the farm and corn maze and the early evening was not too cool. My husband and boys got a cup of cocoa (there are other concessions, also) and we chatted a bit in the warm and cozy barn. We left quite giddy and even well-exercised: the maze is about 1.25 miles long and brings you up and down the hillside corn patch gradually. Believe me, if this out-of-shape old witch can walk it, most people can. We can't wait until next Halloween to go again!

Come back during the day for a variety of mums or next spring for
great homegrown vegetables and flower plants for your 2012 garden.

Local Fall Festivals and Events

Among many fall offerings at the Casey County Produce Auction.

There is so much to do in and within an easy drive of Casey County––in fact, all of Kentucky––in the autumn months. So many offerings celebrate the season and agricultural bounty of Kentucky while others are fun, historical or just a great reason to be outside with your family. September and October provide a perfect opportunity to enjoy the region in the cooler, more temperate, months, before a quieter winter. With higher gas prices, too, what better way to 'get away' than by doing something in your own backyard?

An early autumn scene along South Fork Creek in Casey County.

Here are some highlights of several fall festivals and events, with links where available. Make sure you click on those for additional information or ways you can help [If you know of other related agritourism events or activities in the next few months, please let me know and I'll include them here]:

• September 10, Fall Heritage Festival, Homeplace Farm, Campbellsville
• September 16, Apple Cook-Off Contest & Ice Cream Social, Casey County Extension Building
• September 16-17, Kentucky Mule & Donkey Association State Championship Show, AG/EXPO Center
• September 17-24, Casey County Apple Festival (37th annual), downtown Liberty
• September 17, Kentuckians Reading Kentucky, Janice Holt Giles House, Adair County
• September 17, Autumn Fest at Bear Wallow Farm, Nancy (open weekends through October 30)
• September 23-25, Harvest Fest–50th Anniversary Celebration, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg
• September 24-25, National Alpaca Farm Days, Barnett's Creek Farm, Liberty [email or call ahead]

The annual Galilean Children's Home Benefit Quilt Auction brings
in handmade quilts from around the country and region each year.

Penn's Store is undergoing an extensive restoration after the
devastating May 2010 flood which impacted much of Casey County.

• October 1-30, Autumn Fest at Bear Wallow Farm, Nancy
• October 1, Art and Craft Festival, Janice Holt Giles House, Adair County
• October 8, Great Outhouse Blowout, Penn's Store 
• October 13-14, Galilean Children's Home Benefit Quilt Auction (22nd annual)
• October 14-15, Forkland Heritage Festival (40th annual)
• October 15, Special Consignment Auction, Casey County Produce Auction
• October 21-22, Casey County Heritage Festival (3rd annual), AG/EXPO Center
• October 29, Fall 501 Mennonite Benefit Auction & Sale (Hwy 127 & 501)

All manner of livestock are auctioned each year
at the 501 Casey County Benefit Auction and Sale.

Some of the many homemade Mennonite baked goods that are always available
at the 501 Casey County Benefit Auction and Sale, held this year October 29th.

Additional events and happenings are listed at the Liberty-Casey County Chamber of Commerce website. You can also check the excellent Tour Southern and Eastern Kentucky calendar for more information on fun things to do not too far from home.

We will also be updating our GROW Casey County Facebook page with other events as they might come up. If you're on Facebook, consider Friending GROW Casey County for more regular updates, links and interesting bits of agricultural and local food-related information.

~ Also, a note that the Casey County Produce Auction has returned to their regular Monday, Wednesday and Thursday schedule through September: 2pm on Monday and Wednesday and 5pm on Thursday ~ October will have a further altered auction schedule: please check above link.

Yard Salers, Bring Your Coolers!

Casey County Produce Auction will hold two
of their four weekly produce auctions on 
Thurs, August 4 at 5pm and Sat, August 6 at 2pm.

If you are hitting the Highway 127 Yard Sale held August 4-7 this year, make sure you bring a cooler with you to pick up some delicious Casey County produce, farmstead cheese and other items. Hwy 127 wends its way right through Casey County from north to south in central Kentucky. The stores in the South Fork Creek area are not too far off the beaten track and a pleasant short drive from SR 501 at Highway 127, just a few miles south of The Bread of Life Café (a good place to grab a meal on route). There are many signs to guide you and there is always a large yard sale set up at SR 501 at Hwy 127.

If coming from Hwy 127, you will see Lavern's Produce Stand on the left at the end of South Fork Creek Road, at SR 910, and as you drive down South Fork Creek you will come upon several stores and produce markets. Not far from SR 910 is Misty Mountain Sales and Casey County Produce Auction. A few miles along the road is South Fork Furniture, South Fork Produce and Sunny Valley Country Store (with Hillside Greenhouse and Produce on top of the hill above––both stores are air-conditioned, too).

If you continue out to the end of South Fork Creek past Sunny Valley Country Store and follow the signs, you will come to Zimmerman's Farmstead Cheese (about seven miles from SR 910). Please note that all of these stores and produce stands are open every day but Sunday, and generally 8-5pm or 6pm.

The shelves of Sunny Valley Country Store are always well-stocked.

Brooms sold at Sunny Valley are made
by a local Old Order Mennonite man.

Sunny Valley Country Store offers many basic bulk foods at an affordable price as well as gourmet or more unusual ingredients. There is also an in-store bakery and a deli where they will make you a sandwich to order. Misty Mountain Sales, its sister store down the road, also offers household wares and many items that Old Order Mennonites purchase regularly including fabrics, hats, and items of clothing. You can also purchase handmade Old Order Mennonite quilts and other handcrafts at Misty Mountain Sales or South Fork Furniture, as well as Amish-crafted furniture from Ohio.

Make room for melons! These Casey County watermelons
await their sale at South Fork Produce, a farmer's produce cooperative.

Be sure to pick up a free 'GROW Casey County' postcard at one of several area vendors 

and tell them you heard about us on this website. Then send it to a friend!

NOTE: For a good all around article on the Old Order Mennonite Community (and information on The Bread of Life Café, which doesn't seem to have a website at present), I recommend Angela Oldfield Osborne's website/blog, Save My Small Town and this particular entry [Click HERE].

You can also download a brochure/map on Old Order Mennonite businesses in the South Fork Creek area of Casey County here, courtesy of the Liberty-Casey County Chamber of Commerce.

Field to Fork Festival

There's a lot going on this weekend. For starters, I'm supposed to sing and dance at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill on Saturday (but my new, cooler costume isn't ready) and Steve Earle will be highlighting the Master Musician's Festival in Somerset that evening.

This afternoon I just found out about the Field to Fork Festival up in Paint Lick, near Berea. Organized by farmer Deborah Messenger of Halcomb's Knob Farm, the festival will feature eight workshops on green and sustainable farming practices and will include many vendors showcasing their agricultural products. [Our favorite Amish butcher, Joe Yoder of J&V Slaughterhouse will be there, as will many others.]

Workshops are as diverse as beekeeping, cheesemaking, mead making, selling beef for small markets, raising lamb or chickens, various methods of growing plants and preventing pests, herbs and many other topics.

I will not be able to attend the festival this year, but certainly next. I just learned about it and wanted to pass along the information here.

The festival will be held, rain or shine, from 9am-6pm at Halcomb's Knob Farm in Garrard County. Preregistration for $35 has closed but participants may be admitted at the gate on Saturday, with possible limited access to workshops, for $50. Check their website for more information.

Eat Local!

Good Foods Market and Café up in Lexington, Kentucky is a worthwhile destination if you are ever up that way. It's a Kentucky-owned food cooperative (with shareholders) and you'll not only find products that you didn't think you could live without, and that might be hard to find, but there are great monthly sales and they support local Kentucky farmers in their offerings. [In shopping there you are also supporting a local Kentucky operation, not a larger, more expensive national food chain that offers many of the same items.] Located off Nicholasville Road at 455 Southland Drive it is open 8am-10pm daily.

Given the distance, it's not a store that we go to often but it's the kind of place that we'll visit several times a year to pick up various products (both botanical as well as food-related) or unusual Kentucky farm offerings (like many varieties of cheeses and meats) or our favorite, very-hard-to-find yogurt indulgence. They have remodeled in the past year and now also offer a great café with a buffet that features a bounty of delectable offerings (their Facebook page details daily menu items). It's worth it just to browse and treat yourself to lunch! [You also don't have to be a coop member but if interested in joining, you will save more throughout the year.]

Long-time Casey County organic farmer Jerome Lange is one of their growers and suppliers and he will be playing his fiddle, as he often does at The Bread of Life Café and other Liberty venues, at Good Foods' "Eat Local Celebration" on Saturday, July 2nd [live music from 11:30-1:30pm, but the celebration goes from 11am-2pm]. It's fun to be browsing the produce section and see "LOCAL Casey County Produce" signs peppered throughout the display area. 

We will profile Jerome and his farm in a future blog post here on GROW Casey County. In the meantime, you, too, can eat local by supporting your local Casey County farmers and driving on over to South Fork Creek. Also, if you have a special July 4th picnic recipe, please feel free to share it here and we'll feature it in future blog posts this summer.

Have a safe and splendid 4th of July weekend and here's a reminder that there will be a 2pm auction at the Casey County Produce Auction on Monday, July 4th!

See you at the Fair!

There is nothing like a county fair to scream summer––whether it is the carnival rides, the squeals of children, the nicely scrubbed animals or the beautiful produce offerings and craft, canning or baking competitions. And let's not forget the lemonade, assorted fried goodies and corn dogs! Every fair has its own atmosphere and some are more agricultural than others. But there are always certain and reliable fixtures to count upon.

Kentucky has 120 counties and that's a lot of fairs! The Casey County Fair isn't as old as most but it's one of the earliest in the season. This year it will be going on through Saturday, June 11. You may have missed the many beauty competitions and tractor pulls, but there are still more events over the next few days. You can find more information about it here: www.CaseyCountyFair.com

Yesterday's editorial in The Casey County News encouraged the fair to be more local in its participation. That's the whole idea of this blog, too: Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local!

See you at the fair!

NOTE: These photographs were taken at the Hopkinton Fair in New Hampshire in 2007––the annual state fair back where we used to live. I will try to add Casey County Fair photos for next year. And yes, the Tilt-A-Whirl remains my favorite ride of all time.

FREE Heirloom Vegetable Workshop

Back by popular demand!  Julie Maruskin will be returning to the Casey County Library for an encore presentation on heirloom vegetables on May 17 at 10am. FAST FOOD: From Seed to Plate in 6 Weeks will highlight the basics on how to plant and raise your own heirloom vegetables––and seed sources. After her well-attended and informative visit to discuss heirloom tomatoes back in March, the library wanted to host her again. Julie is director of the Clark County Library by day and avid seedswoman in the rest of her time. She and her husband grow and collect heirloom tomatoes––as well as other vegetables––and she enjoys spreading her knowledge, and extra seeds, throughout the state.

Burkholder Seeds are available at area greenhouses.

Heirloom gardening is something that has been all the rage throughout the past decade in many gardening circles. Most people who save seeds might not even realize that they are also growing an heirloom plant and preserving a bit of American plant history. Casey County and environs is home to many heirloom varieties that have been "rescued" and propagated with several seed companies. [And did you know that many unusual heirloom seeds are available in Casey County directly through Burkholder's Seeds on Hwy 501 (and for sale in greenhouses in the South Fork Creek area)?]

Selecting heirloom seeds.

All are welcome and all that is required is that you email (here) or call the Casey County Library at 787-9381 to reserve your place. It's FREE! Participants will be able to take home a kit of 8 heirloom seed packs and other goodies.

Where? Casey County Library, Liberty, KY
When? Tuesday, May 17 at 10am

Participants at the March workshop were able to pot up a tomato seedling to take home.

Julie Maruskin, Heirloom Gardener

Julie gives an informative and engaging presentation and you will not be disappointed. Even the most seasoned gardeners will learn something at one of her workshops.

2nd Annual KY Haiti Benefit Auction: Liberty, KY, April 29-30, 2011

Liberty, KY—The 2^nd Annual Kentucky Haiti Benefit Auction, sponsored by the Old Order Mennonite and Amish communities from in and around Casey County, Kentucky, will be held on Friday evening April 29^th starting at 4:30pm (Eastern Time) and on Saturday, April 30^th from 7:00am throughout the day. The benefit auction will take place—rain or shine—at the Central Kentucky Agriculture-Exposition Center [aka Central Kentucky AG/Expo Center]. Located on Highway 127 south of Liberty in Kentucky’s southcentral scenic Knobs region, Casey County’s AG/Expo Center is within two hours of most Kentucky locations and features ample parking and a large 70,000 square foot covered, and recently walled, arena space.

On Friday evening there will be an auction preview as well as an auction of small livestock, crafts, tools and more. A full buffet supper featuring a whole hog BBQ, homemade sides and desserts is available before the auction, from 4:30-6pm on Friday—with the auction beginning at 6pm—and breakfast will be available from 7:00am on Saturday before the auction begins at 9:00am. 

Several dozen handmade Old Order Mennonite and Amish quilts and furniture items will be auctioned on Saturday, as well as a wide variety of donated items from within the community and general public to likely include all manner of tools, lawn mowers, garden tools and sheds, new tack, bicycles, furniture, housewares, quilts, cookware, crafts, and collectibles. Throughout the day there will be snacks, ice cream, homemade pretzels, produce and baked goods available for sale. A full lunch menu on Saturday includes BBQ chicken––made with a popular and secret marinade and sauce recipe––cheeseburgers, hotdogs, salad, soups, fries, pies, baked goods and more. A bake sale of delicious and quite affordable homemade baked goods from the Mennonite and Amish community—including pies, cakes, cookies, bread, rolls and other items—will be held Friday evening and again on Saturday.

The Kentucky Haiti Benefit Auction is Kentucky’s first such auction and is now an annual event held the last weekend of April (on Friday evening and all day Saturday) at Liberty’s AG/EXPO Center. The committee was encouraged by last year’s response and is hopeful that the event will continue to grow each year. $70,000 was raised at the 2010 auction for various Haiti missions including Christian Aid Ministries and 100% of all auction proceeds were donated. While the first Kentucky auction was organized soon after the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010, the Mennonite and Amish communities have a long history of contributing aid to Haiti-based missions, according to Albert Shirk, one of the organizers. This cooperative effort of churches and individuals brings relief to the hungry, the sick and homeless of Haiti and is given to its people without regard to race, religion, color or creed. Other Mennonite-sponsored relief sales and auctions in Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Florida and Indiana––which will have their 30^th Haiti benefit auction in 2011––also support these missions.

Donations of saleable items and gifts-in-kind—including furniture and crafts, tools, garden items, flowers, plants, baked goods or whatever else that is either new or of good value—are most welcome and can be accepted in advance (contact Albert or Jonathan Shirk at 606-787-1748) or on the day of the sale. Monetary donations are also welcome to help support the Haiti Missions as well as the operating expenses of the Kentucky Haiti Benefit Auction—for cost of food, advertising, mailings and other––as these costs are entirely voluntary on behalf of those involved. Representatives of the various Haiti missions will also be on hand during the auction for questions.

NOTE: Cameras or television crews and photographers/reporters are quite welcome and encouraged to be at the auction. The Old Order Mennonite and Amish communities do not mind being in candid or larger crowd shots and just kindly request that they not be asked to pose for cameras.

CONTACT:

·      Albert or Jonathan Shirk: 606-787-1748 (work)

·      Matt Martin, publicity: 606-706-6319 (cell)

·      Catherine Pond, Internet/email: 606-871-9644 (home), cspond@mac.com, www.GROWCaseyCounty.blogspot.com

STOCK PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST: contact cspond@mac.com

Thank you in advance for your interest and support ~