A safer sunflower selfie: local business opens sunflower expo for photo-takers

Snapping sunflower selfies legally in Manitoba Mike Arsenault finds out how one Manitoba business is giving people the chance to take selfies in sunflower fields - without trespassing

Local business A Maze in Corn has opened a new sunflower expo, after farmers complained about hundreds of people trespassing in their sunflower fields last year.

"When we heard about all the farmers getting their yards ravished or their fields ravished by people looking at sunflowers, it kind of gave us a small idea," said Clint Masse, owner of A Maze in Corn.

Masse said he came up with the idea after hearing of people trespassing on private property to get pictures up close with sunflowers last season.

The expo gives people the opportunity to take picture with the flowers, without having to trespass and possibly damage a farmer’s crop.

"It's a really great opportunity to take some pictures with the little ones, you don't often get to go into a big sunflower field and see them up close," said Kimberley Bales, who was visiting the expo with her kids Monday.

Bales said she’s happy to have the opportunity to see a field of sunflowers without causing a disturbance.

“I hope it alleviates the farmers’ fields getting destroyed,” she said.

Local farmer Bruce Stewart had his crops damaged last season, due to people trespassing.

“We had 10 cars per hour,” Stewart recalls. He said people were taking sunflowers and leaving garbage behind in his field.

Stewart said this season there have been fewer people sneaking onto his field. He thinks it’s due to a change in the crop’s location and less rainfall, which has caused the sunflowers to be shorter.

But Stewart said the sunflower expo may have also helped divert people from trespassing.