
DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200399

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   64 lines

COUNTRY FAIR DAY TO FEATURE LIVING MAZE GRAIN LABYRINTH AMONG NEPTUNE FESTIVAL EVENT'S CROP OF ACTIVITIES.

More than an acre of grain has been growing behind the Farmer's Market this summer, but it's all in the name of fun, not animal feed.

This week, workers carved a zigzagging maze through the 6-foot-high field that spells out ``FARMER'S MARKET,'' hoping to entice youngsters to learn more about the city's agricultural heritage.

The labyrinth is part of the Neptune Festival's Country Fair Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the market.

Other activities include a Fun Barn with a petting zoo, 4-H exhibits, and Beachy, the fiberglass cow that can be milked. A giant-vegetable contest, continuous country music, and line dancing also are part of the event. King Neptune and his court will visit around noon and take a turn through the maze.

Planted with an animal forage crop called Sudex, the maze is a first for Director Louis Cullipher and others at the Virginia Beach Department of Agriculture. In the past, the department has erected small mazes made of straw bales at the Farmer's Market and other events to call attention to the city's agriculture industry.

But this maze is alive and spans 1 1/2 acres. The puzzling path through the Sudex field is carpeted with mown grass and is alive with movement. Graceful seed heads move back and forth with the breeze, and grasshoppers pop off the ground and fly away just ahead of advancing feet.

With many twists, turns and dead ends, the maze can take 10 to 15 minutes to negotiate and can be from a quarter-mile to a half-mile long, depending on participants' sense of direction. If they are lucky, they can reach the center with a rest area complete with straw bale seats.

``It's cheating,'' Cullipher said, ``if you get off the path and walk through the Sudex to get out!''

The maze is growing in a city-owned field just north of the woods behind the Farmer's Market, at Princess Anne and Dam Neck roads.

The maze is a labor of love on the part of Cullipher and agriculture department staff member Mel Atkinson. They tilled the field, planted and fertilized the grain and designed the maze earlier this summer. And this week, they rolled their sleeves up and cut the path. The maze will be available for Farmer's Market visitors to use this fall until it becomes too dry. And then, it will be cut to prevent a fire hazard.

Cullipher is so pleased with the project that he has more ambitious plans for next year. He wants to establish a trail system through the woods that will take visitors to a freshly grown maze in the shape of the city of Virginia Beach, with grains of different colors and textures delineating the main roads, waterways and landmarks.

A big sign in front of the Sudex maze, which is getting taller by the day, says, ``Watch the Farmer's Market Fun Grow.'' Literally. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

PHILIP HOLMAN

Melvin Atkinson, coordinator of the city's Agriculture Reserve

Program, uses a weed-cutter to finish a maze through a field of

Sudex, a hay crop, in a field adjacent to the Virginia Beach

Farmer's Market on Princess Anne and Dam Neck roads. The maze spells

``FARMER'S MARKET.''

Graphic

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