A Coffee with Jesse Kraay, Co-Owner of the Edmonton Corn Maze!

Behind the Stalks: The Edmonton Corn Maze Story

Ever wondered what it takes to run one of Alberta's most famous attractions? We sat down with Jesse Kraay, one of the masterminds behind the Edmonton Corn Maze, for an incredible behind-the-scenes look at how this local landmark came to be.

Jesse takes us back to his childhood on a hog farm in Lacombe, where his family's own corn maze planted the seed for his future. He shares the fascinating story of how he and his business partner, Dan Horneman, stumbled upon the perfect land in a chance encounter with a farmer. From there, we dive into the meticulous planning that goes into designing a new maze every single winter, a process that has kept the attraction fresh for over two decades.

This conversation goes well beyond the stalks of corn. Jesse talks about the unique activities that draw 50,000 people annually, including the famous jumping pillows, and shares the scoop on the "Corn Cops" who help visitors find their way out. We also uncover what happens to all that corn once the season is over and get a glimpse into the friendly competition between Jesse and his brother, who runs a corn maze in Lacombe.

It's a look at the history, the hard work, and the family fun that has made the Edmonton Corn Maze a treasured part of the community for over 25 years.

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Jesse Kraay, and you're listening to Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. The apple pies that you made, they were amazing. I'm glad you liked them. No, they were really good. Okay, did they have too much cinnamon? No, no, no, no, no, there wasn't too much cinnamon. The cinnamon shaker got a little out of control. It was the right blend of sweet and tart. It was really good. Well, it is my mother-in-law's recipe. Well, give your mother-in-law big kudos. Thanks for the pies, and I know Hayden made a few dollars on them, so that's really cool. Yeah, no, it was great. Had a cup of tea and some Saskatchewan honey and some apple pie last night. It was wonderful. It was really good. I know. It's like farm to table Cam. That's right. It was from Jennifer's backyard. Your backyard is not a farm. I know you don't have chickens and cows and things. Well, I don't, but I have apples. So you have apples. So I guess that's a lot of fun. Do you get a farm credit from the government or something for that? We can talk about that later. Anyway, everybody, welcome to another edition of Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. And as always, we are coming to you from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. And today's a beautiful day. It's a gorgeous day. It's middle September, well, the 16th of September, and it's like sunny and warm and I'm in short sleeves. I'll take it as long as it lasts in Alberta because every day it's warm means that's not a day with snow. That's how I look at it. That's not minus 30. I know. So it's kind of crazy. So kind of cool, great day. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Hey, we want to make mention that we are brought to you by our friends at Wing Snob. Jennifer, what are you having for dinner tonight? Well, hopefully Wing Snob. Hopefully Wing Snob. Listen, if you've never been to Wing Snob, you've got to go to Wing Snob. Wing Snob are some of the best wings that you're going to find anywhere. I mean, they're amazing and 10 locations in the city of Edmonton and 16 flavors. And four different rubs. Four different rubs. And you know the best thing about Wing Snob is they are fresh, never frozen. And so if you have not been to a Wing Snob, I'm dead serious, folks. It's some of the best wings you will ever have. And what's your favorite? My favorite, my favorite is either the garlic parm or I like the lemon pepper. Oh, the lemon pepper is really good. And yours? Well, it's a toss up between the Snobby Q, Snobby Q. Or the lemon pepper or the dill pickle. Okay, just all favorites, because they're all amazing and they have the most amazing parm fries and they have cornbread and you get two kinds of wings. You can get the boneless or traditional. So hey, or you can do 50-50. Get half and half and do it that way. So Wing Snob, you got to go to it, you got to check them out. Plus, they have these incredible meal pack deals, like family pack things for the whole family. So if you have like 15 kids in your family, I don't know who has that anymore, but say you had like six kids or whatever, they got these family packs and they got a party pack, 50 pieces of wings in the party pack. So check them out today at www.wingsnob.ca. Best wings you're going to have. We also are brought to you by our friends at Mprint Printing. Mprint Sign and Print Solutions here in Acheson. They are the preferred printer of Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. That's right. They do all our printing for us, but they are way bigger than us and they do amazing stuff. Everything from business cards. You know, our business cards are the best. We had people tell us yesterday. Was it yesterday? Yes. Somebody told us best business card they ever had. Exactly. It looks like a little mini coaster, but anyway, it's kind of cool. I don't know if we did that on purpose, but they do everything. They do business cards, they do brochures, they do pamphlets, they do booklets, they do books, they do everything. And they wrap. They wrap. They install and wrap. They'll wrap your entire motorhome. They'd wrap your entire house if you wanted your house wrapped. I don't know who would, but maybe you would. I don't know. Maybe Oilers season comes. You want your house to look like the Oilers, but they are amazing printers. They do excellent work. They work with non-profit organizations. They're global. They'll send it anywhere in the world. They're amazing people, Mprint, here in Acheson. Yes. So check them out today for all your printing needs at www.mprint.ca. mprint.ca. That's right. And we want to thank them for being and supporting Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. We really appreciate it. I'm very excited about our guest today, Jennifer. You are. And Cam, you were... So our guest, which we'll give it away in a moment, but you were at their business not that long ago. I was. I checked it out. And I was a little worried because I thought, well, I'll explain once we get going. But I was worried. I thought, oh my, this could be the end. But anyway, it was fantastic. I know. And you made it out alive. I made it out alive. And it was absolutely fantastic. So Jennifer, introduce our guest this morning. Our guest today is Jesse Kraay with the Edmonton Corn Maze. So welcome, Jesse. Welcome, Jesse. Edmonton Corn Maze. That's right. Glad to be here. Yeah, it's pretty fantastic. So we have listeners all over the world. For those who don't know, we have this amazing corn maze right here. Are you in Acheson? Are you in Parkland County? Parkland County, yeah. And so it's just this amazing, incredible corn maze. And I went to it two weeks ago and I went through it. And I have to be honest, okay, I'm going to tell this story right off the top. So I'm waiting to go into this corn maze. We're with some friends and they're little. And a girl who I don't know, she looks like she's about six years old, comes right up to me, looks me in the eye and says, "you'll never get out". She said, you're not going to get out. There is video evidence. And that's right, I have video of her saying you're not going to get out. And so I did it, I got through it, I got out. I saw the little girl, she cut in front of me at the concession line. And as she was going through, I looked at her and said, I got out. And she just kept walking. But anyways, welcome. This is incredible. It's good to be here. And how many years has the corn maze been operating? This is our 25th season. That's right. 25 years. So if you've never been to a corn maze, folks, it's a maze. It's a giant maze that is cut in a huge cornfield, a massive cornfield. Yeah, we have about 10 acres of corn and then we cut paths in there and the corn is about 10 feet tall or so. And you wander around and yeah, try and find your way back out. It's pretty cool. So let's start from the beginning. Let's start from the beginning. Jesse, we want to learn a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where were you born? Where did you grow up? I was born in Surrey, BC, but I immediate or like when I was young, my parents started a hog farm in Lacombe. So we moved there as kids and I grew up in Lacombe, just south of here. And then went to university in Edmonton. And then once that was done, I've been running a corn maze ever since. Wow. And what did you take in university? It was environmental studies. Oh, okay. Well, I guess that kind of goes together. Environmental studies, corn maze. Yeah, growing up on a farm, it worked for me. But growing up on a hog farm, tell us a little bit about that. What was that like? It was good. There was lots of work around and we were outside and got a couple of brothers. And we had lots of fun just playing around and working with the pigs. Working with the pigs. Hence why now I know you have pigs at the corn maze. We do have a few. Not running wild. They're not wild pigs. But you have a couple pigs there. Brings me back to my youth. They're kind of cool little pigs actually. The smell never leaves, so. That's right. The smell never leaves. Actually, it was kind of funny. The families we were with, they loved the pigs. They loved them. Well, the goats and the pigs. But yeah, the pigs were kind of cool. So you went to U of A. And was it your intention graduating to start a corn maze? I really had no idea what I was going to do with my life as we were graduating. And my parents in Lacombe had started a corn maze one year before in 2000. They had heard about it, started up. So they ran one in Lacombe. It was successful the first year. So I was looking for something to do. I had a friend, Dan Horneman, he runs it, with the maze with me now. And we didn't really have a lot of future plans and open for just about anything. So we thought we would try and see what we could do up in Edmonton because of the popularity down in Lacombe. So yeah, we didn't really have a lot of connections up here. We drove around in the fall of 2000, looked at a bunch of farmland around the city and tried making business plans and all of that fun stuff. So is this the original site where you are now? We are now, but we drove around the whole city thinking of, dreaming of places where it would work. This is fascinating to me. You graduate university and you are thinking, what am I going to do? What am I gonna do with my life? And then you decide, we are going to do a corn maze. Exactly. We just thought we would give it a try. We didn't really know what was going to happen. And one day, Dan was driving around on the west end here, saw a farmer out in his field, parked on the side of the road. That gets even better. Popped in the cab and started talking to some old farmer. He knew a guy who had some land that possibly would work, so we made some connections. There were some family connections down the road. So we knew the person. We sat down over the winter of 2001, signed a bit of a lease and thought we'd give it a whirl. Yeah. It's not just like opening a store or opening a business. I have a question about this. Jesse, did you and Dan have other jobs while you were doing this, or were you both fully committed, this is what we're going to do? This was our start when we got out of school. This was our plan for the next summer, and we would see how it went. Had Dan ever done a corn maze before? No, but you had. Well, my parents had run it, but I was not part of that. I was away, but they had had lots of people come through there. So we thought we'd give it a try. And back then, there wasn't a lot of corn grown up here. So we had to make some connections for that and all sorts of things. That's pretty incredible. That's amazing. Like, and so was the highway, you guys are right on, what is that highway? Garden Valley Road or Highway 627. Yeah, and was that highway there like that? Was 627 paved already? It was paved, but the city was still quite a ways away from there. Yeah, and now the city is like almost, because I live right just, well, not Edgemont, but over in the Hamptons area. Yeah, we were in the middle of nowhere and it felt like that. Man, it's not like, well, it's like going to the country, but not too far from the city. Pretty incredible. Okay, so you guys over the winter, you sat down, started planning a corn maze. Did you, again, like, how do you do that? Like, it just amazes me. How do you plan a corn maze? Well, not only that, how do you, if you're doing this for the first time, this is your business, how do you budget for a corn maze? Like, is it just the price of corn? Well, back then, I didn't have a whole lot of extra money sitting around to do this, so I borrowed some money from my grandfather and we thought, we just put it all on that. And it wasn't a ton of money to start, but it was enough that we had to make sure that it was a success. Did you guys plant and seed and do all that yourselves, or did you have someone do that for you? We worked with some of the local farmers around there, and they were happy to give us a bit of a hand to get started. And then at that time, there was a company that started in Utah. They had been doing corn mazes, I think, for about five years before we started. So they kind of had done blueprints of how you could run the business and how to cut the design in and stuff. Professional corn maze consultant people. Exactly. Yeah. Who knew? Who knew? So anyone who's out there who's thinking of doing what Jesse and Dan are doing, but I'd go to Jesse before I go to them in Utah. Because yeah. No, but they've done hundreds, they've done thousands of them around the world now. Wow. And they still do design our mazes. So corn mazes are a big thing then. I didn't realize. When you say around the world. Yeah, they're all over the place. Wherever you can grow corn, people try and get it up. Have corn mazes. Have you ever been to any? Have you ever visited other corn mazes? I'm usually fairly busy during that time. That's right. During the season. During the time I see them go. Do they ever come to see you? People who stop in. Yeah. And every winter, there's a corn party, which hundreds of different corn mazes around North America get together. Like a corn maze trade show? Kind of, yeah. You go visit farms. They're all over the place in Texas and Florida. Someplace warmer. You don't get to necessarily see the corn maze itself, but you get to see the farm. Sit around and other people that are, yeah. Like a corn maze trade show. That's right. And just talk about corn maze. Is there like new, every year, is there like something new in the industry that everybody's going to do this year? There's different activities and stuff and just brainstorming and doing that kind of stuff. I think that I wouldn't have the patience to do it because I couldn't wait for the corn to grow. I would be so impatient. It's kind of like watching paint dry. Yeah. So when do you plant? You plant in the middle of May. Middle of May. And how long does it take until you're ready to put your design and your plan into the corn maze? So we plant the whole field first. And then that's the beginning of May, middle of June. It's about three or four inches tall. And then we kind of grid the whole field out. And then we have blueprints that we kind of follow. We mark the design on the ground with paint. And then we just rototill out the corn we don't need. That's how you do it. I was wondering. Yeah. And then we let it grow. Okay, I was way off. Because I thought you let the corn grow to full height. And then like you just did an aerial thing. So I was obviously way. Your way is much better. Don't do my way. My way wouldn't work. That's pretty incredible. Well, now there's technology, too, that you can just plant it directly where... Really? Yeah. The corn planters will plant corn in the pattern that you want it. And that's how it grows? And do you do that or... No, we still do it the same way we did it 25 years ago. But that's pretty cool. So when it's about... What did you say? It was about four or five inches high? Yeah. And then you map it out then? Yeah. And do that? Yeah. That's really cool. All right. So this is really cool, folks, because if you've never been to a corn maze, it is a bit daunting at first because you look at it and you go... I'm never getting out of here. Well, as the little five-year-old girl, six-year-old girl told me, you'll never get out. But anyway, and so it's pretty cool when you do it. And every year, you guys have a different theme in the corn maze. How do you come up with the theme? How do you do that? What do you decide on? This year is what? Little potato company. Yeah, every year we try and do something kind of local that we can get people excited about. And over the winter, we brainstorm and come up with some ideas and sometimes people are interested in working with us and other times we go search it out. Yeah, and then we send the ideas over to the maze designer and they kind of make it into a workable maze. It's a fine line between being too hard and too easy. Yeah, roughly people, they want to be out there for 30 minutes to an hour. And that's the then they come back with the blueprint and we go from there. So there's actual maze designers. Yeah, the same company in Utah, that's what they do. This is just blowing me away that there's people that do this professionally. This is, I mean, not professionally, but that there's an actual business that does that for you. That's really incredible. Yeah, because, and you know what, it was, if I remember correctly, a couple of weeks ago, we were about, I think I timed it about 40 minutes in the maze. That's how long it took. That's about what, but much longer than that and you start getting super frustrated. Yeah, and a little, and if it's sitting shorter than that, then people get kind of, yeah, I'm not embarrassed to tell you that I was, we were with Soren and Beau and Soren is what, four years old. Soren led the way. Well, he did. He led, uncle Cam follow me! And that's, I just followed him and he got us out. That's usually how it goes. I do have a question. Have you ever had to rescue anybody from the corn maze? Quite often. Really? We've got people walking out there keeping an eye on you and some people want help and some people don't. Yeah. So there's actually people that get a little disoriented. Sometimes they get, and there's usually one or two spots where everyone kind of gets stuck so you can put someone there and- I was going to say, is it like when you go to the transit station and there's that help phone and... Is there's a help phone in the corn maze? I didn't see any help phone along the way. I did at one point mention to the group, if I started screaming, would someone come and they told me to just not, stop, just don't even go there. But yeah, so do you have people walking through on a regular basis? Yeah. Are they undercover? Because I never saw them. Undercover. Well, I just didn't know who they were. All these people walking through there. We've got corn cops. Corn cops. Corn cops. Corn cops. While we're walking through. Corn cops. I love it, corn cops. Undercover corn cops. Step away from the corn. But it is, it actually is, it's a cool feeling because the corn grows to how high? Like... Between 8 and 10 feet tall. Yeah, it's pretty high. It is quite high. So you're in this wall of corn, looking up at the blue sky, looking down at the little path, the earth that you're on. It is, it's kind of cool, actually. It's a neat feeling to go through there. Yeah. Like it really is. And the kids love it. They're just running through and trying this path and trying that path. And if it doesn't work, come back this way. And then your bridge. I love your bridge because you get to go up unto your bridge and see where you've been and where you're going. That was a bridge. At first, when I drove by it, you can see the bridge from the highway a little bit. And I thought that's where the corn cops sit up there and they watch the whole thing. They monitor or the lost people. Yeah, they monitor the maze, but that wasn't true. So your first year you did this, what were your challenges? What did you find was a challenge doing this for the first time ever? You and Dan not having a clue about how to do this? Making sure the corn grew. Making sure that the design was in there. And then you don't know if people are going to show up or anything. So yeah, you kind of are just if you build it, they will come is the classic cornfield thing. And over the years, like when you go to the corn maze, folks, it's not just the corn maze. You have tons of stuff to do there. You really expanded it over the years. Yeah, we started off with just the cornfield and that was about it. And now we've added all sorts of other activities at farm animals, jumping pillows, picnic spots and just lots of stuff to make your... Those jumping, is that what you call them? Like trampolines, those jumping pillows are amazing. The kids love those. And they're like big bubbles coming out of the ground that you must be blowing air into them or something. That was unbelievable. The kids love that. And you have animals, you have chickens. Yep. We saw the chickens. You have pigs. Pigs. You have goats. That you fed and got in trouble for feeding them. And they got little bubble gum machines where you can buy for a quarter some oats and feed the goat. And I had Doritos and I fed the goat Dorito. And he ate them, man. It was like gone. Dorito done. And then I'm looking around to make sure nobody... I thought one of the corn cops would come over and be like, don't feed the goats. But that's kind of cool. And then you also sell pumpkins. Yep. We got pumpkins and sunflowers earlier in the year. Yes. Everybody was buying... You have beautiful sunflowers. People love that. How did that start? Like you just... We planted a few to add some color and then people love that. And they want to get their photos out there and do that kind of thing and take some of it home with them too. Yeah. No, they really are... They're beautiful sunflowers. They're really nice. So when do you open usually? You open... Usually the end of July, once the corn is six, seven feet tall. And go till... A week or two after Thanksgiving, it kind of depends a little bit on the weather. Once you get snow, it's not near as much fun out there. So how many people do you estimate would go through the corn maze every year here in Edmonton? It's depending a lot on the weather, but somewhere around 50,000 people. Really? 50,000 people. That's a lot of people. Are you the only corn maze in Edmonton? There is a few smaller ones a little further out and stuff, but we're the closest and we're... 50,000. That's a decent number of people coming through. There's lots of footsteps out there. Yeah, I bet. It's really incredible. And so a lot of maintenance. You had a great staff, by the way, when I was out there. They're very helpful. They're all over the place. They're nice. They've got a smile on their face, which that's a bonus when there's a ton of kids around because it can get wearing a lot of maintenance. It's like everything. You just got to keep on top of things. And as the season goes, those things start to wear down and get tired. But yeah, it's all stuff to do, but it's good. That's pretty cool. So you and Dan, do you both have families? Yeah. So is this a family affair? It's mostly our kids out there working. So this is the reason that Jesse is here today. How old are your kids? They're about 15 to 18 years old. So they don't have to work today. They're hopefully in school. They're all in school. Slave labor laws have been enacted. And do they like doing it or is it like, oh, man? They've grown up with it and it's good. How many staff do you hire? Because there's a lot of people. Over the busy day, there's 20 people there working. And then on a slower day, there's just a handful of us. Yeah. I thought it was really great. Really, really well run. Is this something you think your kids will want to carry on when you, I mean, do they have corn maze ambition or? We'll see. Succession. There's no plans right now, but we'll, who knows? See where it goes. Yeah. I mean, it's a great business. It is a great business. Yeah. So what do you do then, Jesse, outside of the corn maze season? Yeah, for the rest of the year. Do you get to go on vacation in Hawaii? Do you just get to live your best life? Where is Jesse and Dan? They're gone. It's surprising how much extra stuff there is on before and after. By the time we're done and you clean up and do a few projects, and then spring comes pretty quick every year. So it's basically a full-time thing for us now. Yeah. We've got animals to keep up with. Oh, yeah. A few other things, so it- Does anyone live out there? There's a little house there. Yeah, we live close. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. You live close by? No, it's a different pace in the winter, but we're still busy. So yeah, I guess there's a lot to do to get prepared for the new year and all that you're going to do and decide on your maze. And yeah, planning and all that kind of stuff. So have you ever had- And so every year you have a different design in the corn maze. Any year, somebody didn't like a design or you get feedback on a design. It's been up and down a little bit sometimes. There's always someone who doesn't like something. But it's all good. I mean, you wouldn't even, you wouldn't even, unless you see the aerial shot. Yeah, you don't even know. Once you're in it, you don't have a clue. Yeah, there's a bit of the media like certain things and not other things. And yeah, but yeah. Is there a certain type of corn you grow? It's a field, it's a feed corn. So a cow corn. It's cattle corn, so it's silage. I was going to ask, what do you do when the corn maze is done? What do you do with the corn? Most of it's silage, but in the last few years, we've, there's a lot of West Africans who, it's the kind of corn that they grow back home. Really? So we've had lots of people from West Africa coming and picking it and it reminds them of being back at home. Really? So they eat it? Oh yeah, they don't like the sweet corn that comes. Okay, so I wasn't wrong when I was walking through there, because I said I bet people could eat this corn. You did say that. And some of the people I was with, they said no. And I said no, yeah. Was it your daughter? Did she tell you you were wrong? My university daughter needed to fill me in on, because what I did say was, wouldn't it be something if it reached like 110 degrees and the corn popped? But then she filled me in that it takes more than 110 degrees for corn to pop anyway. Yes. But it doesn't taste very good if you're used to good sweet corn. Taber corn or something like that. So we got people sneaking at home and they were pretty disappointed. Are you serious? Putting it in their pockets. They actually try to sneak it? They got their purse full of- Oh, my goodness. Purse full of corn. This is where you need the corn cops. Because it's like, back away from the corn. Stay away from the corn. That's really funny. I didn't know that. Yes. See, there's way more to a corn maze than just going through the corn maze. This is pretty incredible if you ask me. I think it is. I'm just amazed by all of this. This is really something. So do you guys harvest the corn or somebody comes in? One of the local dairy farmer comes in and he'll silage it all. He does it for you. Feed the cows over the winter. And then they till up the ground, obviously, and year after year. So does the ground ever get ground fatigue or anything? It's just, or it doesn't really matter. It's fine for what we need. You probably don't get the greatest yields all the time, but for us. Well, it looked like this year, you had a good, a really good, it's. We had timely rains and heat now, so it's been good. I was going to say, what does it take to grow corn? Like what kind of environment? Does it do well up here? It does okay. Like most of the corn is grown, like the corn belt in the States. It's a little bit hotter and a little bit, it needs lots of heat units. Yeah. But it seems to be getting warmer and warmer here. Yeah, yeah. And falls extend a little bit. You might be going into November pretty soon. Yeah. So when you did your corn maze for the first time, did you invite your mom and dad up to take a look and compare the corn maze? Yeah. It was a little bit of friendly competition. Do they still do their one in Lacombe? Yeah. My brother is doing it. Oh, your brother is doing it? Yeah. So you check each other's corn mazes out? Yeah. It's friendly competition. Yeah. And who wins every year? Yeah. Because you said it was competition. So like. It just keeps us honest. That's pretty cool. So a corn maze family. It's a corn maze family. Yeah. I do. I think that I actually think that's really neat and kept it in the family and kept doing it. And Dan, are you related to Dan? No. We're just friends. And so how did you meet? Did you meet in university? Yeah. We were at school together and he comes from Ontario originally. So he's got a bit of experience with corn, like not necessarily corn mazes. Yeah. There's a bit more corn grown there. So like, how did that go? Were you like in university one day, like sitting doing homework, like doing algebra or something? And one of you just said, hey, you want to do a corn maze or that's about how it went? Yeah, that's kind of how it went. Give it a try. And the next thing you know, we're standing out in the middle of the field with a bag of corn seed. I love this story. This is the true Alberta way, isn't it? No, it really is. Like entrepreneurs. Who would do this? Like, this is incredible and be so successful at it. And yeah, the first year, we didn't know if there'd be a second year. Yeah. It keeps going every year. How many people do you think went through in the first year? I can't remember. That was about 20,000 or something. So really, that's still pretty good. So yeah, it was good. People enjoyed it. And did you feel like you were on to something and we could grow this and make this? It was good. It was coming from nothing. It felt like a lot of people. And do you get a lot of media support? Yeah, every year the media get most people coming out and have a look. And word of mouth is still the greatest thing. When you get people coming out and then the next week they set up friends and it's good. Well, I'm going to say it again because I think it's worth saying. So we purposely went because we knew we were going to have you on the podcast. And so I thought I guess I better go to the corn maze and see if I can make it through. But A, it wasn't that expensive for a family. It wasn't that bad considering we were there a good, I'm going to say two and a half, three hours. Because we couldn't get the kids off the bubble thing. It was like, can we play more? Go ahead, just go ahead. And can you come? Nope, sign right here says, I'm too big to go on that. So you just go do that. And they loved that. And then, so it wasn't that expensive. It was good value. But I'm going to also say this, Jesse, to you, because I think it's important. You know, it costs a lot of money to take your family out to anything these days. You know that. And so you get there. And then sometimes you get into to something like this and then you want some, excuse me, some snacks or or whatever you have. And they jack the price up on that stuff. Like they really do. Kind of like going to an Oilers game, like eight bucks for a bottle of water. I was so pleasantly surprised because we had to get water. It was a hot day. And the kids wanted ice cream, of course, and they wanted Doritos, which we fed to the goat. And I have to say that every item we purchased, I actually said to the lady at the concession, I said, Are you sure? Because this doesn't seem right. It was such a reasonable price, which meant a family wasn't dishing out a ton more money for a day at the corn maze. So kudos to you guys. I think that's fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, we want to provide value to families. We know money is tight. If we can provide some value, and people can enjoy themselves with their kids, or even by themselves, it's good. Yeah, matter of fact, I'm just going to say this. I was at a birthday party on Sunday in the park, and the ice cream man came along. And of course, you know... You probably spent a lot more money at the ice cream man. I'm telling you, the same thing I paid $2.50 for, I think it was $2.50 at the corn maze, $2.50 for, I paid, no word of a lie, $6 from the ice cream man. And I let the ice cream man know. I said, no offense sir, listen, thanks for coming around, six bucks! I just spent at another... I didn't say the name, because I didn't want to get the corn maze involved in a price war. I was at another, $2.50 for the same thing. He's like, well, I got gas. I'm like, well, you should see what they got, head over there. But anyway, so yeah, kudos to you guys. I think that was really cool. That was good. So, you got, what we're in September, middle of September, you got another about a month and a half left. Five or six weeks. Six weeks left. Yeah. And schools back in, do school groups come through, or how does the weekdays go now that kids are back in school? We get lots of school groups coming through, and then lots of people on dates and families and young kids. And it's good. And then the weekends, oh yeah. There's a, wow. There's a not. What time are you open till? It could either go really well or really bad. It could either make or break the date. I was gonna say, it could be the first date and the last date, or it could be the... There's been some of both. I left her in the maze. I know. You're fighting. I'm out of the parking lot while she's still trying to get out. Yeah, that, what time are you open till? We go, we're open every day until eight o'clock, or Tuesday to Saturday, and Sunday's one to five. Do you, so it's kind of starting to get dark around eight, I think, now. Yeah. Do you, do you, can you still go through it? You bet! Bring your flashlight, wander around in the dark. Come on! Serious? Yeah. I want to do that. It's a little spooky around the corners. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I want to do that. I want to, that, I didn't, I thought maybe when it got dark, you shut er down. No, that's when all the, yeah, it's a lot of time wandering around the town. Have you had any marriage proposals? There has been a few. Yeah. They came on their first date, and then three or four years later, they come back for a marriage proposal. This is great. This is just great. Whereas, this is awesome. Bring it, take, so listen, guys, seriously, I'm not even kidding you. If you're listening and you live around here, and you've been seeing her for a while, get on with it and get down to the corn maze, and take her to the corn maze, take her on a date, and then just propose to her at the corn maze. Sure. That works. Have you had any weddings at the corn maze? No. Not that I know of. Not that you know of. We should work on that. Maybe. You take her on your first date, you get engaged and you get married at the corn maze. That'd be cool. Well, you never know. There's a first for everything. No, there is a first for everything. I think that's really cool. Well, that's really awesome. Today- You've learned a lot, haven't you? No, I really have. I was so excited about today because you know there's more to it than just some guys throwing corn seed out in a field. There's a lot to it and it's really incredible. You guys do an amazing thing for the City of Edmonton and surrounding, of course. I just think it's great and I'm excited for next year already. That's true. Yeah. Do you know next year's or you'll wait till winter to- We've got a few things possible. Can companies sponsor? Sure. All right. If you're listening, any businesses and we have a lot of businesses that listen to us, this would be great advertising right here is the corn maze. I think 50,000 people. That's phenomenal. And you should call these guys up and have a little chat with them. Do you have a website? Yes, EdmontonCornMaze.ca. EdmontonCornMaze.ca. And so maybe what you could do is take them to the corn maze and then take them to Wing Snob. That's a great idea. That's what I think because there's a Wing Snob right there in Edgemont. That's right. And you could head over to Edgemont. That's like 10 minutes away. Either before or after. Before or after. Yeah. Well, you work up quite a little appetite going through the corn maze. You can take them with you. Really? Mark your trail with the bones. Jesse, the other thing which I thought was really cool is you let dogs come in. You bet. Yeah. Yeah. Bring your pets. Perfect. There was like, and the kids love it. The kids we were with, they had to go pet the dogs and see the dogs. And it was really cool because I thought, well, maybe they wouldn't do that. But you did. And I think it adds to it. People enjoy their dogs walking out there. So it's good. It was really cool. So there's tons to do. You had a food truck there if you want. I think that day at a hamburger, excuse me, had a hamburger truck there. So it was kind of cool. Yeah. Lots of entertainment and good value for your family. Really is. It really is, folks. And it's fun and the kids love it. And they'll want to stay all day because there's just so much to do and hang out. Buy a pumpkin. Yep. Buy pumpkins. And we got a farmer's market with all sorts of other stuff too. And I didn't see that. How did I miss that? The kids were probably going crazy over there. And sunflowers. You can still buy sunflowers. There's a few left. Is there? And they're beautiful. And yeah, it was fantastic. Well, we've learned a lot, Cam. I'm a better person today than I was an hour ago because of it. Again, I'm kind of being serious about that because you just kind of take it for granted and you drive by or you go to it. And there's so much more to it. Well, again, there's always a story behind the story. Always a story behind the story. I wish Dan could have come. It would have been fun. But Jesse, you did a great job. We got one more final question that we ask all of our guests. Everybody gets asked this question. So Jesse, what is the best piece of advice you've been given, either personally or professionally, that you carry with you to this day? Oh, boy, I don't know. Just put a smile on your face. And for us, we just want to make people happy and meet them. Just provide some experience so they can have lots of fun being away from the rest of their life. So wandering around in circles sometimes isn't the end of the world. It really is great, actually. One day I'll send you all the videos and all the commentary I had as I was going through, because it was fun. Yeah, life's not a straight path. No, it's not. And sometimes you take a wrong turn, but the beauty is you eventually make your way out. You make your way out. And if not, there's people to help you out. The corn cops will help you out. Yeah, so really, it was really cool. And folks, listen, if you're in this area, it's well worth it. Take your family, take your friends, guys. You know, if you're struggling to figure out what to do on a date, it's worth it. It is. It would be a great date. Absolutely. I think. Head down there this weekend. It's going to be beautiful. Oh, yeah. It's going to be beautiful this weekend. So take advantage of it while you can. And fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You're wearing a great hoodie. A great... Edmonton, do you sell those hoodies? We've got hoodies at the maze too. How come? See, I'd have bought a hoodie. Because you probably didn't go into the store area. I know I didn't. I'm going back just to do that. You will. Those are great hoodies. I'd wear that hoodie everywhere. So that's fantastic. Thanks, everybody. Listen, I want to remind you, hey, if you don't know what to do for dinner tonight, check out Wing Snob. 16 flavors, 4 rubs, fantastic wings. The best you'll find. Hey, I think we're having Mike Chadi on pretty soon. We are to talk about Wing of the Month. That's right. We're going to do a special segment called Wing Flavor of the Month. I can't wait. Because you know why? Mike's going to bring us wings. He's going to bring us that flavor that day. It'll be great. So we can try it out. So make sure you check out Wing Snob www.wingsnob.ca and Mprint. If you're looking to get something done, business cards, whatever you need. Maybe you want your truck wrap. Maybe you need your business trucks wrapped. Check out Mprint in Acheson. www.mprint.ca That's right. So thanks everybody for listening. We appreciate it. Make sure you tell everybody about the podcast. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your enemies, tell your work people. If you don't have a friend, just go and make one so you can tell them about the podcast. And just, we got listeners all around the world now. Thank you everybody for listening and Subscribe. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. www.coffeeinthepark.com. Check us out. All our past podcasts are there. We got profiles on our guests, all kinds of stuff. And just want to say thanks everybody for listening. And we'll see you next time. Thanks, everyone, see you next time.