About 10km from the Parliamentary Triangle where the Van Gogh Alive exhibition is wowing locals and visitors, a real field of sunflowers sways in the afternoon sunshine on a farm in the Majura Valley.
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It's part of the special trail of farms that still operate along Majura Road, working to keep Canberrans connected to a rural past, even as planes fly overhead from the airport across the road and the blue shed of IKEA looms in the distance.
At the property where Majura Valley Free Range Eggs operates, it still feels a world away from urban Canberra.
Anne McGrath, her son Freddie McGrath Weber and Freddie's girlfriend Zoe McMahon are constantly working on ideas to engage people with farm life.
At the moment, you can cut your own sunflowers and corn, for a small cost ($2) per bloom or ear.
Ann and her daughter Josephine have also planted a sunflower maze for anyone to stop and visit, ready-made for Instagram (just don't cut the sunflowers in the maze, people. Just the ones signposted to pick).
There is also the new farmgate shop, selling everything from eggs to vegetables. And there are plans for a new sheep dairy to add milk and cheese to the shelves. Zoe is also a beekeeper and wants to add local honey, as well as jams, to the shop.
"It's just displaying our property so people can see Canberra does not have to be all built out and agriculture can be done," Ann said.
Freddie agrees.
"We're blessed to be so close to the city and be the oldest working farm in the ACT," he said.
"With almost 200 years of farming history, it's really bringing people out on to the farm and getting that experience. And enabling people to get outdoors, which is really important with everything that's been happening around the world."
Zoe is responsible for the market garden on the farm, which she says is a hidden gem in the national capital.
The eggs have long been sold at the farm gate; the flowers and corn are also ready to pick.
"Sunflowers, corn and eggs are three things that are tangible. You can see the chickens, you can see the sunflowers, you can cut the corn. That satisfying crunch of picking corn is pretty great," Zoe said, with a laugh. "For a young child - or anyone - to be able to come do that and understand, 'Oh this is where what's on my dinner plate comes from'. Just being able to see the difference between Woolworths and picking your own is great."
The rain has helped the produce and the flowers.
"The sunflowers and the corn have been loving it. It's free irrigation and it's been really soaking in," Zoe said.
The sunflowers maze is new but the family has been allowing people to come and cut their own flowers for a while.
Ann remembers the sunflowers being a hit one Valentine's Day night a few years ago. "There was this bloke there during the night and he said, 'You just saved my marriage'," she said, with a laugh. "He'd come down at nine o'clock at night to get some flowers."
Leaseholders in the Majura Valley, meanwhile, have been pleading for years with the ACT government to have their leases renewed. They are hopeful of a resolution soon.
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