The Perfect Sunflower To Take Home

As summer slowly comes to an end, I wanted to take a trip to Heap’s Giant Pumpkin Farm located in Minooka, IL for the last weekend of the sunflower harvest.

I remember seeing several of their images on Facebook and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the scenery would be while being surrounded by hundreds of sunflowers.

So, this past Saturday I made sure to get my camera ready for a unique experience.

Located 60 minutes outside of Chicago, the ride went by pretty quickly. Before our arrival we made sure to purchase our tickets online for a quick and easy entry.

Once we arrived, we pulled into the parking lot and got ready for some fun on such a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The first thing I noticed when walking up to the entrance was the big pumpkin with their name on it right outside the fence that was picture worthy.

Once we walked in further, we explored the other attractions before heading to the main event.

As you make your way toward the back fence you can see hundreds of sunflowers going into the distance.

The coolest part about this experience is with your ticket purchase comes a free sunflower for you to keep. If you’re interested in additional flowers, you have the option to purchase several at additional pricing.

From there, they hand you a pair of pliers and allow you to cut them down yourself. During this time, you can walk around the field and take a closer look at all the different flowers they grow while taking pictures, which I did.

Once you’ve picked the ones you love, you walk back toward the entrance and they bag up your flower with water.

Since the day was still young, we decided to challenge ourselves and go through the corn maze. You have to find 10 checkpoints through this detailed map and check in at each one. If you find all 10, you are entered into a raffle to win your very own giant pumpkin.

I can proudly or happily say that we found all 10 check points and are now crossing our fingers for that prize!

Although the sunflower harvest has ended for the season, you can come visit them as they reopen this Saturday, September 12^th 2020 for the fall pumpkin season. 

Once we left the farm with a nice tan, we went up the road to Morris, IL to check out The Greenhorn Saloon & Eatery Restaurant.

We could smell something good cooking in the air as we walked up. They were open for outdoor and indoor seating.

As we scanned through the menu, we decided on their salmon dinner. Our server let us know that the salmon would be covered in a mango salsa glaze and I was instantly sold.

When our food came, the salmon was cooked to perfection! I took a bite and, boy, the flavors exploded in my mouth.

With such a healthy and balanced meal, I was nice and full and ready to head back home to the city.

This was such a quick, easy and affordable trip that was well worth it. You, too, can plan a similar trip for yourself and enjoy a fun day down the Heritage Corridor.