Young Pumpkin Grower Hosts ‘Maus Fall Festival’ | Morrison County Record

Braiden Maus invites people for some family-friendly fun fall activities on the farm, Saturdays and Sundays, until Halloween.

For the last three years, Braiden Maus of Pierz, along with his family, has been holding the Maus Fall Festival. The event is held every weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Halloween and is a family-friendly event. Filled with a variety of fun activities, Maus said something new is added each year.

The farm is located at 17612 225th Avenue in Pierz. Parking will be available along the long driveway.

The activities this year, Maus said, include visitors picking their own pumpkin, playing games, such as tic tac toe and checkers on large tables, bowling and basket bowl — pumpkin style, a bouncy house, walking through a round bale maze and a corn maze. There is also a petting zoo with a variety of animals that are friendly and eager to greet visitors.

Braiden Maus invites people for some family-friendly fun fall activities on the farm, Saturdays and Sundays, until Halloween.

All of the activities and one pumpkin per person is included in the low admission fee. Children ages 3 and under are admitted for free, Maus said.

Looking back, Maus said the idea to start growing pumpkins was inspired by seeing the success his brother, Tosh, had with growing and selling sweet corn.

Each year, the Maus family plants about 3,000 pumpkin seeds over two acres. In the beginning, all the seeds were planted by hand and took the family a weekend of labor. Since then, Maus’ dad, Steve, rigs the corn planter, which is then used to plant the pumpkin seeds.

“That saves a lot of time and effort. Now it only takes about 30 minutes to plant,” Maus said.

As pumpkins take about 90 to 100 days to grow, Maus plants in May as soon as the frost is out of the ground. While there are pests that are drawn to pumpkins, Maus said they’ve been very fortunate in that aspect. Other than a few grasshoppers and other bugs nibbling on the leaves from time to time, they haven’t had any issues with pests, he said.

The petting zoo is easily accessible and includes the horse, Sashy, the miniature horse, Sebastian, who was named after the crab in the Disney movie, The Little Mermaid and the potbelly pig, Dolly. Also added to the petting zoo are the miniature donkey, Carlos, a Scottish Highlander cow, Daffany, a goat named Spot and the two sheep, Pepper and Muffin. Gertrude, Maus said, is the baby calf.

Besides the petting zoo, the Maus family has three dogs, Red, Gruffy and Filine, who are very friendly, along with too many cats and kittens to count.

Near the petting zoo are the round bale and corn mazes. While the round bale maze offers its own fun for young adventurers, it is significantly smaller than the corn maze. The corn maze is located across 12 acres, the Maus family said.

The Maus family sometimes jokes that when it comes to visitors who are afraid of getting lost in the corn maze, to not worry since they send out a search party every Thursday.

Jokes aside, after the event, the Maus family gathers all of the pumpkins that are left. What is not sold or given away is fed to their cattle. Pumpkins are a treat they love very much, said mom, Bethany. It’s the same with the corn.

Besides the pumpkin that is included in the admission fee, visitors will have the opportunity to purchase pumpkins and gourds of all sizes. To assist in retrieving those from the field, the Maus family has several wagons for people to use to haul them in.

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