Sunflowers

The Windermere Garden Club organized a field trip to Southern Hill Farms in Clermont. For $10, we would get our choice of a sunflower or vase of nasturtiums, a farm tour, and a blueberry mimosa or soda. Sounded like an opportunity to get to know club members while visiting a you-pick blueberry farm, plus have a fun drink. I signed Grant and me up.

We dropped Clara at school and headed west. Rain threatened, but was supposed to hold off until afternoon. I’d brought my rain jacket just in case. Lake County is rolling sand hills, I think scrub oak areas originally. Almost all of the citrus is gone, replaced by blueberry farms and, increasingly, housing. Barely a tree in sight. Which means the winds came screaming down the plains. Good thing I’d brought my jacket, since it was fairly cool. Dang, I left my jacket at home. 

In addition to picking blueberries, visitors can pick vegetables, strawberries, and flowers. There is a huge pole barn with food trucks and seating for several hundred. Past that is a kid zone with rides and bounce houses, only open on the weekend so the teachers and chaperones of field trips can keep their tikes focused on the farm and how food is grown. Tough way to make a living.

Mr Hill, owned and patriarch, did an excellent job of explaining his family’s operation: 3 different kinds of blueberries, well water for overhead sprinklers to protect the fields from frost (because strawberry have so much sugar, they can take colder weather than blueberries), and recycled grey water from Clermont for the drip system that waters the fields (although really clean, can’t be allowed to touch any food product). When I asked what they were doing to cope with the increasingly warm weather and fewer cooler/cold nights that will affect his crops, he said he wasn’t concerned and that he didn’t think man had much effect on the climate. I looked around, across the rolling hills, and didn’t see a single stand of native vegetation between me and the horizon, just field after field of crops. At the end of our tour, I also noticed a big block of lychee trees, so I think he’s hedging his bets, as any good farmer should.

We road in wagons out to the sunflower field, and because the nasturtiums weren’t ready to pick, we were each given 5 sunflowers: huge sunflowers, with miserable scissors to hack through their tough stalks. Thank goodness Grant had his knife. Laden with our 11 sunflowers (we’d miscounted so paid $2 for the extra one), we staggered against the wind, back to the pole barn. I am rethinking my idea of growing my hair long one last time. I hate hair in my face.

Our mimosa was upgraded to lunch and a soda. Grant said his tacos were good. My chicken salad with blueberries was delicious and more than enough for 2 people. If we come back, I’m bringing a bag of washed greens so we can share. 

It started sprinkling, I bought blueberries, $12 for a 2 pounds/quart, and we headed home in the rain.