Every time I see a sunflower I can’t help but smile. The thought of winding through a field of sunflowers with friends and family makes me smile even bigger. Tyler and Karalee Leatherberry, of Leatherberry Acres have created this kind of unique experience through their sunflower maze.
Leatherberry Acres jumped into the world of Agritourism in 2015. They launched this business as a way to help families and friends get outside and have a lot of fun making memories. They are constantly thinking up crazy ideas and a lot of the time they try to implement them. They love to meet new people and have met so many from around the world thanks to Leatherberry Acres.
One of the many ideas they have incorporated at Leatherberry Acres is their 7 Acre sunflower maze. This is the second year that they have the sunflower maze open to the public to enjoy.
“We saw all of these beautiful sunflowers around and we just thought why don’t we make a maze of them,” said Karalee. “They are sturdy like corn and it adds another revenue source before the corn maze opens in September.”
One of the most interesting parts of every maze is the design. At Leatherberry Acres it is Karalee who does the designing and Tyler who cuts the patterns into the fields. This year Karalee decided upon a patriotic theme. The sunflower maze design for 2018 is the state of Wisconsin and inside the state is a badger with the United States flag in the background. These designs are very intricate and Tyler told Jenna Lee in a recent interview that this year’s sunflower maze design took about five and a half hours to create in the field.
After the sunflower maze is shut down for the season the Leatherberry’s have found further use for the plants. Currently they feed the left over plants to their animals that can be found in the petting zoo. That being said they have future plans to find more uses of the sunflowers.
“Right now we feed them to our animals but in the future we are looking into creating sunflower oil because it has many health benefits as well as packaging up the seeds to sell as bird seed,” said Karalee.
The sunflower maze is not the only fun that can be had a Leatherberry Acres. In fact they have a Bale Pyramid, Straw Maze, Barrel Train rides, Giant Slides, Zip Line, Petting zoo and in autumn they open their corn maze. No matter when you stop by there are plenty of opportunity to have safe and exciting family fun.
The sunflower maze is a fun and beautiful experience but it only lasts a few weeks. This year the sunflower maze opened on August 8th and closes around two to three weeks after it is opened. To make sure the maze is still running and for updates on Leatherberry Acres activities visit, http://leatherberryacres.com/. You will not be disappointed in the beauty to be seen and the fun to be had when at Leatherberry Acres, located at S4067 County Road A Baraboo, WI 53913.
