Fields of Happy
Today I am honored to have Emily Odom from Odom Farming Company guest posting again. She has guest posted in the past and today she is going to tell you about the Barefoot on the Farm Festival happening today July 30 on the farm and also their amazing sunflowers.
We planted our first sunflower field in the fall of 2015. It was so beautiful. Seeing that field full of those gorgeous golden flowers was enough to brighten any day. I don’t care what kind of mood you are in when you see a sunflower it’s hard not to smile. They just spread happiness wherever they’re taken.
When I was in middle school my uncle planted them for dove hunting season. That’s when I was first introduced to the beauty that is a sunflower. My grandma would cut them and arrange them in her house. They were gorgeous yellow blooms the size of a dinner plate. I got my love of flowers from her. She was in a garden club and used to always keep flower arrangements in the house. She’d put them in church or carry them to the hospital just to add some cheer to someone’s day. It’s amazing what something as simple as a little flower can do.
When we planted that field, we had no idea how much people would respond to them. They wanted to pick them, smell them, have their pictures taken with them, and we were amazed. People were just fascinated with them. So we decided to plant them in the summer of 2016 just so folks could do just that. We’re always looking for new things to do and ways to diversify while still sticking to what we feel like we do best, which is which is giving folks the opportunity to have a good time on the farm. Sunflowers just seemed to tick all our boxes. Now, we didn’t make enough to pay our farm payment off them but we had enough success we decided we’d add it to our calendar every year. Then last summer we visited a farm in Virginia that cut a maze into them and we figured this summer we’d try that and see how people responded. Hence Summer Sunflower Fields was born.
We’re going to open this weekend with our Barefoot on the Farm festival. It was always our intention to have a spring festival during strawberry season, but when our plants didn’t produce like we’d planned we had to scrap it. We decided to have one in the summer instead and just let folks enjoy an evening on the farm and the chance to meander through a sunflower field. There’ll be a ton of vendors and music and food. What my kids are most looking forward to is the giant water balloon fight we’re planning. I have probably 1500 water balloons and starting around 6:30 or 7, we’re going to let them loose for a good old-fashioned fight to the finish. After the festival, we’ll be open a couple of weeks while the fields are in bloom just to let people take pictures and enjoy the maze in full bloom and pick some flowers to brighten their day or someone else’s. So come pay us a visit and be prepared to leave with a smile!
Emily is a full-time mom, wife, and farmer trying to run her own agritourism business. Her goal is to educate kids about where their food comes from and help her community and to have a good time while she does it. You can read more of her musings at The True Adventures of Berry Girl and check out the website for her agritourism business Odom Farming Inc
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