Capay Valley Sunflowers
— the week the valley turns to face the sun.
Not only on a wall.
“Late June into mid-July, the floor of Capay Valley turns to bright yellow plate. The bloom isn't planted for tourists. These are hybrid seed fields, and Yolo County ships them to Russia, Argentina, half the world. The flowers all face east in the morning, west by afternoon, an old habit they keep until the heads grow heavy and stop. Highway 16 runs the length of the valley between Blue Ridge and the Capay Hills, and the fields belong to the families who plant them. Best to drive slowly, pull off at the shoulder, and take the picture from the fence line.
Capay Valley Sunflowers, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Capay Valley stretches northwest from Esparto along California State Route 16, hemmed in by Blue Ridge on the west and the Capay Hills on the east. Cache Creek threads the floor of the valley, sustaining about 4,000 residents across the unincorporated communities of Esparto, Capay, Brooks, Guinda, and Rumsey. The valley is the traditional homeland of the Patwin people, today the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, whose Cache Creek Casino Resort sits at Brooks. Most of the valley floor is farmed: orchards of almonds and olives, vineyards under the federally recognised Capay Valley AVA, organic produce moved weekly by farm-to-doorstep operations like Farm Fresh to You, and the hybrid sunflower fields the valley is increasingly known for in summer.
Sunflowers in Capay Valley are planted in early April and bloom from mid-June through mid-July, with peak colour usually in the first two weeks of July. Yolo County grows around 75 percent of California's roughly 43,000 acres of sunflowers, and most of what blooms in Capay is hybrid seed stock destined for farms in Russia, Argentina, and dozens of other countries. Growers stagger plantings or separate fields by at least a mile and a quarter to prevent unwanted cross-pollination, so the bloom doesn't all happen at once. Bees do the actual work. The window is short: by August the heads are tilted down, the fields are bronze rather than yellow, and harvest begins.
The sunflowers in Capay Valley are working farmland, not a destination garden. Every field is private property, and the standing rule across Yolo County is the same: view from the road only, never enter the rows. The reason is practical as well as legal. Wandering among the plants disturbs the bees that pollinate the crop, damages the heads the grower is paid for, and risks heatstroke in midsummer temperatures that often clear 100°F. The clearest viewing is a slow drive along California State Route 16 between Esparto and Guinda, with safe shoulder pull-offs and a long lens. The Yolo County Visitors Bureau publishes a yearly sunflower trail map once the bloom begins.