Not since fishmongers in the south of France used their store windows to stage fruit de la mer passion plays has anyone done more with local food than this. Farmer Mike Wissman of Sunderland uses a tractor as his instrument and corn as his medium to render a yearly masterpiece.
Odysseus and Polyphemus, An Odyssey in Corn, 2008 will open its stalks on August 30, and be on display from 10 to 5 until Columbus Day. What do corn, The Odyssey and camera obscura have in common? There is more to this story than meets the Cyclops.
This year's bumper crop has been a boon to area farmers and the theme for Mike's Maze is a bumper idea. Mike owns Warner Farm, a wholesale and retail distributor of many crops. Although wholesaling and distributing his wares keeps Mike and his workers pretty busy, he dedicates a good part of the summer with artist Will Sillin to outdo their efforts the year before.
The subject of Mike's Maze's earliest rendering in 2000 was patriotic yet uninspired, according to Mike: "Just the back of a quarter, you know, no big deal." The crop was plowed back using GPS technology to guide tractors in the rendering of a giant Minuteman. Now, because GPS has proven not specific enough for finer detail (only three feet of specificity), he and partner Sillin have resorted to the oldfashioned, drive-the-tractor-using-a-very-complex-map approach.
The corn is grown in grids, so a design is followed when the corn is plowed to create a shape (in this case, the shape of Odysseus battling with the giant Cyclops). When it is still manageably short, the corn is plowed and allowed to grow. To guide visitors through the maze, Mike and his partner create clues and hints and fun facts. If that's not enough, potato launchers are incorporated. This year the potato launchers represent the shooting of flaming arrows into the eye of the Cyclops in an attempt to blind him. And if the grid of corn, the plowing of a shape from an epic poem and potato launchers weren't enough, the latest addition is camera obscura, Mike's latest obsession.
"It's a way to see the sky from the eye of the Cyclops," he says. "We always have to make the maze better," he adds, claiming that the corn maze business is a cutthroat enterprise. "Lots of other corn farms are doing this, but they use boring images," he explains. "Will had the idea of the camera thing. I just go along for the ride."
Camera obscura is not for amateurs. This is a phenomenon involving refracted light, achieved through a set of machinations involving complete darkness with a focused amount of light allowed into an area. In this case, a $3,000, 8-inch lens from China and a gazebo in the middle of a cornfield are employed to prove that an image can be mirrored onto another surface through a hole. It's a popular photography 101 project and not often done as a permanent installation, as it is at Mike's Maze. Here on Rte. 47, the viewer can actually walk into the camera (a gazebo with black curtains inside) and gaze down at an image of Mt. Sugarloaf and the surrounding cornfields. There's not enough space, even in the digital world, to explain what Mike and his muse went though to pull this off, but they're almost there. The corn maze itself is now a perfect rendition of the Homer's giant looming huge and little Odysseus taking aim at him. What's left for the creators is to get the image just a bit more in focus. An astronomer from UMass will visit to put his two cents in.
Meanwhile, up the river other corn farmers concur that it has indeed been a banner year for the bumper crop.? According to Maryanne Ciesluk, proprietor of a three-generation farm in Deerfield, it's been an excellent summer for her 125 acres of corn, even with all the rain. "It's big and tall and plentiful," says Ciesluk.? Although Warner's farm is right next door and they are friends, Ciesluk regrets not having visited the corn maze yet: "We're so busy now and pumpkins are next…"
CORN 101
In Season: July-September
Preserve: Freeze cooked corn in plastic bags
Nutrition: Carbohydrates, protein, potassium, vitamin B5, vitamin C, niacin, thiamine, phosphorous, manganese, beta-carotene, fiber"
To read an interview with a local chef and his recipe for corn chowder with local bacon, go to the Valley Locavore blog at www.valleyadvocate.com.
