ST. NICHOLAS -- Sunflowers are not a common crop in the U.P., but one farm in St. Nicholas has a small and thriving crop, and it's their first time growing them.
Dan and Teressa Hall are veteran farmers in St. Nicholas (between Rock and Perkins), and they've added a new crop to their fields--sunflowers. They currently grow 300 acres worth of corn, sweet corn, and pumpkins, but after speaking with a friend who grows sunflowers in Wisconsin, they decided to give it a try with six acres.
"He said they were a fun crop to do and a fun crop to watch grow. He said you could make some pretty good money selling them as bird seed so we thought, 'Well, we'll dabble in it a little bit and see what happens.' It's been kind of interesting as you can see. It's a pretty little crop," said farmer Teressa Hall. She says it smells wonderful, too.
The Halls started their season by planting 25,000 seeds in each of their six acres. Now there are more than 100,000 stalks of sunflowers. The bright yellow crop has even been drawing attention from neighbors on the road. The bright yellow field is hard to miss. Sunflower farming is a rare sight in the U.P., and despite a drier than average season, these sunflowers are thriving.
"They do take the drought very well, dry weather and stuff, and this has been a warm, drier summer for us down here," said farmer Dan Hall.
Starting the new crop involved some research, but there are still many unknowns, and that's all been part of the fun for the Halls.
"To see them flower and come out and watch them from the seed to the finished product," Teressa Hall said.
The sunflowers are around four to five feet tall, but won't grow much taller over the next few months. Harvesting will begin in the fall after a good frost, likely in mid-October. Dan and Teressa will bag the sunflower seeds and sell them as bird seed right on their own farm. They say they'll continue growing sunflowers next year if sales look good this year.
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