1hr drive west from Brisbane
Tickets to the 2023 event are now SOLD OUT - wonderful news for Kalbar Sunflowers!
For more information go to https://kalbarsunflowers.com.au/
About this festival - please read, especially if you love pulling over at flower farms to take photos
A festival of flowers, fine food and photography held amid acres of sunflowers at Kalbar.
The inaugural Kalbar Sunshine and Sunflower Day will be headlined by high-profile chefs, and lures thousands of guests and host food vans and cooking classes.
Though a celebration of beauty and abundance, the idea for the inaugural festival was born out of tough times.
It’s seeds were sown when Russell and Jenny Jenner saw Darling Downs farmers “getting cranky” about selfie-crazed tourists traipsing uninvited through sunflower crops.
But where others saw a problem, the Kalbar couple saw an opportunity.
Because it is not a great time for growers in the Fassifern. And when farmers do it tough, so do farming towns.
Production on the Jenners’ Scenic Rim Lucerne farm has halved.
Like many in South East Queensland, they had missed out on heavy rains that soaked other parts of the East Coast earlier in the year.
Lake Moogerah, which irrigates the Fassifern Valley and the Warrill Valley, was at 13.6% capacity and dropping.
Irrigators were allowed 30 percent of their allocated water.
“That will be running out soon,” Mrs Jenner said.
“There won’t be any allocation next year, unless we get some good rain.
“And it doesn’t look like we’re going to be getting that now.”
The Jenners continued to cultivate about half their 200 acres with lucerne, using water from a few bores they have on their land.
They thought about growing mung beans, but the promise of La Niña failed them. They were running out of both water and ideas.
Until old Russell went and did something a bit romantic.
“It all started when I bought Jenny three sunflowers from Woolies,” he said.
“We thought, hang on, why don’t we grow these?” she continued.
“We thought?” he laughed.
Regardless of who came up with it, both did their research and realised the idea was sound.
Sunflowers are drought-hardy crops. The flowers can be sold as ornamentals, the kernels harvested as edibles and the plants ploughed back into the soil, pumping in potassium and other nutrients.
In November they began experimenting with different varieties of sunflowers, including lilacs, mauves, oranges, red velvets and even ‘teddy bears’, which have no kernels.
Then, earlier this year, they were ready to commit about 15 acres to their new crop.
You could call it a pivot, but that is something of a sore point.
The Jenners’ pivot irrigator is sitting idle above the young plants, as they don’t have enough water to run it.
After planting the sunflowers, the couple saw what a stir they were causing on the other side of the Great Divide.
They saw the success that Kalbar’s hay sculptures were having in building community spirit and drawing visitors. They’d seen an uptick in domestic tourism since Covid-19 closed borders.
And they wanted to build on that.
“We thought, why don’t we have an open day?” Mrs Jenner said.
“We put the proposal to Kalbar Progress Association, and they ran with it.”
Plans for the day are still being finalised, but the idea is to kick things off with a sunrise in the sunflowers event.
Activities will run throughout the day, which will cap off with sundowners in the sunflowers. Here Richard Ousby will serve a three course meal of locally sourced produce.
If all goes well, it could be the first blossom of a new tradition.
“We’ll gauge how well it goes,” Mr Jenner said.
“And if everyone is keen, we might even make it an annual event.”
Success, though, may hinge on the sunflowers themselves. Currently, the fast growing crop is only a few inches high.
“We should have the flowers in flower by then,” Mr Jenner said.
“But there is a lot of pressure!”
Although, with a stunning view of the mountains of the Scenic Rim, there is always something to take a selfie of on the Jenner farm.