The Point of Sunflowers

The first fields of sunflowers I saw were out of Oamaru on the way to Kakanui.  Since then I've been lucky enough to see them in Italy and France on a much much larger scale.   

But the fields of sunflowers are very quickly disappearing around us.  From the time we arrived here, they have been everywhere, and I have been fascinated watching the fields change from yellow to black as the sunflowers die; they are now being harvested.  The combine harvester-like machines go up and down the fields and chop of the flower heads halfway down the stem, and then another tractor comes along in the next day or so to cut down the flower stalks to leave an empty field.  The harvester apparently shakes the seeds out of the flower heads and there are trucks of seeds driving through the country roads, that are piled up and look like a mound of topsoil.     

A harvested field on the left, and drying flowers on the right. 

Beautiful images of fields of hundreds and thousands of these yellow flowers I have always loved, but it's only now that I have really started to think about what the point of it really is.  Oil and seeds. 


Drooping flowers but still stunning with thousands in a field

We must have missed the sunflowers in all their glory by a week or so, as they had droopy heads when we arrived.  The leaves have been changing from a yellow/green to a shrivelly brown colour.  The faces of the flowers have got darker and blacker.  I have wondered why some flowers are so much bigger than others.  Is it random, or different seed varieties?  Surely it makes sense for the farmer to have the bigger flowers with more seeds and a bigger yield at crop time.  But there are so many little flowers.  I need to do some proper googling on these questions I have.  Or practice some French about sunflowers and find someone to ask. 

Discarded flower head from the harvesting. The seeds just shake out so easily...although the husks must be taken off in another processing step

Gregg and I have wondered why NZ doesn't have more sunflower crops.  Is the value of the yield too low compared to our land values compared to over here? 

But, they are beautiful at all the stages I have seen.  It has made me think more about the whole lifecycle process and processing of the seeds.

Small sunflowers drying out

Walking through the now empty fields we have collected a few flower heads...examined them, peeled the seeds, tasted them.  The ones around here are mainly used for oil production.  The seeds are so much more oilier than the ones I'm used to out of packets. 

Bit of a random post - but when I'm on holiday like this I have time to watch all these things happening around me, and mull over the "why" about it all.     

When we can get this up close and personal in the sunflower fields and not just drive by and see them from the car, it is quite cool to see the changes over a few short weeks.