Our Practices

We specialize in growing sunflowers in the northeast and wanted to take a minute to show you our process from start to finish.

• Seed Sourcing | We care about a quality product and work hard to find the best high oleic, non-GMO, untreated seed for our northeastern climate. If you start with clean seed you end up with a clean product and we want nothing but the best for our customers and our own family.

• Germination and Sprouting | We fertilize with manure, prep 6' wide beds and seed with a two row seeder. The sunflowers take about 7-10 days to germinate and "pop" out of the ground.

• Early weed control | On Sunfox Farm we don't use chemical pesticides or fertilizers, because of that we need to do some extra work to control weeds in our fields. Within the first few weeks of growth weed control is critical. We use a variety of cultivators to get the job done. Pictured here is a finger weeder that not only destroys the root systems of weeds between rows but also uses "fingers" to take care of those pesky weeds between the sunflowers within the row. The sunflowers are strong enough to withstand the fingers while the freshly germinated weeds don't stand a chance.

• Speedy Growth | Sunflowers grow pretty quickly and develop broad leaves that then shade out the ground underneath preventing further weed germination. At that point its time to sit back and watch them grow! We water if necessary but other than that the flowers are doing their thing eating up all the nutrients we provided them in the beginning of the season.

• The Bloom | At around 70 days the flowers bud out and begin to bloom! Such an exciting time seeing your hard work turn into something so beautiful and we love to share it with everyone at our annual sunflower festival. The bloom only lasts for about ten days so pay close attention to our updates so you don't miss out on this unique experience.

• The Bow | At the end of the bloom the flowers take a final bow to the morning sun and begin to set seeds and dry out. It takes about a month from this point for the heads to dry enough to harvest.

• Checking For Moisture Content | At this point we are checking moisture content of the seeds in the field daily. We are looking for 20% moisture in order to effectively harvest.

• Harvest Time | It's finally time to hit the field hard and fast. It's important to move fast because you are racing the frost, birds and storms. At this point the stalks are weak and a fall wind or heavy rain storm can knock the seed heads right to the ground.

• Forced Air Silo | We then transfer the seeds into a forced air silo that drys them down further by forcing dry outside air through the perforated floor and through the seeds to pull moisture out. When we hit 8% moisture content we are ready to clean the seed.

• Seed Cleaning | The seeds are put through a machine that separates out the larger plant material and the smaller chaff and weed seeds that may have been harvested along with the sunflower seeds.

• Pressing | Then it is onto the pressing process. The seeds are put through a screw press that squeezes the oil out without using harsh chemicals or ethanol to extract. We believe that cold pressing is the safest and highest quality form of extraction for oilseeds.

• Seed Meal | A byproduct of the pressing process is sunflower seed meal, a quality feed high in protein. We sell this to local farmers with animals looking for something locally and ethically produced to feed their livestock.

• Filtering and Bottling | The last step is to force the raw oil through a plate filter and then hand bottle. We then have our finished product ready for your table!

Quality Craftsmanship | We believe that mushrooms are an extremely important food source packed full of nutrients that are crucial for our health and wellbeing. We launched our mushroom program in the fall of 2019 by inoculating hardwood oak logs with shiitake and lions mane mushroom spawn. Those logs will produce for about 5 years and we are excited to continue to grow this part of the operation both in size and variety.

Made in New Hampshire | High oleic unrefined sunflower oil. We would like to take the time to explain the benefits of our oil and answer some questions you may have. What does high oleic mean? Why unrefined?

What does high oleic even mean? Here at Sunfox Farm we care about producing healthy products. With sunflower oil we look at the polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat content also known as linoleic acid and oleic acid. Historically sunflower oil has had a low oleic acid ( monounsaturated fat ) content of around 20% but through selective breeding we have been able to bring that number up to a high oleic standard of 80% oleic acid. That means that our oil is a heart healthy option to add to your diet! High oleic oils have been shown to lower bad cholesterol without lowering good cholesterol, this decreases the risk for heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Why cold pressed? We don't believe in the use of chemicals in the production or processing of our products. Your conventional oil extractor will use harsh chemicals and heat to extract the oil from the seeds which not only exposes the product to solvents but also strips it of healthy nutrients. We use a process called cold pressing which utilizes pressure to squeeze all of the oil out. We believe this is the safest and most responsible form of extraction and produces the best quality oil that is packed full of nutrients.

Whats so good about unrefined oil? The refining process that your average sunflower oil goes through is full of high heat treatments and chemical filtration. These processes strip the oil of pretty much everything leaving you with a bland oil lacking essential nutrients that make sunflower oil so great. The steps for refining include things like chemical neutralization and bleaching... We stay far away from things like that in order to provide you with the best quality, most organic and healthy product as possible. We filter the oil by forcing it through plate filters which removes the solids and leaves you with a brilliant gold oil that you can trust.