Bass Family Farms — Attraction in Mount Vernon

NEW They added a corn maze where you “investigate” who stole Farmer Joe (like the old board game Clue). You get a farm detective badge sticker that hyped up the kids. There are 6 signs with animals/locations/items hidden along the paths and you punch the card when you find them. The remaining set not punched is “who done it.” We went in a lot of circles whoops ha (the map says 1.2 miles if you do it right so be prepared to walk!). My 7 and 3 year old enjoyed it - would definitely recommend.

We’ve been there before to play the yard games but they’ve added some more games, old tractors to take photos with, and there is a lot of grass space to just run.

Don’t miss the greenhouse behind the store, they have a lot of Halloween photo props (costumes, hats, etc.) then sit on the various set ups for cute theme pictures. It would be a neat spot to rent and host a party for kids (could do crafts in there before/after playing outside) or I could see adults at night having a party in there standing around with drinks!

Groups can reserve the hayrack ride (we saw it but we only had a small family and the driver was back out in the field by the time we asked). There was a nursing home group and special populations group there when we visited - so...

We were driving back to Cedar Rapids from trying BBQ places and had a hankering for ice cream and just got lucky that we were passing Bass Family Farm. We didn't even know they had ice cream but looked them up online as we drove by because there seemed to be a flurry of activity and we wanted to know what it was all about.

As my wife was telling me their reviews said they had ice cream, I was poo-pooing her discovery, assuming that yet again, like so many "ice cream" places in Iowa, it was actual soft serve (an unappetizing low fat alternative to real scoop ice cream). Nope, sure enough, in one of the photos we could see the Chocolate Shoppe logo so knew this was the real deal and so we immediately flipped a u-turn and stopped in for a visit...and some amazing ice cream. (Chocolate Shoppe is out of Madison, WI and makes some of the best ice cream in the world, in large part because they have some of the best milk in the world up in Wisconsin.)

Even the youngsters behind the counter admitted that although they usually prefer soft serve (kids...what do you expect from them?!? 😂), they love this...

I like to write my reviews after (2) visits. Anyone can be great ONCE 😂 So First visit was with my daughters Girl Scout troop and it was Awesome! I mean absolutely awesome! A scenic Hay rack ride, - digging up potatoes by hand, learning about the different vegetables, The importance of bee's, CSA, etc! The Gentleman guide we had was awesome with the kids, they laughed, learned a ton and had a great time! Our last visit was for our annual family fall fun day. Expectations include - fun activities for the kids, Fall Pumpkin pictures, pepper jelly, Hay rack rides etc. This was our first experience here as opposed to the other place and I gotta tell ya, It was just as awesome as our first trip to Bass farms. TONS of great photo ops, the activities had our kids not wanting to leave (especially the HUGE sling shot and See-Saw's), the farm store has an awesome selection of all locally sourced goodies and everyone from the kids to the Aunts even our wallets - left happy! Super Great time, super great value. Thank...