NEWPORT, Pa. (WHTM) -
Hoover's Turkey Farm outside of Newport has been a familiar Perry County landscape for decades. But just next door is a skyline -- and a setting designed for visitors -- not seen on most farms.
Farm owner Jim Hoover said the idea behind Butcher's Family Farm Fun is just that -- family fun.
And what's not fun about a giant straw maze in the shape of a castle? It's made of 360 bales of straw, surrounded by turrets and ramparts and topped with the American flag.
The maze is just part of a three-acre wonderland mean to provide a chance for visitors to learn about farm life and have fun doing it.
This kind of farming wonderland is called "agritainment" or "agri-entertainment," providing farm-related activities in an entertaining format. Agritainment also helps farm families supplement traditional farming incomes.
"We don't want to be a sideshow, or something like that," Hoover said, "We want to be a farm where they can come and enjoy the farm and have fun."
The farm also includes a tractor fun run for big kids and a smaller, pedal-powered tractors for the little farmers, a straw mountain with a 20 foot tunnel slide, train rides in converted water bottles and a hamster wheel roll powered by determination.
Co-owner Stacey Butcher says opening her produce farm to the public is a fun way to safeguard their family's farming future, with one goal for all of their visitors: fun.
We want them to have "have a fond memory of the Perry County farm [and] just to have a fun time in Perry County," Butcher said.
Butcher's Family Farm Fun is located at 1375 Turkey Bird Road in Newport. It opened September 7 and runs Fridays to Sundays through November 3. Entrance in to the Family Fun Farm also includes a tour of Hoover's Turkey Farm next door. The entrance fee is $7.50 per person. Children age two and younger get in free.
