Well we had our First Ever Sunflower Festival. My First Thoughts....

Well, we just had our first ever Sunflower Festival. First, I want to thank our customers who were so wonderfully respectful of our farm. Many happy sunflower harvesters went out of their way to thank me and our team for being so generous. It was a lot of fun to see how much everyone enjoyed the sunflowers and our beautiful views. It is nice to be able to do something special for everyone and to be able to host an event that can bring joy to so many people.

Second, I would like to thank our crew who worked all week crafting gourds and then spent their weekend helping us share many thousands of sunflowers with both our new friends and customers we’ve known for years. We ask a lot out of our crew in the fall season and without all their extra effort this special weekend wouldn’t be possible for any of us.

I live here every day and spent too many days fighting the endless days of rain, or I can’t breathe days of heat. Too many of those days forgetting how lucky I am to live on this farm. Watching your enjoyment as you and your family and friends wander through our sunflower fields reminds me why I work this hard and how fortunate we are. I don’t know how many cute little girls and boys had their pictures taken in front of our cottages and giant pumpkins, but I think I smiled on the inside every time I saw them being photographed.

It sounds kind of crazy, but I want to thank you for picking sunflowers for free at our farm. We planted many many acres of sunflower to share and it really was a pleasure for us to see all the pictures were taken and the beautiful bouquets harvested. Had it rained again this weekend, it would have been very sad to see all those flowers blooming with no one to enjoy them.

Yes, we are definitely planning on having a Sunflower Festival next fall as well. But like everything else we do, it must be at least a little better each and every time. If you have any comments or suggestions on either what you liked about the Sunflower Fest or how we could improve it, I would love to hear them. We already have some ideas ourselves as to how to make the sunflower fest better next year.

When I think about next year, I have a lot of ideas that I would like to try. First and foremost, I want there to be at least one medium-sized field of sunflowers including multiple colored ones in full bloom. I want to see at least ten cottages or giant Meadowbrooke gourds fully decorated both inside and out displayed in and around the sunflower fields. I would like to see trolley tours of the farm to run all day that go to smaller private fields. I could also see Molly Pitcher Brewing Company serving beer from a cottage specially designed for them. I would like to see more food trucks and a folk-art band or two.

I want to expand what we have to offer for fall with a giant display of mums, pumpkins, hay bales, ornamental gourds, Indian corn, and corn shocks in our new larger grass area. I would love for customers to look forward to this event to decorate their yards and porches. I would like to see at least five other vendors who grow or hand make their products. Like soap, brooms, honey, apple products, blacksmith, quilter, and of course a gourd crafter working. I would love to see all of them demonstrating how they do what they do. Think the motto around outside vendors is they must be authentic. We will start searching for the right vendors soon but if you have any suggestions please let us know.

Thanks, Farmer Ben and the Meadowbrooke crew