Growing Family Fun

The 2009 Growing Family Fun Share the Bounty food drive collected 937 food items plus a $25 check from corn maze customers. On Nov. 5, the food donations and money were given to the Des Moines Area Religious Council’s Emergency Food Pantry. The council serves short-term food needs at nine locations.

Thank you to our maze customers for their generous food contributions.

Darrell & Malinda Geisler, co-owners of Growing Family Fun at Geisler Farms, were featured Dec. 22, 2009, on Living the Country Life, a rural lifestyle show on RFD-TV. The four-minute segment explained why the Geislers added agritourism to their farm in 2005.

The segment is located on the Living the Country Life Web site. Go to www.livingthecountrylife.com and select Video/TV. Under the Living the Country Life Videos, select Country Life. On the Country Life video page, select Agritourism.

The Living the Country Life TV show and its companion magazine are published by Meredith Corporation in Des Moines.

Creativity in pumpkin decorating was showcased at Growing Family Fun during October. Part-time staff members at the farm were invited to participate in the first pumpkin decorating contest. They were allowed to decorate, not carve their pie pumpkin entries. Votes were cast from Oct. 10 through Oct. 31. Here are the People’s Choice awards for the following categories: 

Funniest, “Crazy Daryl,” by Matt Righi, Bondurant.

Scariest, “Scary Clown,” by Joshua Mosher, Bondurant.

Most original, “Linus and Snoopy waiting for the Great Pumpkin,”  by Becky Plager, Cambridge.

Honorable mention goes to “The World,” by Zachary Quick, Bondurant.

Congratulations to all of the participants.

It’s pumpkin season at Growing Family Fun at Geisler Farms. Now in its fifth year, Growing Family Fun offers farm-grown pumpkins of all sizes for purchase. You may also purchase corn shocks, straw, winter squash, gourds, mums, ear corn and other fall decorations on the weekends through Oct. 31. 

“It is not too early to hunt for the perfect Halloween pumpkin,” says co-owner Darrell Geisler. “Pumpkins and winter squash store well in a dry, cool place until you are ready to carve or consume them,” he says.

Geisler Farms recently provided a harvest display for the new Bass Pro Shops in Altoona near the store’s waterfall. The display features a scarecrow, corn shock, straw bales, pumpkins and gourds.

On Friday, Oct. 9, singer-songwriter Scott Stilwell will be providing music in the Red Shed beginning at 7 p.m. to kick off Fall Fest weekend. Stilwell will perform selections from his self-produced CD “Witness.” He is director of music and fine arts at West Des Moines Christian Church. There is no charge to enjoy the music inside the Red Shed. There is a charge for those who wish to enter the corn maze. For more info on Scott and his music, visit his Web site at: http://www.scottstilwell.com/.

Maze for Marfan Fall Fest is Oct. 10-11. Representatives from the Heart of Iowa Chapter of the National Marfan Foundation will be working at the maze and providing information about Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissue; the glue that holds the body together. It affects 1 out of every 5,000 individuals in the United States. On Oct. 10 & 11, Geisler Farms will be donating $1 for each paid corn maze admission to the Heart of Iowa Chapter. For additional information, visit www.heartofiowa.org or www.marfan.org.

Ms. Wheelchair Iowa 2009, Angie Plager of Cambridge, will be at Geisler Farms on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 11 to discuss accessibility issues. Plager, who works part-time at Geisler Farms, completed the 10-acre corn maze in one hour.