Despite Highway 36 construction, Country Sun Farm opens for fall season Wednesday

As the seasons change, it's time to start planning for fall fun, but getting to a popular spot in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, may look a little different this year.

From the front porch view of a seemingly out-of-place, old, crooked, one might say haunted, house, lies Highway 36, greeting commuters to and from the east metro. This fall, there's something scary staring right back.

"We've got two years of some construction pain going on," Keith Bergmann, owner of Country Sun Farm, said. "It's going to be difficult to get in and out. Our access is going to change periodically here, and we're hoping everybody to work with us and still come."

It'll be difficult but not impossible.

"You get to our business. And then when you leave here, you'll drive out, and they're building an acceleration lane, they're gonna use what will be the new 36, so you can accelerate out and then kind of merge into traffic and not have to turn into traffic," Bergmann said. "And if you're coming from, like, Wisconsin and going westbound, you'll have to go down and either make a J-turn at Demonterville Trail."

The Bergmann family has been here since 1984. Now, a major overhaul is changing the landscape around them.

"We lost our corn maze this year and it's becoming a drainage pond," Bergmann said. "There's just so much stuff for a family to do out here on a beautiful fall day." 

Despite the detours, Country Sun Farm isn't going anywhere. It opens for the fall season on Wednesday, and Bergmann says he holds no hard feelings. 

"It's for the greater good. You know, we're positive and we're for the project; it's got to turn out decent for us, too," he said. 

Where there is a lack of the maze, the petting zoo, gem mining and hayrides are back, with even the hayride getting a new route around construction.

"What brings people out is something to do with your family that is not on a screen," Bergmann said.

The farm is free to get into. Each attraction, like the hayride and corn pit, is $10 or less.