"Do you grow this?" A question asked while pointing at bags of sunflower seed, oats and barley in our farm store. Yes, we grow and then sell those seeds for animal and bird feed.
"What do you do with sunflower oil?" Sorry for the snarkiness, but the answer is "You cook with it!" Every meal we cook starts with sunflower oil on the bottom of the pan. We use it to fry eggs, sauté greens, sear a meat, make marinades and salad dressings, or make a flavor base, (onions, garlic, and other diced veggies) for each and every meal we cook. This Pad Thai below started with sunflower oil in the pan.
Sunflower oil is delicious making meals taste better. It can be served in salad dressings or used for deep frying as it has a very high smoke point. Unlike canola oil, it is not carcinogenic in high heat. It is second in line for heart health next to olive oil and has all the right kinds of fatty acids for good health.
"Are your sunflower fields organic?" A surefire way to know if a field is organic is to notice the lush greenery growing between the rows. These are weeds and an organic farmer must cultivate (machine weed instead of chemical weed) to relieve some of the weed pressure. Right now there is a sea of yellow flowers in our grain and sunflower fields. That is mustard - not something we plant, but a seed that once we combine (the machine that we drive through the field that separates the grain from the stalks) can be separated from the small grains (oats, barley, rye) and turned into our FARM MUSTARD - a culinary sandwich spread. Corn and soybean fields conventionally farmed are neat and tidy. An organic farm will look very lush, in fact, be green when "conventional" fields are brown in the Spring, and often have a spray of yellow over the top this time of year as mustard scatters far and wide.
It is true that William does some "conventional" farming on land a couple miles away from his own farm and we sell non-organic deer corn in the store, so I can see where there may be some confusion. William's organic farm is situated on 160 acres around the big red barn and he also organically farms the fields at Rush River Produce and another neighbor who borders his farm to the north. All in, William runs nearly 300 acres organically. Fun fact - those two neighboring farms long long ago belonged to William's grandparents and an aunt and uncle. He still farms his ancestral land as the last of the Brenners farming or living on that slice of heaven on top of the hill.
"Where are the sunflowers?" Right now our sunflowers are about 2 feet tall. We expect with summer heat, they have launched into their rapid growth phase and will begin a fast climb towards the sky. We're likely to see blooms begin sometime in early August. The cool weather and all the rain this summer may have slowed these beauties just a bit.
2023 Sunflowers ten days before peak. 2024 plants this year are not yet this tall, nor do they have any buds. We've got a solid three weeks before we see fields begin to bloom. Get your cameras ready! I'll keep you posted.
Blueberry mayhem us underway at Rush River Produce, our neighbors one driveway over. They will still have u-pick berries for another few weeks. Come pick from their 14 varieties of high bush berries, get a taste of farming and drop your jaws when you behold the Cuddy's spectacularly impressive flower and vegetable gardens. This summer experience can't be missed.
Stay cool, connect with those you love and be peaceful where you wander. My motto as of late after reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird is to take life WEED by WEED. And I also like what A.A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh once said, "Weeds are flowers (or food) too, once you get to know them."
Sending LOVE to you all,
Sarah
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