„We are not a standard homestead where weddings or birthdays are celebrated. This is a place where you feel like you are at a grandma’s in the countryside. We grow about 120 varieties of sunflowers, which cover about 30 ares,“ described the family-run space its hostess Elžbieta Karaliūtė.
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Here not only pilgrims rest, vacationers seeking unique experiences stay, outsiders wishing to buy ceramics or other goods made by the local community drop by, but also excursions, photoshoots, and delicious (and very hearty) educational activities take place. And how many adventures happen at this homestead, how many stories are told!
The dreams of three people came true
In Valdeikiai, near the Šiauliai–Panevėžys road, right next to the Burbiškis manor, the hostess of the operating “Clay Sunflower” homestead, Elžbieta, explained that the homestead is named so because there is a 40-meter-long clay barn built from local clay. And the first collection started was clay jugs and pots.
„We settled here six years ago. Now we live not as a family, but as a community.
Maybe about 15 years ago I visited Ukraine as a tourist. I saw a sunflower field, blue sky – I fell in love. I came back and said: I want a sunflower field. Local farmers shook their heads: don’t be silly, better cabbage, beets, potatoes, carrots, rapeseed. But I kept carrying that thought.
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Our homestead was born from three dreams. Dad’s dream was to live in the countryside because he was tired of Šeduva, where dogs bark, neighbors quarrel, someone mows the grass in the middle of the night. Mom’s dream was to have her own little shop because she is a ceramicist, folk artist, and my brother is a professional ceramicist. There stands a ram made by him. And my dream was a sunflower field. We immediately fulfilled everyone’s dreams,“ smiled Elžbieta.
Six years ago, on May 1, after acquiring the homestead, the family sowed Elžbieta’s dreamed sunflowers on May 3.
From intimate photoshoots to the “first night” bed
As Elžbieta recalls, in autumn deer ran into the first sprouted sunflower field, breaking the paths because they only run forward and cannot jump backward. Then came the saving idea: people would be allowed to walk among the sunflowers. This is how photoshoot enthusiasts started coming to the homestead.
„We had all kinds of photoshoots. For example, a woman photographed in Ieva’s costume, covered with two sunflowers. Dad was changing the roof at that time and said, why didn’t I think of that then. I said, good thing you didn’t, you would have fallen,“ Elžbieta laughed, assuring that guests cannot always find the sunflowers. „Usually, people from Vilnius get out, look, and ask where the sunflowers are: ‘Are they not blooming?’ They are not blooming, which means I sow every year and plow every year.“
