Sunflower maze a way to give back to community

Near the end of July, Bragg Farm will open the first of its two huge fields of sunflowers to the public where a maze has been mowed into the shape of a pair of sunflower heads.

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It’s the fourth year the sunflower growers and bird seed producers have done this as a way to give back to the community, says 7th generation co-owner Brittany Bragg, married to Mark.

There are more than 80,000 flowers blooming at once which is in itself quite a spectacle – but it’s also part of an important agricultural crop for the Bowmanville-area family.

Anna and Barry Bragg started growing sunflowers in the mid-1990s. “It’s very much a crop, not to be confused with an ornamental flower,” Brittany also explained during an interview.

Well-known for their bird seed mixes, the Braggs not only grow Black Oil Sunflower seeds but also buy from others in order to meet market demand. Mixing and bagging takes place on their own on-site production facility.

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The 200-acre farm is surrounded by forests and has been in the family since 1843. In addition to the acreage they own, they also rent area farmland to produce cash crops that include corn, soybeans, and barley, in addition to sunflowers.

About a decade ago they added potatoes and now have a dig-your-own operation in the sandy soil fields offering customers yellow, red and sweet potatoes each September.

At one point, the fight against pests and birds caused the family to quit growing their own sunflowers due to the financial situation at the time but since then have crawled up again. Still, demand exceeds what they can grow, as they sell bird seed year round. They do not use insecticides, Brittany stressed.

Given this shortfall, why do they carve long, eight-feet-wide maze pathways into the sunflower crops?

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“The trade-off is worth it,” she said. “People can see our crop….and everyone enjoys coming to the farm.”

In addition to Brittany and the other three family farm owners who work the farm, an additional one to six people are employed depending on the season. Most are needed in the fall and winter, she added. Students also help in the summer.

Sunflowers can grow very rapidly depending on rainfall and sunshine and so the height varies each season. They can actually grow a foot overnight. This year they expect the maze will open about July 27 and that the plants will be quite tall.

The first year of the sunflower maze, which was during COVID, they created the pathways by pulling the plants out of the ground by hand and the second and third years they used a lawnmower – but both were labour-intensive and a lot of the plant material had to be removed either way. The Flairmore they used this year not only cuts the plant at the base but mulches the stalk and leaves into a nice pathway for people to walk on, Brittany said.

The fields are planted one after the other so that the maze operates during a longer period, and there can be overlap when visitors can walk in both field mazes on the same weekend.

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