A Thousand More Words

In an effort to highlight what we feel were our best photos for the 2018 calendar year, we have taken to presenting each candidate in its own post.  We hope you enjoy the photos and the thoughts that accompany them.

Every year, we identify areas on the farm where we will plant hedges of annual flowers in hopes that we will be graced by the presence of blooms that lift our spirits and provide habitat for critters we hope will find our farm to be a good home.  Every year, there are hedges of zinnias and marigolds and most years there is at least one hedge of sunflowers.

Zinnias and marigolds tend to have a longer period of time when they are able to dazzle you with their presence, but this is not the case for the sunflowers.  They tend to have a peak bloom period that lasts about ten days until the elements begin taking their toll.  There are certainly blooms after that peak and we certainly do not feel that they have no value on the farm at that point.  But, it is clear that there is a big difference between that special moment when the sunflowers grab your full attention and every other point in their life cycle.

As farmers, we take it upon ourselves to plant, cultivate and care for these plants throughout the process that leads to this brief moment of perfection.  We take pleasure in the stages that lead to peak bloom and we look at this same stand of sunflowers with fondness after that peak because we can still see the shadows of magnificence in what remains.