Marini Farm Expands Fall Party Offerings

Marini Farm has ten different party options to choose from for your fall celebrations. The all ages party fun can include the corn maze, corn maze park, s’mores making, pumpkin painting, flashlight maze excursions, and hayrides.

The farm is busy in season with school tours, family events, church groups, company outings, scout outings and children’s celebrations. Our children’s parties are packed with interactive programs for experiencing agricultural fun.

We also have flexibility, so if you have an idea and it is not on the party chart here, please discuss with our party staff during the reservation process and they will do everything they can to accommodate you. Party start times are 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm.  Our flashlight and campfire packages can start at either 6:00 pm or 8:00 pm.

Call our Corn Maze line 978-238-9386 or email marinifarmcornmaze@yahoo.com to reserve a date. A $50 deposit is required to hold your date and time.

In order to receive a refund, cancellations must be made 7 days prior to an event. Deposit will be refunded if party is cancelled due to inclement weather.

written by Lightning Consulting

Conquer Dragon Quest Corn Maze With Flashlights

Grab a flashlight and conquer Dragon Quest, Marini Farm’s 2016 eight acre corn maze, after dark.Ten miles of winding paths and mysteries of the dark will confuse and challenge maze adventurers of all ages. Traveling through the maze at night is a totally different experience, which requires more perseverance and focus to get on track in the right direction. Make it a maze party, family outing or social time with your friends, and don’t forget to bring your high powered flashlights to illuminate your way. Dragon Quest is open for flashlight nights on Friday and Saturday nights from 6:00 PM to 10:30 PM, starting on September 23rd and continuing through October 29th.

The 2016 maze is believed to be our most challenging yet, so let the moonlight and your own light source guide you through the ten miles of towering corn stalks. No scary monsters or haunted distractions will divert your attention as you focus on the navigation clues of escape. For more information call us at 978-238-9fun, or visit our website to order tickets. The fast maze visitors will find the carved out exit in less than an hour, while others will enjoy two hours of fired up fun and excitement. With the possibility of taking nearly 100 wrong turns, you may be spinning in many directions in your pursuit to escape the magnificent fire spewing-dragon. So come get your scare on and enjoy this popular fall excursion through one of the largest and most challenging mazes in the region.

Check our fall calendar for special events happening. We will be having our first ever show on October 8th put on by the American Punkin Chunker, a massive 100 foot pneumatic cannon that shoots pumpkins for long distance competitions. All of it is done solely by mechanical means without the aid of electricity or explosives. Marini Farm sent a pumpkin to the World Championships in 2013 in Delaware and their pumpkin broke the event world record with a 4,430 foot blast, exceeding over 120 of the best teams from around the U.S. and overseas. Over 30,000 onlookers witnessed the world record chunk and a large group of chunkers put their engineering skills to the test.

We look forward to seeing everyone putting their navigation skills to the test this fall. Day or night, don’t forget to visit our bakery for some fall treats like our cider donuts, s’mores bars, pumpkin muffins, or other fall confections.

written by Lightning Consulting

Marini Farm's Ice-Cold Lemonade Is Waiting For You

You know it's summertime when you see the neighborhood kids setting up lemonade stands on hot sunny days. This season Marini Farm has started selling ice-cold drinks including coffee, tea and lemonade. We also have special lemonade that is fruit infused with raspberries and other flavorful sweet summer fruits. Lemonade, that quintessential summer drink, has become a popular drink for all seasons, with lemons commonly in the top three best-selling flavors in the citrus beverage industry.

The earliest written evidence of lemonade has been found in Egypt, dated to around 1000 AD. Today there are 50 varieties of lemons, and an average size lemon tree can yield 500 to 600 pounds of lemons per year. More than 90 percent of American lemons come from California, though the United States is typically bested in lemon production by India, Mexico, Argentina, China and Brazil.

There’s even a Guinness Book world record for the longest lemonade stand measuring 1,399 feet by 11 inches, which was built by students and teachers at Birmingham Public Schools in Birmingham, MI.

First coined by writer Elbert Hubbard in a 1915 obituary for actor Marshall P. Wilder, the phrase "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade", has come to encourage optimism and encouragement in the face of adversity.

Cool off on a sticky summer day with a glass of ice-cold lemonade served by the Marini Bakery, and make a note in your calendar for National Lemonade Day on August 20th.  The national organization affiliated with the day helps empower youth to learn how to become entrepreneurs through operating their own Lemonade stand. Since its launch in 2007 in Houston Texas, Lemonade Day has grown from serving 2,700 kids in one city to 1 million children across North America. With the help of partners like Google for Entrepreneurs, Lemonade Day will continue to spark the spirit of entrepreneurship and empower youth to set goals, work hard, and achieve their dreams. The top National Youth Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015, Katrina Lawrence from Fort Hood Texas, raised $1,500 to purchase 300 books for homeless children in her community.

The Marini Farm Bakery looks forward to quenching your thirst this summer.

  written by Lightning Consulting

Marini Farm Is Crazy For Cheery Dahlias

The dahlia was named for Anders Dahl (botanist), born on March 17, 1751.

The Dahlia you brought to our isle
Your praises forever shall speak
'Mid gardens as sweet as your smile
And color as bright as your cheek.
–Lord Holland (1773–1840)

Marini Farm’s greenhouses are illuminated with vibrant dahlia flowers every spring. These plants are a great addition to your gardens and enable you to add an artistic display of cheery vibrant hues. They are a work of art with their spiked tips and perfectly shaped multi-pedaled blooms. They add so much to your shopping experience, as each one is different and unique in terms of their colors, shapes and added markings. Some appear to have been dipped in white on the very edges of the pedals, while others are painted with perfectly positioned stripes along the pedals. Each year we add new varieties of shapes and colors, which we hope will be the stars of your gardens. One question you hear often is “Are they real?” They attract you to touch them just to be sure. Their history goes back to the 1500s, and today there are 42 varieties of dahlias in five color palettes.

Some Dahlia facts:

• They bloom from midsummer to the first frost
• Their size ranges from 2 to 10 inches and most varieties grow to 4-5 feet tall
• The ideal planting time is when the ground it at least 60 degrees
• They love full sunlight all day long
• They don’t do well when covered with mulch or bark
• Pest control against slugs and snails protects them from nasty creatures
• Their colors are limited to the warm ranges of red, orange, yellow, pink and white, but new color variations have been created through hybridizing with other flowers
• The dahlia's allure has a far reach: it is San Francisco's official flower, an official emblem of Mexico, and is considered in Japan to be a sign of good taste.
• The dahlia flower first arrived in Europe in the 1500s, following the defeat of the Aztec Indians by Spanish conquistadors.
• Before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, the Aztecs named the dahlia "Acocotli", which means "water cane".
• Dahlia flowers belong to the Asteraceae family, a group that includes sunflowers, asters and daisies. "Asteraceae" means "star", referring to the star shape of the dahlia blossom.
• There are 42 dahlia species
• They are susceptible to bacterial infections such as bacterial wilt and crown gall as well as many fungal diseases including flower blight, leaf spot, southern blight, smut, powdery mildew, stem and tube rot, cottony stem rot, and vascular wilt.
• They are popular flowers for weddings and engagements symbolizing hope for an everlasting union between two people, and are often featured in competitions.

Visit our greenhouses this May to view our array of dahlias and other perennial and annual plantings. Before planting make sure the temperature is warm enough. We are happy to help you pick out dahlias that will work well for your gardens.

 written by Lightning Consulting

A Year of Many Firsts at Marini Farm

Thank you for staying with us all seasons in 2015. It was a year of firsts and many highs for our family farm….

• Successful completion and ahead of schedule on our new bakery, despite the record snowfall, thanks to Windhill Builders
• Opening of our new bakery on June 20th and hiring of our top bakery staff managed by Erin Gardner
• Serving  fresh cider donuts, scones, breads, muffins, cookies and more from opening to season closing
• Another banner year for our maze, “Kernels of Gold”,  and maze park with many new attractions added including our new pirate ship
• Produce calendars were ahead of plans with early tomatoes, corn and strawberries
• Sold out holiday craft and baking classes
• Selection by the World Record Punkin Chunkin Cannon for a show at the farm; rescheduled for 2016 due to weather conditions
• Hosting of the annual Doggy Maze Daze and the Tree Jubilee fundraiser for the benefit of the Ipswich Humane Society and their animal shelter
•  Entertained hundreds at our 25+ family fun Christmas events
• Another sold out year of over 2000 Canadian balsam Christmas trees
• Our social channels continue to rise with 8,800 Facebook followers, and many posts that reached over 10,000 views, 1,271 Twitter followers and 807 Instagram followers.

written by Lightning Consulting

Holiday Fun At Christmas On The Hill

Yuletide splendor is glittered throughout the farm this Christmas season. We invite you to make Marini Farm part of your special holiday memories this year.

Stroll through the gallery of beautifully decorated donated trees and wreaths at the Tree Jubilee.  More than 60 uniquely decorated trees and wreaths will be raffled off for the benefit of the Humane Society. This is one of the Humane Society's biggest fundraisers to help defer the increasing costs of their shelter services. Ipswich Humane Group is a non-profit group that assists Ipswich Animal Control to enable a no-kill animal shelter for the Town of Ipswich.  The group is 100% donation funded and 100% unpaid volunteer run.

For 32 years, the organization has been providing veterinary care, housing in their animal shelter, and has operated a successful adoption program which has placed over 1800 dogs and cats in homes throughout the north shore community. The event has free admission and if you want to participate in the raffle, 100% of the proceeds go directly to our four legged friends.

Our tree shop features a selection of more than 2,000 well-groomed pre-cut trees from Canada to choose from, as well fresh holiday greenery. See our blog “The ABCs of Christmas Tree Shopping” for pointers on selecting the perfect tree. If you want to make certain your tree is secure and won’t topple over, check out the Stand Strait tree system. This video has Mike Marini demonstrating how it works.

Our bakery has your favorite Christmas cookies and pastries. Don’t forget to leave with some gingerbread men, holiday scones and cider donuts.

Take a tour of Christmas on the Hill in this new video. There’s way too much to do!

•  Take a family hayride
•  Warm up with some hot cider or chowder from the Clam Box
•  Cruise through the Tree Jubilee and try your luck in the raffle
•  Take some yuletide photos in front of our giant snowman or in front of one of our festive displays
•  Enjoy fresh baked Christmas goodies and peer in and see the bakers at work
•  Shop for ornaments, gifts and greenery to make your home full of Christmas cheer
•  Have the kids enjoy the Pirate ship and other activities

Our holiday calendar lists all the events happening at the farm this season. The Marini family and staff wish you a merry holiday season and Happy New Year!

Written by Lightning Consulting

Marini Bakery Has Your Favorite Fall Flavors