Golden oasis
Sunflower spectacle draws thousands to Beaver Dam Farm ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY NICOLE ZEMA
Earth dwellers craving an otherworldly farm experience can find it when exploring the towering rows of 600,000 densely packed sunflowers at Beaver Dam Farm. It’s transformed into a 20-acre planet of blazing yellow blooms and airspace buzzing with pollinators. Sun-drenched blossoms form an endless horizon line on the Botetourt County farm, at times obscuring the familiar view of earth. Beaver Dam hosts the largest sunflower festival and vendor show on the East Coast, scheduled for Sept. 8-17 this year. Up to 20,000 visitors—they’ve come from 35 states—orbit the vast fields every summer and fall. The mission is overseen by Candace Monaghan, a fourth-generation farmer
with a dairy background. As the dairy industry started to decline in Virginia, farmers were forced to sell out or diversify operations, so Monaghan’s family switched to raising beef cattle. On a whim, they planted black oil sunflowers in an empty field in 2015. “My father, Preston, always liked sunflowers, and wanted to see if they grew well,” she recalled. “They did grow, and a few people stopped to take photos and ask if they could pick a few to take home.” She proposed establishing an annual sunflower festival, but Preston was apprehensive. “He wasn’t thrilled about the idea of lots of people walking through the fields, but then he agreed to give it a try,” she said. Monaghan promoted the one-day event through social and local media. They expected 300 visitors; about 1,600 showed up. The event eventually evolved into a
10-day festival. Over 120 vendors sell handcrafted goods and treats. Guests can lose themselves in the rows of color, stopping for selfies at quirky photo stations. The festival also features wagon rides, a farm animal petting area, live music and catered sunset dinners. “One of my favorite parts is watching everyone’s faces when they enter the gates and see all 600,000 sunflowers for the first time,” Monaghan said. From planting to bloom is only an eight-week time frame. “While they grow quickly, they also do not last long at all,” she explained. “Once the flower blooms it only lasts a short 10 to 14 days before it has wilted. Some years we will get enough rain to make the flowers grow, and some years they may be stunted because of lack of rain.” Nothing is wasted. When the sunflower moisture content drops, a combine is used to harvest the seeds that are stored, transported and cleaned before being bagged for birdseed.
Acres of sunflowers at Beaver Dam Farm create an otherworldy experience.
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