Article by Chip Pate
Note: This article is from N.C. Cooperative Extension in Lee County’s monthly series highlighting the impact local women are making on Lee County agriculture. Videos related to this story and all profiles in the series are available at leewomeninag.com
It used to be your typical family farm, and in some ways it still is. Soybeans, tobacco, small grains and rye grow at Gross Farms, an operation that’s been around so long it was recognized by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as a Century Farm, one owned by the same family for 100 years or more.
But this is a sunny weekend in October and that means the place is jumping. Literally. Children are bouncing relentlessly on something called the Pumpkin Jump, a massive, parabolic launching pad that must be enormously fun because everyone on it is screaming with joy.
Plenty more are navigating through a 10-acre corn maze — the first in Lee County and one of the largest in the area — where you can solve puzzles while following three trails, the longest one running for two and a half miles. There’s a new design each year and, though you can’t see it from the ground, this year’s is “So God Made a Farmer.” The words are cut into the maze along with logos for the National FFA Organization and 4-H Club, two youth development groups promoting agriculture.
Others are picking pumpkins. Enjoying a hayride. Climbing Tire Mountain. Racing down a two-lane slide. To be honest, it feels more like Carowinds than the family farm.
When Tina and John Gross started developing their agricultural theme park back in 2002, it was their second venture into agritourism that began two years earlier with a pick-your-own strawberry patch.
At that time, agritourism was a fledgling industry. Strictly speaking, the idea of bringing people to the farm goes back forever; roadside farm stands and orchards encouraging visitors to stop by and pick apples are nothing new. But more ambitious agritourism operations were just beginning to take root in the Carolinas.