A field of sunflowers is as warm and inviting as the sweet summer sun. It catches your eye and holds your attention. Maybe it’s the flower’s stature or its towering height and bright-colored face. Maybe it’s the way the buds seek the sun, starting out facing east each morning and looking west as the sun sets. Maybe their temporary nature makes them even more captivating.
Whatever the reason, Collin Blalock sees firsthand how people are drawn to a field of sunflowers. For three years, the Wilson County farmer and owner of Collin’s Produce has planted and tended these summer favorites. He and his wife, Ashley, have even created a 10-acre sunflower maze that allows visitors to enjoy their beauty.
“Some families come out for the fun of exploring a maze,” Collin Blalock says. “Others come for the opportunity to take beautiful photographs, and some visit us for both and then they cut sunflowers to take home.”
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“Produce Boy” to Entrepreneur
The sunflower maze is just one small part of what Collin’s Produce offers visitors. From watermelons to sweet corn to collard greens, the Blalocks grow produce and sell it fresh from the garden right there at the farm’s barn.
The business began in 2012 when Collin was 15 and looking for a summer job.
“My dad is a farmer, and he suggested that I grow and sell peas over the summer,” Blalock says. “I started with a third of an acre and only used my granddad’s old push planter. I pulled weeds and picked peas by hand. It was the hardest I had ever worked, but I fell in love with it and started to expand.”
As an agriculture science major at North Carolina State University, Blalock’s passion for and expansion of his business earned him the nickname “Produce Boy.” In addition to peas, he planted butterbeans, watermelon, squash, tomatoes and other vegetables, which he began selling through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce box.
“The CSA box has been a small but important part of our business,” Blalock says. “We put together boxes with our fresh produce, then partner with other businesses, adding homemade pimento cheese, chips and other local products to support the local food movement.”
Then in 2017, he started growing a wide range of cut flowers to add to the mix. His blooms include daffodils, tulips, hydrangeas, peonies, gladioli and zinnias that visitors can pick up or cut fresh to take home.
Today, his farm includes more than 60 acres of fresh produce, sunflowers and other cut flowers, which he sells to grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets, florists and the public all along the East Coast.
“It’s really satisfying to grow something that people eat and enjoy,” Blalock says. “I grow produce that my dad’s generation enjoys too, like Dixie Lee peas, that they remember eating fresh out of their own garden. We also take a lot of pride in providing customers with unique, rare and beautiful varieties of fresh-cut flowers.”
Picture Perfect
The sunflower maze is a source of that pride for the Blalocks.
“We want people to have a great experience when they visit, so we work hard to get the flowers and the maze right,” Blalock says. “There are 10-foot-tall varieties, but we grow a 6-foot sunflower so people can’t see above them and so the sunflowers are accessible to them.”
Blalock plants in April or May depending on the weather. As the field grows, he uses his drone to map out a design for the maze. Then he uses a riding lawn mower to cut the design, going through up to four different times to ensure there is a clean path.
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He explains that the tricky part about growing sunflowers, beyond the weather, is the peak bloom time, which ranges from late July to early August. Because the flowers only last about two weeks, it’s important to get the word out so people can plan their visit.
“We have visitors who come from as far as Virginia, Greensboro and the beach to see the sunflowers, so we use social media to communicate when the blooms are at their peak,” Blalock says. “We have brides, engaged couples, expecting moms and high school seniors come to have special photos taken because it’s such a beautiful and unique spot. We want to be able to accommodate them.”
A Place in the Sun
With word spreading about the sunflower field, Collin and Ashley have been refurbishing farm implements and other items and placing them in the maze as a way to expand the experience. They’ve restored a vintage bike, a Hackney wagon made in Wilson for taking tobacco to market and a 1956 John Deere tractor that Collin has used to plant and plow crops. In addition, they’ve added a rope swing, frames and other items that provide unique photo opportunities.
“It’s really an experience that we’re creating for visitors, and we want it to be a memorable one,” Blalock says. “Because it’s in the middle of the summer heat, we make sure they have water. We also give them a basket and clippers and tell them to take as many sunflowers as they can carry in their car. We set produce out there for purchase, so they don’t have to head back to the barn. For something that started as a third of an acre of peas, we’ve come a long way.”
– Cathy Lockman
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Would love to stop sometime.
That produce is beautiful. Do you deliver