This year, the Bose Corn Maze is shaped like the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup logo.
Designing for the maze started in the beginning of the year, when co-owners Mike Bose and his wife Novy had to get permission from FIFA in order to use the logo for their maze.
"We actually started in January getting permission from FIFA and then going through the different designs to come up with what we felt would work best in our field and satisfy the needs of FIFA."
Bose says each year they try to come up with designs that are familiar to kids.
"We try to make something that will catch the interest of the community, what people identify with. We look for events," he says. “Sporting events tend to use pictures. Very few other enterprises use pictures."
Bose adds that they’re fortunate enough to have a designer who is willing to work with whatever design and whatever the size.
Which is good since the corn maze (64 Avenue and 156 Street) is on a 25-acre field, one of the largest corn mazes in the world according to Bose.
Bose adds their family-run corn maze has seen visitors from as far as Russia.
"As the popularity grows, we're actually getting more people from Surrey than we used to,” he says. “We get people from all over the world."
Now in its sixteenth year, Bose says the corn maze has become a fixture in the city.
"It's a staple in the community. We're asked in January and February if we're doing it again and what we're doing."
But with that popularity comes the hard work and long hours, especially when the corn maze gets robbed every year, according to Bose.
"It's a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work. Very late nights," Bose says. "We have to be very careful because it's not repairable. If somebody comes in a damages the corn. It's done. So we're up most of the night, then we work all day. It's three months of 20-hour days, seven days a week."
Regardless of the long hours, Bose said it is still exciting to watch the corn grow over the months.
"We're kind of goofy as farmers. We take great pride in a very well cultivated field."
However this year’s field came with a few challenges.
Back in May, after the corn had been planted and Bose could just see the stocks from the road, Bose says he was excited because it was “beautiful.”
That excitement didn’t last long because a few days later, Bose was told there was geese in the growing corn maze. He had to chase the geese out for the rest of the week.
Fortunately, this minor problem didn’t put the corn maze behind schedule.
"We actually delayed planting by a week, hoping to miss the geese."
Clearly they did not outsmart the geese.
The lack of rain this summer did mess with the corn too much considering corn is a “great harvester” of moisture from the air, says Bose.
"It didn't get going as much as we would have liked . . . but having been out there yesterday I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out."
The corn maze is open Tuesdays to Thursdays and Saturdays from 12 to 8 p.m., Fridays from 6 to 8 p.m. and Sundays and holiday Mondays from 12 to 4 p.m.
Hours of operation change after Sept. 7.
Admission for adults is $7 and children (five to 18) and seniors (65 and up) pay $6.