Every fall, thousands of students and families from all over the Northland make a trip to Nordic Ridge gardens in Bovey.

The second-generation farm has a pumpkin patch and a corn maze, and there's an educational aspect as well.

Chris Buckley made the trip up there this morning, Chris how is the pumpkin crop looking this year?

This year's crop was down a little bit because of the cold spring and short summer... but the late fall is helping...

Nordic Ridge is known for it's elaborate corn mazes.. and this year it's political.

This year's design is a caricature of Barack Obama and John McCain.

"I just though it's such a hot topic right now, the politics of the election coming up, I thought it would be a fun maze for the season."
Planning and executing the maze takes weeks.

"You have to plant the corn to look like a piece of graph paper, and plant it in both directions and then you have to go out and stake out the trails, we paint the trails in then cut them out."

Thousands of students visit the former dairy farm every year... some from more than 100 miles away.

"We give tours and go from station to station, we want the kids to have fun but we have to teach them something also. Most don't come from a farm any longer, so it's our job to give them a day at the farm and they really enjoy that."

The farm's other main crop is strawberries... and Eklin says the declining economy is taking its toll on the small farm sector as well.

"It's affected my strawberry crop slightly, I had a few less customers. I think we were just getting used to $4 gas and everybody's pocketbook is tight, and for sure I'll have a few less customers in the fall, you'd just stand to reason that would happen, and I'll have a few less school tours because of tight badgers at school, too.

Nordic Ridge is open through Halloween... ten to seven on weekends and school holidays, and two to seven during the week.