As veterans found different ways to celebrate Veterans Day, Steed’s Dairy Farm honored them and active soldiers by allowing them free entrance to its last open weekend.
With the fall season in full swing, many families flocked to enjoy the activities and community-famous corn maze at Jim Steed’s Dairy Farm located at 4634 Washington Rd. in Grovetown, Ga.
Parent Chris Marchand said he liked bringing his daughter to the facility because it encouraged her to be active instead of sitting around home bored and doing nothing.
Featured attractions included a giant bouncy pillow, several play areas, pony cart rides, cow-milking demonstrations, a pumpkin patch, racing ducks, hayrides, a zipline, lasso practice, cornhole and countless other activities.
Steed’s barn and pumpkin patch even presented parents with plenty of teaching opportunities about animal facts and the anatomy of a pumpkin.
Spanning across five acres and themed after Georgia Bulldogs’ and Atlanta Braves 2021 championships, this year’s corn maze has been a big hit for birthday parties and individual families.
While their energetic two-year-old daughter cleaned up the pumpkin patch after enjoying a pony-carriage ride, parents Chris and Brittany Mullis said they brought their three children to encourage outdoor activity and fresh air – in addition to supporting a local business.
“It gets them outdoors and away from electronics,” said Chris Mullis “There’s nothing else like this out here so it’s important that we show support for it.”
Brittany Mullis said she wanted her daughter to grow up having fond memories of a local place; somewhere she could one day take her own kids to enjoy and create new meaningful experiences.
Mother and daughter duo, Kelly and Mary Homlar said they enjoyed the farm because it allowed them to spend time outdoors in nature.
Remembering back on previous trips, Mary Homlar said her favorite part of the farm used to be the animals and seeing Steed’s dairy cow milked. However, today her favorite part was the corn maze, slides and jumping blob.
Employee Kaitlyn Thigpen, who has worked at the farm for almost three years, said she loves working for Steed because of connections to all the workers.
“Most places they just hire people and don’t take the time to get to know them, but here [Steed] really knows everything about everybody,” she said. “It really just feels like a big family here.”
As children enjoyed making s’more and eating pork sandwiches, Steed said he plans on making major renovations and further additions to attract parents’ interests in the coming year or two.
“Right now there’s nothing really for parents to do,” he said. “I want to add something so they can have something for them too … maybe get something here they can’t get anywhere else.”
Thigpen said she was excited for the future changes and was thrilled Steed was expanding the possible outreach of the farm.
The farm will be open one last time for the year on Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m.
For more information visit: https://www.steedsdairy.com
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
