Washington County, WI – They grow ’em huge in Kewaskum, WI. It’s that time of year when sunflowers are in full glory. Time for Washington County to show off your sunflowers during the WashingtonCountyInsider.com 7th annual Sunflower Challenge.Â
Wayne and Carol Madore of Kewaskum, WI, submitted these photos of some mighty big sunflower heads. Harvesting the flowers is an annual event.
“Today we did our [sunflower] harvest,” said Carol Madore, “The tallest one was just shy of 13 feet. As you can see by our hands in front of the heads we cut off they’re probably about 10-12 inches or more across.
“Right now they’re hanging in our garage upside down with burlap around the heads separately drying for 6 weeks. We tied burlap around them so as they dry. The burlap will catch the seeds as they fall. Once they’re dry we’ll extract the seeds from the heads that didn’t come out on their own.
“We have quite a few people that want seeds and will gladly share. We will plant some again in spring for our second season and whatever seeds we have left we’ll feed the birds; we might attempt roasting some seeds as well.  It was something we thought we’d try this year and see what would happen and it was very simple to do – just plant and watch them grow! It was fun.”
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In case you missed them, Robin Sacia of West Bend, WI, submitted these beauties which she tells us are up to 10-12 feet tall.