For the first time ever, Thompson’s Strawberry Farm in Bristol has started growing sunflowers in addition to its usual strawberries, raspberries and pumpkins. Customers can come and pick sunflowers and take photos in the fields.
The farm began planting the sunflowers back in July, but they didn’t plant all 2 million flowers at once.
“I had no intention to plant this many. Not even close,” said farmer Scott Thompson.
Thompson initially started with around 14 to 15 acres of sunflowers at first, but then decided to plant more, eventually landing at a total of about 2 million flowers.
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“We planted each field about a week apart so they don’t all bloom at the exact same time and I just kept going,” said Thompson. “People are going to need something in a year like this year.”
Customers are loving the new addition to the field. Thompson says even when the weather isn’t the best, the flowers seem to put a smile on everyone’s faces.
“Everybody is super happy. Even like today, it is wet, it is cold, it feels like it’s November,” said Thompson on Wednesday as he was out in the field. “I talked to some customers and I was like ‘Sorry it’s such a crappy day,’ and they were like ‘This was awesome. We absolutely loved it.’ Even on a cold, crappy, drizzly day, people are just having a blast out there.”
Thompson says the sunflowers bring just as much joy to him and his workers as they do customers and, rest assured, he plans to bring the sunny field of flowers back next year too.
“This was our first year doing sunflowers and I don’t think we could have picked a better year to start,” said Thompson.
