L & A Family Farms in Paris is dedicated to sustainable growing practices and fall family fun, which includes this year’s Eastern sponsored and themed corn maze opening on Saturday.

According to former graduate student and farmer Brian Lau, making corn mazes can prove to be quite expensive and difficult to create. 

WIth Eastern’s sponsorship and promotion skills, the maze is now complete and ready to be explored. 

All fall activities including the hayride, pumpkin patch and bonfire sites will be available starting Sept. 17. 

General admission is $10. For the haunted maze, individuals are encouraged to look online to see what days and times that special event is available. 

There is a separate section dedicated to the spooky maze for an additional fee of $12. 

For expert corn maze adventurers, the farm has added a little bit of a twist to the maze this year. 

Instead of having one checkpoint, there are actually three that need to be discovered before the maze is officially completed. 

According to Lau, individuals will know when they have discovered the checkpoint because there will be information about Eastern.

For those who feel like they are particularly bad at mazes, Lau does offer a bit of advice. 

“This is easier said than done since the corn is quite tall in places,” Lau said. “Look at the horizon (trees) and try to keep your bearings and determine if you are traveling North, South, East or West.”

Lau said that even though he works here, there have been times where he has had to “cheat” to find his way out.

“The corn maze is divided into four sections, but is all part of the main design,” Lau said. “These sections are all mini individual mazes that vary in difficulty and length. Three sections are part of the daytime and flashlight night maze. One section is dedicated to our haunted corn maze. [As for how hard the maze is,] let’s put it this way. I have had to mow the paths several times this summer. In one section I have had to cheat and use my map to find my way out multiple times.”

It will be at the same level of difficulty as the original maze, but will have the fear of the unknown included. Lau does describe the maze to be scary, but not intense. 

“This is more of a family friendly haunted maze, but not necessarily for the littlest ones,” Lau said. “It will not have a lot of blood, guts and gore, but you will not know what’s coming around the corner or up from behind you. Last year one of our actors made a grown man pee his pants.”

In honor of Eastern promoting this event, L & A Family Farms has also announced that on Oct. 22, it will be official EIU Day at the farm. 

 “Students, staff and alumni will get a $2.00 discount off the general admission ticket or haunted maze ticket for that entire weekend, not just Saturday on the official EIU Day,” Lau said. “For online ticket purchases EIU is supposed to release a promo code for EIU folks to use. For online ticket purchases only, we will honor the $2 discount for our entire season for the students.  This way you don’t have to wait for the EIU weekend to come visit us.”

Lau said he was excited and grateful for Eastern helping out and making this event possible. 

“My wife and I are both EIU graduates [1991],” Lau said. “It’s exciting to host an event with the school that helped develop me into the person I am today.”

Adriana Hernandez-Santana can be reached at 581-2812 or at aihernandez@eiu.edu.