Community Highlights: Meet Michael Phillips of Phillips Farms of Cary

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Phillips.

Hi Michael, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I came home from college after going for a year and had the idea to start a corn maze. This was going on thirteen years ago. I did this. I started the corn maze with a few small activities maybe five or so and the corn maze itself. Thirteen years later, here I am with this great family business that has grown tremendously over the years. A lot of work has gone in over the years to grow the business and it will continue to grow as this is truly what we love doing and watching families come out and have a wholesome good time at the farm. This past year of 2020 and into 2021 was a big year for us as we started our new Farmers Market and that has been great and a good thing for the community for folks to have something to come do on the weekends.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
By no means has it been smooth, from the struggles of first starting wondering would the people come or not. To taking leaps and risks every year. Every year has a new struggle but we work together and get through and always come out on the other end for the best. In 2020 we were able to help those that lost work due to COVID and we could offer them work with our Strawberries which was a great thing. We also got to watch folks finally get out in the fall of 2020 and have a good time again. We did not know what to expect in the fall of 2020 with how things were going but it went better than we could have expected.

As you know, we’re big fans of Phillips Farms of Cary. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a top agritainment place in the triangle. We offer a variety of farm fresh fun activities, we are well known for our fall time activities. We have our corn maze and fun park in the fall time starting late September going until the end of October. We have our haunted every Friday and Saturday nights starting at the end of September going through October. We are right now in the middle of our brand new Farmers Market that we launched this year in April which has been huge and a lot of learning along the way. We also have a great new entire Christmas experience to add to our already standing Christmas trees we sale. We are adding local vendors for the community to shop at for the Christmas season.

We truly LOVE what we do here at the farm it is not just a job for us that we get up and do it’s something that we are passionate about. We want every person that comes out to the farm might it be during our market season or fall or Christmas time have the best time they can have and a great experience. So I would say that is what sets us apart from others is.

Brand wise for us I would say is we love our slogan of Farm Fresh Fun and it seems to have stuck for a lot. Emily has done a great job of branding for us as well and grown that entire aspect of the business.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Learned how to adapt and make it still a fun safe place for families to get out and have something fun to do still.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.phillipsfarmsofcary.com
• Instagram: @phillipsfarmscarync
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phillipsfarmscarync/

Image Credits
First image credit goes to ashleyhessphotography