Eastern IA Farmer_Fall23_SOUTH

AMERICANA
a lot of support,” he said.
This year, he will be opening a concession
stand fashioned from a grain
bin from his grandfather’s farm.
Last year, they branched into
agri-tourism, adding a corn maze, a
jumping pillow, a corn pit and a big
slide. This fall, they are adding four
trolley lines, which are zip lines that are
lower to the ground. It provides fun for
his family, including sons Maverick, 5,
and Landon, 2, as well as for others.
“We wanted to give families something
close to home to do activity
wise,” he said. “We also wanted to give
it a farm feel. If you grew up on a farm
like I did, you grew up just having fun.
We did straw bale races where we had
straw bales lined up, and you could run
on top of them. And we made slides.
I remember as a kid grabbing a gunny
sack and throwing down a piece of tarp
and making our own fun. That’s what
I wanted my kids to experience, and
that’s why I wanted to do this piece.” n
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TILL
Shane Mairet stands in the greenhouse, where he started more than 100,000 plants. Some were
shipped to other farms but most of them were intended for Mairet’s fields. While a machine plants
the seed, the plants are hand watered every day.
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