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durhamregion.com THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ September 20,2006 ♦ Page A5 A CLARINGTON COMMUNITY A weekly in-deptli look at the communities that shape Clarington It's all a maze at Pingle's Farm BY JULIE CASHIN-OSTER Special to The Statesman ' HAMPTON - Get lost in a dinosaur this fall at Pingle's Farm Market, Navigate through three kilometres of trail while searching for hidden clues. For the past six years Pingle's Farm Market, located at the corner of Taunton and Courtice roads, and has crafted a maze through eight acres of com field. The whole adventure takes about an hour. How is it done? Without giving giving away too many secrets Tim Pingle tells how. "We use a section of the field, eight acres, and plant the com in both directions. It is basically a big piece of graph paper." First, the design is carefully drawn on graph paper. When the corn is six inches high, following following the graph paper layout, the design is staked out in the field. "We use a weed eater to cut out the design, the curves are the toughest," said Mr. Pingle. "As the corn gets higher we cut the leaves off so that it is easy to > walk through," Each year an aerial picture is taken of the maze and posted on Pingle's website. This is the true test of how the maze cutting turned out. Each year a challenge is given to participants. Before entering the maze you are given a ballot with questions - the answers are - hidden throughout the maze. The signs will give you clues to spell out the name of an era that the stegosaurus dinosaur roamed the earth. If you answer correctly, your ballot,,will be entered ' into a weekly draw for a gift certificate. certificate. The- Dinosaur' Maze is now open, and can be toured 7 days a week. The cost is $5 (plus GST) per person. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an Walter Passarella / Metroland Durham Region Media Group Charlene Scheuneman and her children, Lindsay in the snuggly sack, Taylor, aged three, and four-year-old Dawson find their way through the Dinosaur Com Maze up at Pingle's Farm. The Pickering family enjoyed the maze while learning all about dinosaurs at various rest spots throughout. adult. With fall comes Halloween, which means the return of the Haunted Corn Maze. Recommended Recommended for eight years and up, the evening event includes a wagon ride to the far end of the field, a campfire and a haunting walk through a smaller version of the maze. Staged with scary scenes and live actors to really send your heart pounding, the Haunted Com Maze runs the last two weekends in October from 7-9 p.m. and is $10 per person (GST included). New this year at Pingle's is the Spooky Orchard Trail opening Oct. 18 through Oct. 30 from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. "We purchased all the Halloween characters from Cullen Gardens and will have them up in trees," said Colleen Colleen Pingle., The Spooky Trail is recommended for 3-10 year- olds. Children follow the trail through the orchard and collect treats along the way. The cost for the Spooky Orchard Trail is $8 per person (GST included). Also new this year at Pingle's is a 4-wheel peddle car track. The peddle cars were also purchased purchased from Cullen Gardens. An age restriction of eight years-and up will be on the peddle car track, however it compliments the existing tricycle track for the smaller drivers. Fall Harvest is a busy time at Pingle's and there is a lot to keep the whole family entertained. entertained. Starting every weekend beginning Sept. 23 through to Oct. 29 activities include: wagon rides, exploring the fun farm, face painting, puppet shows, and everyone's favourite - the Pumpkin Pumpkin Chunkin Cannon Show. Open seven days a week Pingle's Farm Market has fall apples, raspberries and pumpkins are ready to be picked. For more information call 905-725-6089. expands watt meters Chance to find out how much electricity being used V . DURHAM - A program is being expanded to allow individuals individuals to find out watt's up. Veridian Connections is expanding the Watt Meter Loan Program to all nine communities serviced by - the company. The meters give users the opportunity to find out how much electricity their appliances-use. The meters will be available through the public library service in each community. The Ajax Public Library has loaned the.meters since June and the program has been very successful. successful. Less than a.week after the program began, a waiting list had to be started and names were still being added to the list at the end of August. The meter is plugged into an electrical outlet and then an appliance is plugged into' the meter. A person can then calculate calculate how much it costs to operate operate the appliance on a monthly basis. A user's guide and energy conservation conservation materials come with each meter. For a limited time, participants will also receive a free, energy-saving fluorescent light bulb. "We're very thankful for the help of our library partners in making this program available to all our customers," says Michael Angemeer, Veridian president and CEO. "There has been incredible customer response to this initiative since it was first launched in the Town of Ajax in June, and we expect it to be just as popular in the other communities communities that we serve." » He adds customers "will be very surprised" when they find out how much energy their older household appliances use. In addition to Ajax, Veridian also serves Pickering, Clarington, Uxbridge,' Scugog, Brock, Port Hope, Belleville and Graven- hurst. a precious commodity BY CATHERINE VIVIAN Special to The Statesman HAMPTON - History that is not written down but is left to be recounted by those with living memory of the event is often lost. The Hampton Creamery is just such a case. The Hampton Creamery . opened in 1870 originally as a cheese factory later adding milk and butter to its production. production. Frank Parr who ran it for several years owned it. Another owner was Ted Chant. Though I was unable to confirm whether Mr. Chant bought the creamery from Mr. Parr or if there was owners in between. These are some of the anecdotes from people that I was able to contact contact about the creamery. "The Ajax Creamery had just been taken over when I started working there in 1948," Mrs. Griffin who worked as the creamery's secretary began, "It was years later they took over Orono and then Sunderland Sunderland ...Operations were moved to the Sunderland Creamery a little at a time. For several years there at the end only the offices were in Hampton and I used to go in for one day a week. It closed for good in 1970" Another anecdote was told to me by the daughter of the factory's butter maker Catherine Catherine Branch. "They put colouring in the butter during the winter- because the butter is so pale but by June they didn't need to because by then the cows were out in the pasture."