It’s a-maze-ing

Scarecrow-shaped corn maze opens for a season of fall fun

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — Jim and Julie Yatsonsky’s farm looks like any other farm when you drive up to it on Owego Turnpike, outside of Honesdale.

But when you stop and start talking to the hard-working Yatsonskys, you will find a most unusual cornfield behind their house. It’s tall and it’s long and it’s cut into a maze like no other maze you have ever seen before.

“A company out in Idaho designs, then comes and cuts the corn field into a maze in any number of patterns,” Jim said. “This one takes up three and a half acres and the aisle through it is one point seven miles long.”

But that’s not all. It’s cut into the shape of a scarecrow if you view it from the air. The company called MazePlay, flew an airplane over it and took several pictures.

“This outfit has put up 80 mazes throughout the country, and they’re great fun,” Jim said. “This time there are six checkpoints spread throughout the maze, and you punch a card we give you at each point so you can prove that you went through the whole thing.”

There are no dead ends in it, he said.

The maze will open on Labor Day weekend and will remain open until October. The grand opening is on Friday, September 31.

Why do they do it?

“Two reasons,” Jim said. “First, it’s educational. We want people to see what a farm is like. The second reason is that it provides a way for us to diversify.”

“Diversify” is a key word you will hear on the dairy farms around here these days. Diversify means to make a product other than milk. It can mean raising beef on the hoof, making ice cream (the Yatsonskys’ ice cream is very tasty), growing vegetables, making cheese—anything that will support you when the milk business gets rough. And that’s been happening a lot these days, with dairy farms closing not just every year but every month.

“I quit dairying seven years ago,” Jim said. “I was just spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. While I was still milking my herd of 50 cows, I began to raise vegetables and then branched into making ice cream after that. Then, I just up and sold my herd and concentrated on doing this.”

“This” means selling vegetables and ice cream at farmers’ markets in Honesdale and Hawley. It means selling his products to retail stores, selling his wife’s ice cream at farmers’ markets and stores in the area.

Are they doing any better?

“I’m not sure if we are or not,” he said. “We’re not doing worse. We have to make as much in seven months as we made in one year.”

Julie runs the vegetable and ice cream stand from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. from May to October.

“With milking you were finished at 7:30 at night,” she said. “Here, you have to stay open selling vegetables and ice cream for the convenience of customers.”

They’re hoping the maze will draw more customers who will buy their other products.

To get to Owego Turnpike from Route 191 south of Honesdale, turn off on Maple Drive, a short connecting road. Turn right at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Owego Turnpike, and the farm is approximately three miles down the road.

For more detailed directions or other information call 570/488-5683.

Fighting the odds: a dairy farm kid who wants to dairy

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — You won’t meet many like him among today’s farm youth: a dairy farm kid who wants to be a dairy farm man.

Billy Yatsonsky, 16, the son of Jim and Julie Yatsonsky, (see accompanying article this page) is entering his junior year at Western Wayne High School, and is determined to try running his own dairy farm, like his father before him.

In case you haven’t noticed, dairy farms are an endangered species and are passing out of existence like moths diving into a candle flame. In the past few months, Wayne County has witnessed the closing of four dairy farms, intensifying a trend begun a few years ago.

At several emergency meetings called recently by dairy farmers on how to cope with the current crisis in the low pricing of milk, several said that they did not want their children to get into farming. Farmer after farmer said the same thing. But that doesn’t deter Billy.

“I grew up on a dairy farm and know how to do it,” Billy said.

What do his parents feel about his decision?

“He likes dairy farming and I don’t want to stop him,” Jim said. “If he could find a way of staying away from the milk companies, he might make it.”

According to many dairy farmers today, the dairy producers are the middlemen who are not helping dairymen but hindering them. Many feel that the milk processors, the co-ops (large cooperatives formed by the farmers themselves) and the retail stores are taking money that should go to the farmers.

“I think he should begin by buying one or two cows and selling the raw milk himself. That way he controls the price himself. He’d have to get a permit to do that, but it’s still possible,” Jim said.

“Mom doesn’t say much about it when I talk about dairying,” Billy said.

“It’s fine if he keeps it in the family,” Julie said. “I grew up on a farm and I’m okay with it. He’s a hard worker. If he wants to do that, we have to support him.”