Six acres of sunflowers are back in bloom at Waldoch Farm in Lino Lakes, where the century-old family operation has reopened its Sunflower Festival for a monthlong run through September 13. Tickets include a hayride and the chance for guests to cut a sunflower to take home, with the fields open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The festival, located at 8174 Lake Drive, features roughly 150,000 sunflower seeds planted across the property this year, according to FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul. That works out to about six full acres of blooms, or roughly six football fields worth of sunflowers, a scale Waldoch Farm says it achieved by staggering plantings so blooms keep coming from late July through mid-September rather than peaking all at once.
The fields themselves aren't limited to a single sunflower variety. Per the farm's own event details, dozens of varieties are on display, ranging from dwarf sunflowers to multi-colored types and towering giants, alongside U-pick specialty flowers like dahlias, cosmos and zinnias. Guests can snip a single stem included with admission or buy a custom mason jar or metal bucket to fill with a larger bouquet.
A Family Farm's Long Pivot Toward Agritourism
Waldoch Farm traces back to 1916, when William and Anna Waldoch founded it, and the property still holds official Minnesota Century Farm status for more than 100 years of continuous family ownership, according to Country Culture. For decades the farm sold produce wholesale and at St. Paul farmers markets before fourth-generation farmers Andrew and Doug Joyer steered the business toward experience-based agritourism, planting the farm's first corn maze in 2011 and launching the Sunflower Festival itself in 2019, per the farm's own account of its history.
That shift matters beyond one family's bottom line. The fourth generation is the first in Waldoch's history to draw its sole income entirely from farm operations, the farm notes, a reflection of a broader trend across the state. University of Minnesota Extension data show that 3,862 of Minnesota's 68,822 farms now offer direct-to-consumer sales or agritourism activities to diversify revenue beyond traditional commodity farming, according to the extension office's own research.
Hyper-Local Draw, With a Kids' Play Area Included
Waldoch Farm functions as a strictly regional attraction. About 95% of its sales come from direct retail customers, and nearly all visitors travel from within a 45-minute drive of the Twin Cities metro, Country Culture reported. The farm's retail garden center and seasonal attractions stay open from April through Halloween, giving the same local customer base multiple reasons to return across the year.
Beyond the flower fields, festival admission also includes access to the Joyer Adventure play area, which features wooden playsets, a low-ropes course and a slide, according to the same FOX 9 report. The farm's mix of hands-on floral picking, hayrides and playground attractions is designed to give families a full afternoon outing rather than a quick photo stop.
What Comes After the Sunflowers Fade
The Sunflower Festival isn't a standalone event on the calendar. Once it wraps on September 13, Waldoch Farm will transition its grounds by September 20 into its Fall Fun season, which brings a Sesame Street-themed corn maze and pumpkin patch, the farm says. Seasonal festivals like these serve as a continuous regional draw through Halloween, keeping the same fields in near-constant public use for roughly six months.
The local festival also lands amid a notable rebound in the broader sunflower industry. USDA data released in January 2026 showed total U.S. sunflower production surged 103% in 2025 to 2.32 billion pounds across 1.25 million harvested acres, a recovery from record-low national levels in 2024, according to Farm Progress. Minnesota itself harvested 181.4 million pounds of sunflowers across 83,100 acres in 2025, keeping the state among the nation's top three producers alongside North Dakota and South Dakota, per USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service figures.
Public events like Waldoch's also operate under a specific legal framework. Minnesota Statutes § 604A.24, known as the Agritourism Liability Act, gives farm operators hosting public events limited civil liability protection for inherent agricultural risks, provided proper warning notices are posted on site, according to Rice County government records. That statute is part of what allows family farms like Waldoch to safely welcome large crowds onto working agricultural land throughout the season.
