ONTARIO — It’s hard not to feel enchanted in a sunflower field.
For Sabrina Chapman, standing among the 4-foot-tall blooms is therapeutic.
“It makes you happy. It just brings smiles to peoples faces. I don’t know what it is,” Chapman said. “With this crazy world, there’s some sense of normalcy, of joy. It’s like God gave us a little bit of sunshine.”
Chapman is just one of the many Richland County residents who sojourned to the 15-acre sunflower field on Walker Lake Road. The field has become a go-to spot for photography sessions, selfies or simply enjoying the natural beauty.
While Chapman stood calmly and took it all in, his granddaughter couldn’t stay still. The young girl skipped through the rows, ducking and hiding among the stalks as her grandfather, Steven Drexel, snapped photos on his smart phone.
“I surprised her coming from school. She goes ‘Papa, look at the flowers!’” Drexel said. “The color is so vibrant, it’s like the sun shining at you. And there are thousands of them.”
She declared sunflowers are important for two reasons — beauty and baseball.
“We need sunflowers to play baseball. Because people eat the seeds and then spit them out,” she explained.
The sunflowers were planted by local farmers Dave and Walker Fackler. For the father and son, who operate an organic farming operation, planting a field full of sunflowers was simply a business move.
Neither anticipated the field would become a local social media sensation.
“Never in my wildest dreams did i think that that was going to be a thing,” Dave said. “It was just something different to try and see how it would work in our crop rotation and it has really opened my eyes to the possibilities.”
The Facklers typically plant row crops like soybeans, hay and corn. This year, they decided to try something different in the small field off Walker Lake Road.
“We did it as kind of a trial run to see what kind of yield potential and profit margin we were looking at,” Walker said.
The Walker Lake field proved an ideal location. Since sunflowers can be planted later in the season, the Facklers were able to wait until the low-lying field dried out from heavy spring rains.
Come autumn, the flowers will dry out and the family will harvest them for seeds, which will be sold to make oil.
In the meantime, the flowers cloak the field in a vibrant yellow.
The Facklers plan to continue growing sunflowers next season — possibly on a larger field in Shelby. Due to their popularity, the family may have a small section next year where guests can pay to pick the flowers.
For now, they don’t mind the visitors who come and enjoy the sunflowers, but ask the public not to pick their crop.
“I’m glad that they can go out and enjoy it and take pictures,” Dave said. “I’d rather they not pick them.”
