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PDF versionSYRACUSE -- Cows, kids, corn and gigantic slides.
The combination was fun and educational for a group of inner-city Salt Lake schoolchildren who visited Davis County on Monday to kick off this year's Black Island Farm Harvest Festival.
"It's nice for them to be able to have this experience," said teacher Barbara Rodgers. "A lot of them never get out of the city."
Nearly 60 fourth-graders from Backman Elementary School toured the farm by wagon, on foot, by "tractor train" -- and by the seat of their pants.
"I like the slide," said Brandon DelaFuente, 9, referring to the towering slides made from straw bales that adorn the 5-acre field.
The slides joined other children's amusements -- like a bouncing pumpkin and pig race track.
While visiting Animal Alley, children learned about 11 types of animals -- including birds, sheep, pigs, cows and donkeys.
A wagon ride through the fields gave insight into how various produce grows and culminated in each child picking a pumpkin to take home.
Safety was the subject of an outdoor briefing on handling food on the farm and at home.
A tractor pulled children in choo-choo-style seats through a corner of the 12-foot-high corn maze.
"I like the slide," Emily Linan, 9, said at the end of the farm tour.
"The slide was the most fun," agreed Angelina Gallargo, 9. "And (the farm) has a lot of pumpkins."
"The slide, I liked it best," said Sandi Sanchez, 9.
"And I like the pumpkins. My mom is going to make a pumpkin pie."
"The slide is great," said David Sanchez, 9. "I learned some things. Um ... I learned ... I never knew that peacocks and turkeys can fly."
Farm owner Charlie Black said he started the harvest festival in 2005 to share, free of charge, with his church and as a fun field trip for handicapped children.
The 260-acre farm produces mostly vegetables and pumpkins that are supplied to Condies Foods Inc., in Kerns.
Condies Foods is a food processor that supplies restaurants -- like McDonald's and Pizza Hut -- in the Intermountain area, mainly in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.
Over the years, the festival has grown from 3,500 visitors in 2005 to 48,000 visitors in 2008, and events and admission fees have been added.
"We did that for survival," Black said.
"Economic times are tougher. It is getting harder and harder to make money through just farming, so we had to diversify."
The corn maze has gotten bigger each year and boasts it is the biggest in Utah.
This year, the maze has a "Twilight" theme.
The 24-acre maze is cut out of a corn field in the likenesses of "Twilight" movie characters Jacob and Edward.
Black's daughter, Dorothy Law, said the farm had to get a release from Summit Entertainment to use the "Twilight" theme, and they had to get signed approval from the actors, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattison, after the maze was drawn in the corn, indicating the likenesses were acceptable representations.
A 60,000-square-foot Haunted Barn is another attraction that draws older children, teens and many adults, Law said.
The Black Island Farm Harvest Festival runs from Friday through Oct. 31, beginning at 4 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays.
