Every summer, towards the end of August, my Instagram feed is filled with photos of sunflower fields in the North Fork of Long Island. And every time I would see the photos, I would always say, next year I’m going to go out there and take pictures. Back in July, when the summer was already hectic and I hadn’t taken any photos that were not work related, I decided to finally make good on that promise and I booked myself a two day trip to my happy place, the North Fork. One of the goals was just to have some time off of work to de-stress, the other goal was to find those sunflower fields.
Right after I booked the trip, one of the secret sunflower fields I had been trying to get the exact location of became public knowledge since it belonged to North Fork Potato Chips, who opened it to the public. Finally having the location, I was all set to make it my first stop until a few days of downpours closed the field for good a week before I left. Lesson learned, next year as soon as the field opens, go that weekend.
I had a few other farms as possibilities that had sunflower fields, so I figured I would just keep driving down the two main roads that everything was located on until I found some sunflowers. And find them I did! I stopped at two places that had fields, Patty’s Berries & Bunches in Mattituck and Bayview Farms & Market in Aquebogue where these sunflowers are from. I’ll be sharing the photos from Patty’s in another post.
Any chance I get to head out to the North Fork, I’ll always take. Getting to photograph my favorite flower out there just makes the trip even better!
