“I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.”
-Helen Miren
My niece Alaia Harper
Lately, I have been doing a lot of research as to what to do every weekend with my siblings. I have been compiling a whole list of places to visit and events to attend this summer. I have been expressing to them that I wanted to visit fields of flowers, it could be tulips, lavender, or even sunflowers. After much research, I found a place that wasn’t too far from my sister Maddy Orange County home. This past weekend my sisters and I decided to troop to the “Sunflower Valley Farm” in New Hampton NY. I found it was one of the closest to us.
It was a little over an hour away from our NYC apartment and thirty minutes away from Maddy’s home. We met with the owner of the farm, Brian and his son. It was my first time visiting a Sunflower farm in NYC, so I didn’t know what to really expect. Honestly, didn’t know I was going to get lost in the 6ft-7ft Sunflowers. They were ginormous that the whole time I was wishing I had brought a 3ft step ladder. There was an area where they had to overlook the fields and to take cute pictures of the sunflowers.
This was the Sunflower Valley Farm first season of sunflowers. It was raining last week, so the first batch of sunflowers were completely dead. We were lucky to see the second batch starting to bloom and they were absolutely stunning. This farm used to grow thousands of acres of sweet onions, but now they focus on corn, sunflowers and soybeans. You should definitely try to check it out if you live in NY or NJ. We were able to also cut our own sunflowers and purchase them for 75cents each, which is such a bargain in comparison to the $6 per flower prices in downtown.
Definitely troop up to this Sunflower Valley Farm as soon as you get a chance!
Check out their Facebook Page if you have any questions!
Sunflower Valley Farm
218 County Route 12
New Hampton, New York, NY 10958
Images are beautiful. -Bam