Tag Archives: you-pick

Fausett Farms Is Growing 700,000 Sunflowers in North Georgia — and People Are Flying In to See Them

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Dawsonville, GA |

It’s rows of gold here in North Georgia, where fields of sunflowers stretch across thirty acres on a historic family-owned farm in Dawson County. What started as a poultry operation in the 1850s is now one of the state’s largest growers of this beloved seasonal flower — and the numbers this season are impressive.

“Right now we’ve got about a few hundred thousand sunflowers that are blooming or have been bloomed. This second field behind me is just starting. The cooler weather is slowing down the progress a little, but they’re going to get there,” said Brett Fausett of Fausett Farms. “And after these, about two weeks later, we’ve got fields across the creek that are going to start blooming too. In total, we’ve probably got about seven hundred thousand flowers.”

A YEAR-ROUND COMMITMENT

Even though sunflowers may only be in bloom for a short window, the work behind them is anything but brief — it’s a year-round process that starts long before the first seed goes in the ground.

“You’ve got to start with subsoiling, soil samples — we get those back from the University of Georgia and decide on our fertilizer. Then come the final preparations, the plowing, the planting, and then taking care of pesticides, herbicides, all of that,” Fausett said. “It’s always a battle with deer and bugs, but we make it happen.”

BUILT FOR THIS GROUND

Growing conditions in this part of North Georgia are well suited for sunflowers — rich bottomland soil and plenty of sunshine give the crop the foundation it needs. And for those curious about whether sunflowers really do follow the sun, Fausett can confirm it.

“The ground here in these bottoms is really rich. If you’ve got clay, it’s going to be more difficult,” he said. “They need as much sun as they can get, and they do follow the sun. When they’re just a bulb, they will track it across the sky — I get asked that all the time. Once they bloom, most of them are facing east.”

HEAT CUT THE FIRST BLOOM SHORT

This summer’s relentless heat did present some challenges, cutting the early bloom shorter than expected and giving Fausett a firsthand reminder that weather is never fully on your side in farming.

“The first field didn’t last as long as it should have because it was so hot — they usually last about two weeks, but that field lasted about a week or ten days,” Fausett said. “If it stays this cool when the next fields bloom, that field will probably last three weeks. It’s a fight with weather. Sometimes it’s your friend and sometimes it’s not.”

PEOPLE COME FROM EVERYWHERE

All the hard work is worth it, Fausett says, when he sees the thousands of visitors who come through the farm gates each week during bloom season — some of them from well beyond the Georgia state line.

“There’s a lot of work — a lot people don’t see. But it’s what we do. We’ve farmed our whole life,” he said. “We started with agritourism around 2013 or 2014, and I just like seeing people come and enjoy what we do. It makes us proud. We have people who come back every year. We have people come from out of state. A family flew in from Detroit just for this. People come from all over.”

For Fausett Farms, the sunflower season is short — but the impact it leaves on visitors, and the pride it gives the family behind it, lasts all year long.

By: Damon Jones

Late Frost and Rising Costs Put Pike County Peach Crop on Shorter Season

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Concord, GA |

At Gregg Farms in Pike County, this year’s peach crop is shaping up to look a little different. A warmer-than-normal winter followed by a late frost has left producers adjusting expectations, with a shorter crop translating into a shorter season for customers.

“This year is going to be a little shorter. It got warm earlier, and we had a late frost about a week before Easter — and since all the peaches were bloomed, it got a lot of them,” said Stuart Gregg of Gregg Farms. “We’ll still have a crop this year. It’ll just be a little bit shorter. We might not be open every day or have you-pick every day, but we’ll have something throughout the summer. It just won’t be like other seasons when you have a bumper crop.”

NOT ALL VARIETIES WERE HIT

While the late frost caused significant damage, Gregg says the timing spared some later-blooming varieties, softening what could have been a total loss for certain parts of the orchard.

“I’d say about fifty percent of the peaches got damaged. A lot of the early peaches are at a loss, but the others just kind of got thinned out — so we’re not having to do as much thinning this year due to that frost,” Gregg said. “We’ll just be a little bit later opening, because most of the early peaches were in full bloom while some of the others weren’t all the way bloomed yet.”

COLD WEATHER: A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

According to Gregg, timing is everything when it comes to cold weather and peach trees. The trees require a certain number of chill hours while dormant — but once they bloom, even a brief freeze can quickly turn a promising crop into a challenging season.

“Cold weather is good and bad for peach trees. After the trees go dormant, they have to have over a thousand chill hours — anything below forty degrees,” Gregg explained. “This year was a little different because it was a warmer winter, so we didn’t get our chill hours until way later. Since we were still able to get them, it really didn’t affect the trees. But then it finally got warm, everything started blooming, and we had that late frost. Once the peaches are open, they’re real susceptible to cold — and that’s what happened.”

DROUGHT A CONCERN, BUT NOT YET CRITICAL

Beyond the frost, dry conditions across the state have added another layer of uncertainty for peach growers. For now, Gregg says their trees haven’t been significantly impacted — but he’s watching the forecast closely.

“It’s still early. The peaches are still growing, and there’s still a little bit of water in the ground. We just had a rain, so that’s really helped,” Gregg said. “But if we were to keep getting this drought, it would just be a bad year overall — peaches wouldn’t be that big. We don’t have irrigation on the peaches. We irrigate our flowers and our blueberries, but the peaches are just at the mercy of Mother Nature, like with the frost.”

RISING COSTS ADD TO THE PRESSURE

As if weather challenges weren’t enough, rising input costs are adding financial stress to an already difficult start to the season. Fuel, fertilizer, and other operating expenses have climbed sharply in recent months, squeezing margins for producers like Gregg.

“Everything costs more — fuel, fertilizer, all inputs have just increased the cost of everything,” Gregg said. “It’s going to affect the end consumer just like it affects us. Everything’s more expensive. It takes more to get things done, and you can’t skip out on stuff just because it’s a little more expensive. It’s just making it tougher and making you stretch the dollar a little bit further, trying to get everything ready for everyone to come out.”

Despite the challenges, Gregg Farms is pressing forward — and Georgia peach fans can still look forward to a season, even if it looks a little different than years past.

By: John Holcomb