Cagle’s Family Farm, 355 Stringer Road, Hickory Flat, Canton. Open Friday, 5 p.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through Nov. 16. Weekday school tours are reservation-only. This Friday and Saturday are the last days to visit the haunted barn. Package prices vary. 770-345-5591. www.caglesfamilyfarm.com.
It’s the season of corn mazes and tractor rides, of pig races and pumpkins and pending property sales.
Cagle's Family Farm, for two decades the go-to spot for families and school kids wanting to sample fall's delights, is about to sell more than half its land to Holly Springs. The Cherokee County town plans to convert the rolling farmland into a 58-acre park.
The $3.5 million sale should take place within two weeks.
That does not mean the farm will close, said Ben Cagle, the fourth-generation Cagle to work the land on the tract 40 miles north of Atlanta. The farm, he said, will revamp: some attractions will move across Stringer Road, where school buses from across the metro area are a routine sight. Making the move will be the milking exhibit, animal barn and the ever-popular racing pigs.
Nor will the change take place immediately. Holly Springs is making annual payments on the site. Cagle figures operations will remain the same for several more years.
But, eventually, “we’ll rework the way our tours and hay rides operate,” Cagle said. He placed a booted foot on the bumper of a Chevy 1500 pickup and looked across Stringer Road, where a line of elementary-school students entered a building. Moments later, excited shrieks filled the air — the same kids, rooting for their favorite running pig.
A yellow Atlanta Public Schools bus trundled by. Cagle reached for a two-way radio. “You’ve got buses pulling in,” he said. A voice on the other end squawked OK.
“We’ve got more little darlins’ coming,” he said. “‘Little darlins’: That’s what my grandfather called them.”
His grandfather, Albert Cagle, opened the farm to visitors in 1993. The elder Cagle was abreast of a new thing, agritourism. Recognizing the value of letting city-dwellers and suburbanites get up-close with farm life, the Cagles created a corn maze, offered hay rides and let youngsters pet goats. Albert Cagle also personally oversaw the running of the pigs.
The concept was a hit then and now. Cagle’s Family Farm, open from early spring through late fall, estimates that 12,000 to 15,000 school kids will visit the attraction this year. As many as 40,000 people will pay to get lost in the 10-acre corn maze, its brown stalks clattering in the autumn wind.
The family could have sold the land to developers, said Ben Cagle, but that didn’t feel right.
“I had much rather see a park go in over there instead of a neighborhood,” he said. “And I think the rest of the family agrees with me.”
A ‘win’
Rosie, an amiable brown Jersey, cast a curious glance at the little humans wiggling on the hay bales nearby. She snorted once as Charmaine Jackson took center stages at Miss Rosie’s Milking Parlor. Jackson, bright blue eyes under a faded straw hat, greeted the kids.
“Does anyone know what a cow makes?”
Several pudgy hands shot up. “Milk!” yelled a little boy.
“And what is milk good for?”
More hands. Butter! Ice cream! Yogurt! Jackson beamed. "You are so smart!'
Jackson hooked Rosie to a milking machine. Rosie, a seasoned performer, didn’t twitch. A flip of the switch, and milk coursed through the lines; they wiggled like pale worms. The kids cheered, then waved goodbye to Rosie.
Jackson watched them go. “You’d be surprised how much they know,” she said.
Other attractions followed — the racing pigs, where Moe, a fleet-footed porker, beat Peaches and Oreo in three out of four heats; the animal barn, where sheep and goats let strangers pet their heads; and the hayride, where Scout, an energetic cattle dog, demonstrated how one small animal can dominate four much larger ones.
“This is more than just a standard pumpkin patch,” said Alicia Nevins, a Cumming mother of two.
And it will remain that way, Ben Cagle said. He plans to buy some land from other family members, and lease some more, to have enough room for pigs and cows and sheep.
The Cagles are good neighbors, said Holly Springs Mayor Tim Downing.
“It is a nice piece of property,” Downing said. “This was a win for the community — and not just for the city, but for all of Cherokee County.”
It’s also a win for the Cagles, said Ben Cagle. Yes, the family could have got more if it had sold to developers. But farms, he said, are part of the fabric of the community — even now, when the land of North Georgia seems most fertile for subdivisions.
Kids need to visit farms, Cagle said. “School kids have a lot of questions,” he said. “And they’re questions that need answering.”
About then another bus pulled into the parking lot. “Little darlin’s” spilled out.
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