How sweet corn became one of Chilliwack’s most recognizable — and beloved — agricultural traditions.

The checkered tablecloth welcomes all types. There’s the meticulous one, working row by row. The practical one, gnawing ’round and ’round steadily. The nibbler, picking off kernels one at a time, for reasons unknown. And then the enthusiast, diving in headfirst, butter up to their elbows.

Kernels fly. Cobs collide. Napkins never stood a chance. All ages and corn-eating techniques are invited to compete for the title of Chilliwack Corn Eating Champion at the Chilliwack Corn Festival.

Back for its third year, the festival will take place on the first two weekends in August. The event marks the kickoff of the summer season at Greendale Acres, home of the Chilliwack Corn Maze.

Not keen on kernels in your teeth? Try your hand at shucking instead. There will be corn-themed photo opportunities, face painting, and a cornucopia of harvest treats. Barbecued corn, chips and corn salsa, even caramel corn ice cream. Try corn with their new in-house hot honey. A proper introduction to Chilliwack corn.

Set up a picnic among the flowers, then wind down in the evening with a beverage while listening to live music. It’s a chance to unplug and feel a bit more grounded.

Greendale Acres owners Vanessa Oddy, Danielle Miller and Mariah Vermeer continue their family’s mission of connecting visitors with agriculture through seasonal farm experiences and the annual Chilliwack Corn Festival, celebrating the sweet corn that has become one of the Fraser Valley’s most beloved signs of summer.

For two weekends at the height of corn season, visitors can get up to their ears in it. “What better way to celebrate agriculture than by celebrating what we’re known for, which is corn?” says Vanessa Oddy of Greendale Acres.

Greendale Acres has been celebrating corn in many different ways for decades. It all started when Oddy’s father, John Bruinsma, read an article about a corn maze in Utah and decided to bring the concept to the Fraser Valley.

“Everyone thought my dad was crazy,” Oddy recalls. “My Opa always said, ‘Who would want to walk around in a cornfield?’” But two years later, in 1999, the Bruinsmas, along with their business partners, transformed an old dairy farm into Canada’s first-ever corn maze.

The corn maze has become an institution, with a new design carved into the fields each year. From the beginning, it had a purpose beyond entertainment. It was designed to educate visitors about farming and food, a mission that feels more important than ever.

“We’re becoming more urbanized,” says Oddy. “So what can we do to allow families to have access to agriculture now?”

Oddy and her sisters, Danielle Miller and Mariah Vermeer, along with their husbands, took over ownership of Greendale Acres in 2020. Over the years, the family has continued to build a place that allows people to connect with local agriculture.

Greendale Acres moves with the seasons: tulips in the spring, corn in the summer, pumpkins in the fall. Each experience offers a point of connection. Guests can also ride the Greendale Express train around the farm, learning what is in season and how things grow along the way.

Many people are surprised to learn, for example, that the towering cornfields they get lost in during the summer are not there when they visit in spring. Or that the corn used for the corn maze is a different type of corn than the sweet corn that goes on the barbecue. At the end of each season, the corn from the Chilliwack Corn Maze is harvested and used by local farmers to feed their cows.

Chilliwack sweet corn is not a single variety. It refers to any sweet corn grown in the municipality. But “Chilliwack corn” is also a reputation. “People write ‘Chilliwack corn’ where corn is sold for a reason,” says Oddy. “Because it’s the best.”

The reputation was decades in the making. By the early 1900s, farmers in Chilliwack were already growing corn successfully, according to the BC Food History Network.

Many farmers have long sold it themselves, waking up early to harvest and sell by the road the same day. Family businesses such as Joiner’s and Sparkes built and continue to run wellknown operations this way, selling directly to the public. Sparkes’ bright green and yellow drive‑thru corn barns are so prolific, they have become a sign that summer has arrived.

Running through it all is the Trans‑Canada Highway, carrying a steady stream of travellers. For many travelling from Vancouver to the Interior, a trip isn’t complete without stopping at a roadside stand to pick up a dozen ears of corn. Over time, Chilliwack corn has become part of the summer nostalgia shared by generations of road‑trippers.

The Fraser Valley floodplain offers the rich soil and warm days that sweet corn loves. It’s grown across the valley, including in Abbotsford and Agassiz. Agassiz has celebrated its corn since 1949, when it hosted its first corn festival.

“We’re celebrating the bounty that we have in the valley,” says Oddy of the Chilliwack Corn Festival, echoing a pride shared by farming communities across the Fraser Valley. “It’s such a unique spot that corn grows so well in.”

The Chilliwack Corn Festival is a chance to try corn grown in Chilliwack for the first time or continue the summer tradition of corn-eating. It’s something you can hold and bite into, in the region where it’s grown.

Greendale Acres
41905 Yale Rd., W., Chilliwack
greendaleacres.ca | @greendaleacresfarm

Greendale Acres reopens for the season on July 29th. For more information on the Chilliwack Corn Festival, including the event schedule, visit their website.