BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. -- Bert Bouwman, he shamelessly admits, isn't much of a hockey fan.
There are many more pitches than ice sheets in Brazil, where the Brooklyn Park farmer grew up. Soccer is also the sport of choice in the Netherlands, where Bouwman's parents were born and where he cultivated crops in greenhouses for a few years before coming to America.
Besides, he's a little busy with the demands that accompany carving out and managing Minnesota's largest corn maze -- in addition to acres of sellable corn, pumpkins and other produce -- every year.
His wife, Molly, who helps him run the family business, is a different story. She grew up here, and it was her idea to commemorate the town's NHL team with a giant logo in the middle of the Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Maze.
"I'm too busy on the farm, and she enjoys the sports," Bouwman told FOXSportsNorth.com during an exclusive tour of the premises, his voice a mix heavy on Dutch with a hint of northern American long "o" sounds. "She is a Minnesota girl. Pretty much a city girl, married a farm boy from across the pond."
In the corn maze line of work for the past half-decade, the Bouwmans decided last winter to commemorate the Wild on their land at the intersection of Highway 169 and 109th Avenue. They'd featured the Twins, a silhouette cutout of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and the entire state of Minnesota in previous years and figured it was time to take the Wild's primary jersey emblem and blow it up to 4-5 acres.
That was before Minnesota 's late-season push and run to the Western Conference semifinals. The Bouwmans might owe Nino Niederreiter and Zach Parise a bag of sweet corn or two after their postseason heroics.
"It was kind of a sweet surprise to us that we had that," Bouwman said. "It's a big excitement going on, and I think people are excited about the Wild this year, and the season's ready to get started here."
Minnesota opens training camp Sept. 19 and commences the season Thursday, Oct. 9 against the Avalanche.
But weeks before that, starting Sept. 20, visitors can navigate Bouwman's 20-acre labyrinth of corn stalks. It took a FOXSportsNorth.com reporter about 30 paces therein to get lost, which is why each customer receives a map with their $10 admission fee ($12 at the gate).
The Wild logo is at the maze's epicenter -- guests enter near the bottom left of the green-and-red bear/cat's chin -- and there are also a children's straw bale maze, play area, petting zoo, live music and hayrack rides available. For an extra cost, patrons can scale a climbing wall, toss a few pumpkins using a giant slingshot, saddle up for a pony ride, slide down a giant slide or even (when available) hop into a helicopter and get a bird's-eye-view of the Wild insignia and surrounding maze.
To turn the Mississippi River valley grounds into an annual draw for 20,000-25,000 people, Bouwman first sits down in his kitchen and draws up the maze on draft paper. He and his helpers then plant the entire field and wait for the corn seedlings to reach about 4 inches in length.
Once they're ready, Bouwman marks off the paths and negative logo space he wants cleared. With help from his family and farmhands, the baby corn stalks are pulled out of the ground and left to decompose into the sandy soil.
It's a tedious process that requires 27 miles of above-ground drip irrigation and long hours in the field. But the hustle and bustle once the festivities open make it well worth it for Bouwman, Molly and their six children.
The exclusive corn grower for Twin Cities supermarket chain Lunds and Byerly's, Bouwman's farm is the only one in Minnesota to produce a specific type of hybrid, white sweet corn that's not genetically modified in any way. He and his family run a pair of produce stands, too.
Their success has allowed them to donate thousands of dollars to local charities, including the Twins Community Fund and the Minnesota Military Family Foundation. For every ticket sold this year, 50 cents will go to the Minnesota Wild Foundation.
Once attendance hits 15,000, the donation will double.
"We're happy to be able to give back," Bouwman said.
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