It’s one of nature’s little-known cool facts that sunflowers, just like humans, have circadian clocks.
They start the morning facing east and swing west as they track the sun. In the evening, they swing back to prepare for the next sunrise. Even when moved indoors without natural light, they insanely swing back and forth for days following the beat of their internal drum, according to researchers at UC Davis.
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And around Davis every summer, the fields bloom with millions of these sunflowers, all turning their heads in unison like some great petaled army. Their numbers are matched by the throngs who flock to Yolo County to admire the flowers, which are largely grown for seed-oil production. And when sunflowers aren’t in bloom, there are still plenty of flowers — fragrant lavender in the summer and drifting almond blossoms in late winter.
If one were to take a day trip to Yolo for a flower experience to delight all the senses – including touch and taste – where might they begin?
The day might start with a visit to Park Winters, a historic bed and breakfast on a luxurious country estate near the town of Winters. The inn offers a variety of day activities, including cutting your own bouquets ($35) from a field of sunflowers, daisies and cardoons – not the goombah insult you’d imagine, but an artichoke cousin with troll doll-hair thistles.
On this particular June day, the flower field is buzzing with songbirds and honeybees and tourists dressed in sundresses, setting up tripods for the all-powerful ‘Gram. After you pick a bouquet you can visit the drying barn – an amazingly scented place with a ceiling of hanging flowers – and its tea cottage, built from doors and headboards and looking like something from Alice in Wonderland.
Given all this flower-picking is extremely energy-consuming, head next to the Flower Farm Pavilion, an open-air cafe with tasty bites such as a Capay Cubano ($24) with dill pickles, eggs Benedict ($24) with house-smoked salmon and farm eggs, and a champagne sorbet ($8) with K&J Orchards peaches.
Flowers hang from the ceiling of the drying barn at the Park Winters inn in Winters, Calif. The inn allows visitors to come and pick their own bouquets from a flower field. (John Metcalfe/Bay Area News Group)
Then it might be time to visit the Séka Hills Olive Mill and Tasting Room for a free sampling of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and flower-scented honey. The drive passes through the scenic Capay Valley on the Almond Blossom Trail, and is dotted with charming towns, tractors chugging down main street, wine-tasting rooms, fruit stands and yes, fields of blossoms including a sunflower explosion happening right now just past Capay. (Note to visitors: Stay out of the fields, they’re private.)
Séka Hills sits on the land of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
