Meet the Farmer Behind the Epic Taylor Swift Corn Maze
This fall, families in Maryland can get lost in a 12-acre Taylor Swift–shaped corn maze constructed by two farmers – although they swear they’re not “Swifties.” Jeff and Teresa Greenwood built the labyrinthine tribute outside their house on the family-run Summers Farm for an upcoming annual fall festival. “Don’t get me wrong,” says Jeff, “I’m not a die-hard Swiftie that goes crazy or cries when I see her name, but I’ve always been amazed by Taylor’s story and who she is.”
Swift approved of the unique fan art, posting a photo of it on her Instagram account with the caption “Lawn goals” (1.1 million followers also approved).
“When [Swift] put it on [Instagram] I was like, ‘Now it’s real,'” says Jeff. We recently caught up with him to get the behind-the-scenes story.
Why did you guys decide to feature Taylor Swift in your corn maze this year?
She is just a great person. We feel that’s she firmly believes that if you are a little bit different, that’s OK. You be the best person you can be, because that’s how you’re going to be happy. And that’s what we believe in also.
A lot of people think she is this role model for kids but really she is a role model for everybody by the way she carries herself, how she treats people, and how she is big on being your own person. Hopefully we did the right thing by her. The quote I really wanted to use was, “If you’re lucky enough to be different, don’t ever change.” But it was too long.
It didn’t fit?
Yeah, it wouldn’t have fit. There was no way I could fit that quote in there and still have the detail of her face in there too. So then I came up with the, “Dare to be different,” which goes along the same lines. Originally we weren’t going to have anything in there but the quote brought the meaning of why we are honoring her here all together.
Who actually made the maze?
My wife, Teresa, and I own the business – the Summers Farm business. We live and work right on the farm. We walk right out our door, and look right out our window, and there’s the corn.
How does one go about making a corn maze?
We used to just do it on graph paper. It’s not really used anymore. Now there are computer programs out there that help make it a little simpler when we go to cut it. It took us about a day to cut it. It turned out good. We were really happy with the result.
Were you excited to see that she put it on her Instagram?
I couldn’t believe it. My phone was blowing up with that. Everybody was like, “Oh my gosh, she put in on her Instagram.” That’s when I knew it was real. We really appreciated her doing that and it just shows that she really appreciated what we did for her also.
When do people actually use it as a maze?
We open September 26th. We have a big fall festival, you know? We have a pumpkin patch and hayrides, animals, lots of activities, and the corn maze is one of the elements to that. We didn’t really have a design going into the season. I was like, “Let’s do Taylor Swift.” We felt that she is just a great person and we thought it would be a great way to recognize her, by putting her in the corn maze.