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September 23, 2024
BONDUEL – With the 2025 NFL Draft coming to Green Bay next spring, one area farm is taking full advantage of the upcoming event.
Porter’s Patch, located at W4314 WI-156 in Bonduel, is all set with its 2025 NFL Draft corn maze.
With the 90th annual draft coming to Titletown April 24-26, 2025, Troy Porter – co-owner of the patch – said the Packers approached the farm to participate in a maze promotion.
“That’s been our focus this year,” he said. “We always get excited about fall time, but it’s exciting to get hooked up with the Packers and with the draft coming to Green Bay.”
Troy said he’s not sure how or why the patch got asked to participate.
“I’d like to think all the things we’ve done through the years and how we present our farm, or how we present ourselves (had something to do with it),” he said. “Maybe a committee member was here and liked what they saw and remembered us.”
Initially, Troy said he and his son, Lucas (also a co-owner), were a bit hesitant to participate.
“Sometimes, on a nice fall weekend, we already have too many people at the patch,” he said. “We knew doing the NFL corn maze was going to draw even more people.”
Ultimately, Troy said, “the opportunity was too good to pass up.”
“This is Green Bay’s first NFL draft, so who knows if it will ever come back,” he said. “If it does, it would be many years down the road. It’s a unique thing to do and something we can do to promote the agricultural industry in Wisconsin.”
Troy said five other farms in the state are also participating in the NFL maze.
“I asked the Packers if other farms were participating,” he said. “If we had been the only farm doing it, I don’t think we would have done it because people would have really flocked here. I felt better when I found out other farms were participating.”
Troy said the process of being chosen started about a year ago.
“The Packers contacted us, came for a tour and we talked about what we did,” he said. “There weren’t any visuals at that point, and it was quite a long process. We had to help with designing the maze. It was a little stressful getting everything together because you don’t want the maze to fail and not look good.”
Fortunately, Troy said the weather worked out – “mostly.”
With heavy rains this spring, Troy said that made for a few glitches.
“We weren’t able to get in here right away because of the wet spring we had,” he said.
All in all, Troy said it looks great and turned out good.
“The corn is nice and tall,” he said. “We also had some cranes take some of the corn out, but that section wasn’t a part of the maze. Another spot stayed quite wet all summer, but that’s also not a part of the maze and on the edge.”
Troy said a company out of Utah was hired to help construct the maze.
“They do a lot of design and mazes throughout the country,” he said. “They can either cut the corn or use GPS to not plant corn where the paths are. Where the designs are, that didn’t get corn seed, so it never grew into mature corn.”
Troy said as soon as the corn began growing earlier this year, you could already see the maze taking shape.
“Even when it was just a couple of inches high,” he said. “We didn’t have a drone to take pictures, but you could walk in it and see where the ‘P’ in Porter’s Patch was.”
When asked if he had tried the maze, Troy said, “only when the corn was short.”
“Early on, we had to spray the corn and mark it,” he said. “Every year, we do a corn maze – Lucas usually handles all of that.”
Troy said he expects a few people to get “lost” in the maze.
“Sometimes, people get frustrated and just crash out the side,” he laughed. “A good maze can get frustrating because there are a lot of dead ends and you get turned around. That’s always a good sign, too, because then you know you made it challenging. We don’t want it too easy.”
Also, Troy said to check the weather ahead of time.
“Make sure you’re hydrated,” he said. “On warm days, it can get hot inside the maze. There’s no breeze in there.”
Not just a corn maze
Though the NFL Draft corn maze is the main focus for this year, Troy said Porter’s is much more than that.
“We are a full-fledged farm,” he said. “We open in the spring and we’re open until fall. We have a lot of different seasons – strawberry, raspberry and blueberry – and then we fill that in with a lot of our vegetables. Then, of course, we end in the fall with our pumpkin celebration called Farmtober Fest.”
Troy said, “I was fortunate enough to hit the ground running when I bought the farm.”
“I bought the farm from my grandma, and then I bought the strawberry business from my dad and mother, and they had a clientele here,” he said. “So, it wasn’t like I was starting totally from scratch and had no customers, so that helped. I just expanded on it and made all these different seasons.”
According to Porter’s website (porterspatch.com), the tillable land on the farm has been planted with wheat, rye, various cover crops, soybeans, oats, alfalfa, corn and sugar beets.
There are 95 tillable acres and 85 acres of wetlands and woods.
Strawberries were first planted commercially in 1986, and since then, it has also added asparagus, peas, pumpkins, beans, cucumber, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers, squash and other vegetables.
Farmtober Fest
To kick off the pumpkin season and the NFL Draft corn maze, Troy said Porter’s is hosting its annual Farmtober Fest.
Farmtober Fest runs through Oct. 27, weather permitting.
“It’s every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” Troy said. “Farmtober Fest is our huge pumpkin celebration. We have 55 different varieties of pumpkins to choose from – all sizes, colors and shapes. Your entry fee lets you do a lot of activities.”
Other highlights include:
- Try to find all 32 NFL scarecrow players in the 2025 NFL Draft Scarecrow Challenge
- Hang out in the craft shed
- Paint a pumpkin
- Make your own scarecrow
- Fall bouquet making
- Visit the barnyard buddies (goats, chickens, pigs, rabbits)
- Slide down the barn hill slide
- Obstacle course
- Pigskin toss
- Pumpkin bowling
- Pumpkin Twister
- Jenga
- Campfire warming pit
“I basically started Farmtober Fest right away upon ownership,” Troy said. “It’s been going on for about 20 years, but in the beginning, it wasn’t much. I started by selling pumpkins at our little strawberry stand. I had some straw bales for decor, colored corn, gourds, corn shucks, etc. I would sit out there all day with my little black and white TV with rabbit ears and watch football, waiting for people to stop. I was ecstatic if I made 50 bucks that day. It started from humble beginnings, but it’s cool to see where it is today.”
Troy said thousands of people visit Porter’s Patch during Farmtober Fest.
“Sometimes it’s too crowded, to be honest,” he laughed. “If you get a lot of bad weather days in the fall, people keep pushing it off. And then the first nice day you get, you’re just slammed with people, but that’s every pumpkin farm in the area.”
Some more history
Like many family-owned farms, Porter’s has a long history, Troy said.
“My great-great grandparents settled here after the Civil War (1861-65),” he said. “I believe it was the Homestead Act where they got 160 acres, and they had five years to make improvements on it. The Porters have been in this area ever since. My great-great-grandfather was sheriff for a bit in Shawano County.”
Troy said he is the fifth-generation Porter to work on the farm, with his son and grandson being the sixth and seventh, respectively.
“There’s a lot of history, and it’s really cool for me,” he said. “My grandson kind of runs the farm store during the strawberry season, and it’s fun working with him because he basically comes out here and stays with me for two or three weeks.”
Looking to the future of the farm, Troy said, “Lucas is my way out of the business when that time comes.”
“A couple of years ago, we got it all figured out where Lucas became half-owner of the business,” Troy, 58, said. “Hopefully, it will last for him, and then, who knows how many generations it will go on after that. I’ll never stop working here because I love what I do, but I really don’t want to make the decisions anymore. I just want to be the worker and do my own thing.”
