Davis Farm a popular spot for sweet toothed local residents

April 26, 2018 · 0 Comments

Written By JASEN OBERMEYER

Davis Feed and Farm Supply Ltd. is not just your typical farm.
That it because they have been making and selling sunflower honey and sunflower oil, providing a different option for those with a sweet tooth.
“I kind of got thinking, ‘what can we produce on the farm, that we can sell in the business, rather than a simple cash crop, or hay?’ ” explained Sean Davis, whose family owns the farm off of Mountainview Road. “We were interested in producing our own products.”

The sunflower oil is a recent initiative to expand the business, while they have been making sunflower honey for the past 10 years. They originally started with 28 acres of sunflowers, but now have grown to 65, and even have other farmers growing sunflowers.

Mr. Davis said they have 21 hives consisting of 1.2 million bees. “We know the specific sunflower honey is when they’re blooming.”

He described to the Citizen how the summer of 2017 was very tough for them, because of all the rain, and it was “almost too late” to make up for it when the unusually hot weather persisted in September. On average they get 2,000 pounds of seeds per acre, but last year only got 600 pounds per acre, less than half, but fortunately, a local farmer did well and helped them out.

Mr. Davis added that all the rain caused mildew to form on the sunflower, leaving the tops rotted. “When it was bloom time, they’re beautiful, they’re gorgeous, they looked great, but really what was happening behind the scenes is the seed wasn’t being produced. So come fall when it was harvest time, the seeds were there, but they were hollow.”

Overall, he said they got less than half the honey they usually get, and less oil content to use. “All in all the rain really hit us hard.”

Despite this, Mr. Davis said last year was their first difficult one, “so we’re still pretty content with doing it again.”

He said during the couple weeks from the end of July to early August, their place becomes a bit of a tourist attraction, as many people stop by to take in the scenery of the sunflowers blooming, and grab some photos.

Mr. Davis added that despite this polarizing winter, they didn’t loose any bees, as their bee keeper has maintained them very well. “You treat your bees right, and they’ll treat you right.”