Big Orange Business

What started with daylilies, a family farm, and an idea for a pumpkin patch has grown into one of East Tennessee’s favorite fall traditions.

Haley sits down with Ken Oakes of Oakes Farm in Corryton to hear how the farm evolved from tobacco, cattle, strawberries, and a mail-order daylily business into the fall destination Knoxville families know today.

Ken shares the story behind launching the corn maze in 2001, how today’s elaborate maze designs are planted using GPS technology, and what it takes to prepare for the thousands of people who visit the farm each fall.

They also talk pumpkins, hayrides, apple cannons, the enormous corn pit, apple cider cinnamon donuts, the former Trail of Doom, and the farm’s newer spring tulip festival.

But Oakes Farm has become more than a fall attraction. Ken talks about families who first visited as children and now bring their own kids—and the growing number of people who have recently moved to East Tennessee and are discovering traditions like this for the first time.

Plus, Ken shares what life is really like in rural Corryton, why agritourism has become an important part of modern farming, and the best times to visit Oakes Farm if you want to avoid the biggest October crowds.

It’s a conversation about farming, family, entrepreneurship, community, and how a local East Tennessee tradition grows across generations.