Finally, it got cold, at least briefly. And it was sunny. Which means the people in north Georgia manning the apple cannons, corn mazes and boiled peanut stands know they’ll see me and a bunch of other tourists coming.
Each year, they add more stuff to entice us to places where smartphone signals are weak. Traditional leaf-viewing trips on winding country roads have become tests of the limits – or limitlessness — of capitalism.
Pumpkin patches, apple picking, mountain art, jars of jelly and fried pies are just the basics. Now, there are pigs racing through obstacle courses, zip line competitions and haunted attractions.
Parts of it have become a little like the Panama City of the mountains. You say you’re going for the tranquil nature — the ocean water and sunset walks on the beach — but obviously plenty of us want something else, too, or there wouldn’t be dinosaur putt putt and go karts.
My daughter was home briefly on her fall break from college. So one afternoon my wife and I took her on one of our haphazard, unplanned adventure drives.
We had gourmet pork rinds near Blue Ridge, fried pies south of Ellijay, fish sandwiches near Lake Lanier, a heaping bag of boiled peanuts roadside and rounds of apple slushies at two different apple houses. We petted farm animals and chilled on a bench beside a north Georgia creek. And dug up potatoes at a back-road spot called the Tater Patch Farm, where we got so enthralled by the beauty of the land that we left our pickings behind.
We didn’t make it to most of the carnival stuff. So I might be back soon.
A satisfying thwaap!
I like hiking the mountains, but can I resist the terror of a monster-infested corn maze or the satisfying thwaap! of a pneumatic cannon shooting apples or ears of corn into the great beyond?
Weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, last I checked. The fall leaves have yet to peak in much of north Georgia.
It takes a lot to keep us entertained. Millennials and Gen-Xers with children are hungry for more options, said Cheryl Smith, who for many years has marketed northeast Georgia for the state Department of Economic Development.
“I’m a purist; I like nature,” Smith told me. But: “You can only look at so many apple trees and pumpkins and say, ‘OK, what else is there?’”
Zip lines.
“Six years ago I didn’t have a single one,” Smith said. “Now, they are popping up all over the place and I can barely keep up.”
And beer growler tasting rooms.
A year and a half ago, she said, there weren’t any in her region. She counts 11 now.
Boiled peanuts rule
Joe and Annie Sprayberry moved into a trailer home beside Ga. 52 near a big apple house.
Now, they ladle out generous scoops of boiled peanuts from three black pots beside the road.
“I could pay for this place with peanuts,” Joe Sprayberry told me.
They’ve added other produce plan to put out more pallets painted with fall colors and sayings like “Happy Fall, Ya’ll.”
Fall is the make-or-break season for many north Georgians who rely on tourists.
One told me that 35 percent of his yearly profit is made in October. A couple rainy weekends – which we’ve already had – can smush that.
"It's a huge gamble,"said Rachel Reece who with her husband, John, owns B.J. Reece Orchards, which sits on both sides of Ga. 52, south of Ellijay.
She sometimes works 16-hour days trying to keep up with the demands. About a decade ago they added a petting zoo and pick-your-own apples. Last year they installed a cow-themed ride, a jumpy pillow, a corn maze and racing zip lines, which alone cost at least $20,000. They also sell tickets to pig races, a wagon trip, pony rides and use of a mini cannon outfitted with a bucket of apples ($25 per person for essentially all their attractions, except the zip line, which is $15 more).
If it takes flash and a bit of carnival to get people to drive closer for a glimpse of our mountains, I’m fine with that.
It's a busy, multitasking world. Nature needs a good marketing operation to get our attention. That's what the apple cannons are.
The hang of farm life
Reece told me her customers no longer buy bushels of apples so they can use their own hands to make pies and other homemade concoctions. Some visitors don’t have the hang of farm life. They’ve marched out of the U-pick orchards with entire limbs from the apple trees.
So some operators have included less-flashy features that connect with the past and give us a chance to disconnect with the rest. The Reeces recently added hands-on cow milking. And it’s hard to text on your smart phone when being jostled on a hay ride.
"We want people to get on the farm and learn something," said Drew Echols, a 36-year-old who has expanded Jaemor Farms, which has been in his family for five generations.
A decade ago, the operation in Alto northeast of Gainesville was just a sprawling fruit and vegetable stand. Nine out of ten visitors were retirees.
So Echols brought in school field trips and added a corn maze, wagon rides and three apple cannons (where visitors sometimes wait in lines 60-people deep). Now, his clientele skews younger, and more than 10,000 people crowded in one recent weekend.
But there’s more to it, he told me. More people want to know where their food comes from and they want a closer connection to the land.
The recent cold isn’t just a sign that fall has arrived. It’s a signal that winter is looming, and we’ll be cooped up inside with our technology to keep us warm.
“People are seasonal,” said Echols, who told me he’s more comfortable in the fields than indoors. “October is the last hurrah.”
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