As we’ve been meeting people and talking about the oil, we’ve had requests for some photos that cover the beginning of the 2012 planting season to the production of Kricklewood Farm Sunflower Oil. Here it is, from May when the seed went in the ground right up to now with the pressing to make the oil.
We are excited to announce that our first batch of cold pressed sunflower oil is being bottled now and ready to go! It seems like it’s been a long haul to get to this point but it was only a few months ago that the seed was getting planted. We are starting with the 500 ml bottle for now and may add other sizes down the road. We’ll be hitting the road now visiting the stores who have been interested and also planning for upcoming Spring events and markets. We also have the oil in our on line store.
Barn AND Sunflowers! It was impossible to leave out our red barn as it has become the icon of Kricklewood Farm. At the same time, we wanted to emphasize the sunflowers more so the photo was cropped differently to show more of the field. We also added a single sunflower between the English and French. We thought it could use a few words to describe the oil and came up with ‘Pure and Natural’ and ‘pure et naturelle’. We’ve used ‘Tastes like Sunshine’ to describe it at market but thought we might get busted for truth in labeling…. It’s been a long and sometimes painful process but we’re happy to finally have it completed. Now off to the printer it goes!
We can breathe a little easier now that the Sunflower crop is harvested. Brian, who is doing a lot of the work for us shared some insight into farming earlier in the season. He said ‘When I first started farming I don’t think I got a decent night’s sleep until the crop was off the field and in the bin…’ I understand the sentiment perfectly. Now we can focus on getting the press up and running and producing oil! More Photos…
Deciding on a design for the soon to be launched Kricklewood Farm Sunflower oil has been more difficult than we imagined! Some people like the idea of the red barn as it has become the signature image for the farm, some people say keep it simple (stupid) and go with the ‘in your face’ sunflower. We have to decide within the next few days so we’re just going to put it it out there: Barn or Sunflower?
The Sunflower blooms have past their peak and now the plants are maturing, the seeds ripening and getting ready for harvest in a month or so. The way the heads seem to be bowed is quite something but it is sad to see the blooms fading. The birds have taken a few seeds here and there but there should be plenty for oil. Another interesting thing is variation in height of the plants and size of the blooms. The plants are anywhere from 3 ft to 6 ft tall and the flowers are anywhere from 4 inches to about a foot in diameter.
Thanks to everyone who came out to our Sunflower Field open house yesterday! The weather didn’t exactly cooperate with periods of sun then cloud, then drizzle, then sun again, etc, etc. We still managed to raise about $500 for L.A.W.S selling sunflower bouquets. Thanks to Arla, a member of the board of L.A.W.S. who sold raffle tickets (good luck, everyone who bought!). Thanks also to Lindsay who welcomed everyone at the front with a helpful smile and Holly and Rebecca who made up the beautiful bouquets!
A final request: I normally take photos at our events but didn’t have a chance to take a single pic yesterday. If anyone took photos and is willing to contribute to our photo album, please email them to me at dale@kricklewoodfarm.com. Photos of the Sunflowers, the animals or your friends and family would all be appreciated. We will credit all submissions to their creator and will only use them this one time for an on-line album of the event.
Many thanks from Brad and Dale
Come enjoy up close and personal views of the Fifteen Acre Sunflower field in full bloom Sunday August 12 from 12:00 to 4:00 pm and help out the animals of the Lanark Animal Welfare Society (L.A.W.S.)! For a $10 donation a beautiful Sunflower bouquet will be yours to take home.
Kricklewood Farm is launching this area’s first Cold Pressed Sunflower Oil facility this Fall and we want to share the awe inspiring sight of the Sunflower Field and help out L.A.W.S. at the same time.
Kricklewood Farm products will be available for purchase including free range organic eggs, goat milk soap, goat milk fudge, Sunflower Oil, art prints and cards. Kricklewood Farm is home to a diverse group of Nubian Goats, Muscovy ducks, chickens, pot-bellied pigs who will be happy to welcome new visitors to the farm!.
We woke up this morning to peak bloom so couldn’t resist taking a few more photos of the Sunflower field. It is truly hard to believe that the field was bare dirt in the middle of May.
We got excited last night when I spotted the first blooms in the sunflower field. On closer inspection, the blooms were actually from other varieties of sunflowers that somehow got into the seeds that we planted. They are all in the rows so not volunteers as I initially thought. They’re also taller and have multiple flowers per plant unlike the oil sunflower variety we planted which have only one flower per plant. They should be blooming very shortly though as we had a good rain yesterday and the buds look about ready to open… can hardly wait!