Sunflower Bridges

Sunflowers, I learned, are a labor of patience. It took alot of work to prepare the fields (Thanks to my brother and father + all the work from the tractor) to disc and sow the seeds while I was away and then plenty of patience was required as we waited and waited and waited....

Sunflowers have a long growing season, almost timed perfectly with cotton. It wasn't until the beginning of August before I saw my first beautiful blooms, and I planted them in middle of May. This is quite different than a fast growing, say...zucchini that from seed to harvest is perhaps 30 days. Nonetheless, in 120 days the field was dotted with natural yellow weather vanes tracking their way across the sky.

It was magical harvesting my first batch. I can't explain it. I had had this vision for so long. The bugs and morning glory and eventually the mud we got stuck in couldn't deter my happiness. My very own field of sunflowers. That I grew. And now that I wanted to share.

I was running out of time between the harvest and moving to Nashville, so I decided to trial a community building exercise by leaving buckets full of sunflowers on the road in my neighborhood. No price. Just a donation box. My first day I grossed $6.25! Who knew how many that was for; I didn't care. People are good and honest and kind and really love sunflowers as much as I do! Next year, I have bigger plans for farmer's markets and possibly shops in town. But, for this year, the few weekends I was able to bring home buckets of sunflowers for my neighborhood was enough for me!