Sowing Rows Of Entertainment

Walking through the corn maze at Fairview Farm at Mecox, children laugh, the sound mingling with the rustling of dried corn and the smell of apple cider donuts. Spread out over 8 acres, the MAiZE, as it’s called, is cut in the shape of a swan this year. Couples follow small children down pathways while young parents push strollers and groups of friends wander through.“It is a change of scenery from what we’re used to, we don’t have this where we’re from,” said Angel Colon, 28, who, with his wife, children and friends from Valley Stream, was walking through the maze.

“Once a season there’s usually one person who calls the hotline” after getting lost, said Dane Giuffrey, who has worked at the farm for three years. But in general, he said, visitors find their own way out after about 30 minutes.

Some come to the farm just for the refreshments—Dillon Berkoski, who lives nearby, said it has the best apple cider and donuts. He likes to stop by with friends on weekdays when it is less crowded.

Other popular treats include curly ribbon fries, roasted corn, hot dogs and pumpkin apple cider donuts. “We are consistently what the customers are expecting,” said Harry Ludlow, who noted that most of his family’s business comes through referrals.

The Ludlows’ busiest day of this year was Monday of Columbus Day weekend. Despite having around 1,000 visitors that day, the maze did not feel crowded, and Mr. Ludlow feels that they have not yet reached their capacity. He first planted the corn maze in 2001, after leaving the wholesale potato business.

“The ‘90s were challenging for us in a number of regards. The selling point for potatoes was mediocre,” said Mr. Ludlow, who at that time farmed around 250 acres of potatoes with his brother, Art Ludlow, and their father, Gurden Ludlow. “Our costs were going up,” Mr. Ludlow said.

In addition to owning 150 acres, the family leased around 100 acres of land. But by the late 1990s, available farmland in the Hamptons was becoming scarce. “We always lost [leased] land, but we couldn’t pick up more,” Mr. Ludlow recalled.

Wholesaling potatoes, or any vegetable, is a numbers game. The profit per acre isn’t very high, especially when considering the cost of machinery. Across the East End in the late 1990s, as viable farmland was taken out of production for development, wholesalers had to turn to other types of farming that offered a higher profit per acre. Vineyards sprang up on former potato fields, families planted specialty vegetables to sell at farm stands, and some, including the Ludlows at Fairview Farms, offered forms of “agritainment” like the corn maze.

The Ludlow family planted their last wholesale potato crop in 2000, and in 2001, Mr. Ludlow’s brother, Art Ludlow, founded Mecox Bay Dairy. Harry Ludlow opened Fairview Farm.

“We can earn a better livelihood on those 60 acres than wholesaling on those 250,” Mr. Ludlow said. Admitting that “this model might not work in another place,” the farmer said he believes that “it’s the taste, it’s the relationship with the source” that brings customers back.

Each year, the maze’s design incorporates community, family and fun, and the theme is chosen by the whole family, including the Ludlows’ two adult children, Nathan and Meredith.

“I like it to be a thought process and not just throwing a dart,” Mr. Ludlow said.

Once they’ve decided on the shape, Barbara Ludlow, Mr. Ludlow’s wife, designs the maze, while Nathan Ludlow, 32, cuts paths through the corn.

“He has a sense of what kinds of lines are practical or not,” Mr. Ludlow said of his son.

In order to have a robust maze, they plant a hearty variety of corn with a strong stalk and root system. They also make sure to keep the ground level so that the maze is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.

A favorite past design was a bee surrounded by honeycombs. “It was a beautiful growing season,” Mr. Ludlow recalled. “The bee came out perfect.”

Inclement weather, specifically hurricanes, can hurt the business. In recent years, the Ludlows have been fairly lucky, but Hurricane Irene had a “significant impact” on the maze, Mr. Ludlow said.

With the switch from wholesale production, he had to learn about different diseases and insects that could afflict the crops, but by their third year, the family realized the switch could be successful. “It wasn’t going to be easy, it wasn’t going to be cheap, but we could do it,” Mr. Ludlow said.

Even their pies, which Mr. Ludlow says Fairview Farm is famous for, started out on a lark. In 2014, a customer asked for a pie, so Mr. Ludlow’s daughter made one. Before long, Meredith Ludlow, 31, was making a pie a week—and now she bakes dozens.

When asked to name a favorite pie, Mr. Ludlow could not narrow it down from three, depending on the season: strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb; cherry raspberry; or blackberry-blueberry.

The MAiZE is open Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through November 13. The entry fee is $10 per adult and $8 for each child. The Ludlows’ farm stand at 19 Horsemill Lane will be open through New Year’s.