ALLEGAN, Mich. — Gorby Sunflowers, a family-run sunflower field in Allegan County, is home to kids, grandkids and Farmer Wayd. It's what the Gorbys call their little slice of heaven.
Imagine six acres of sunflowers in your own backyard.
Farmer Wayd's daughter, Emmarie Buresh, said, “They've created a home that we all love to come back to.”
Emmarie told me that Farmer Wayd even married her off in their sunflower field. “My parents made my sunflower dreams come true," Emmarie remarked.
However, this year, the Gorbys ran into their fair share of obstacles. “We’ve always had some deer, but this year we had a lot of deer,” Farmer Wayd said.
Farmer Wayd discovered 22 deer eating his sunflowers, leaving the entire south part of the sunflower field destroyed. “They just ate all of the heads right off the sunflowers," Emmarie said.
Luckily, the Gorbys were still able to open up the north side of the field to keep the sunflowers alive for another season.
Farmer Wayd tells me that it takes 56 days from the time he plants the seeds for the sunflowers to be, when they are, as the Gorbys say, "photo ready." So, now that the 56 days have come and gone, Saturday marks their first weekend back in action.
“Every weekend, we are always out here, so there's never a shortage of seeing each other,” Emmarie said.
Farmer Wayd added, “I just love the farming part of it — that is very fun to me. The people part of it is very stressful to me.” Safe to say, he's left the "people part" to his wife and daughters.
“Having a bunch of random people come walk around your yard — it has brought us so much joy. I think we really are closer, and I think we are better for it, just spreading the joy and kindness to our community,” Emmarie said.
The sunflowers are sold at $2 each or three for $5 and they're open from sunrise to sunset seven days a week through mid-September.
For more information on Gorby Sunflowers, click here.
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