As we drove from Goreme to the Ihlara valley one of the repeating scenes on the roadside were the farms.  Mostly they seemed to be gourds of various sorts growing in the fields, but there were also many, many patches of sunflowers interspersed.  They weren’t particularly large, and I’m not sure if they were there for commercial or other reasons, but they were quite amazing to see.

At one point I decided that taking some pictures of them was a good idea.  Well, I decided that as soon as I saw one, but finding one where I could pull off the road easily was a bit harder.  We finally found one here (worthless link unless you want to see the GPS coordinates) and I managed to pull off the road and into a driveway pretty easily.  I wandered the 50 yards or so into the field and started snapping away.

As luck would have it, I managed to pick a field where there were actually a few guys out working and tending to the gourds.  One of them spoke English and we had a great conversation.  He gave me a sunflower to take home with me and we exchanged email addresses, too.  All in all a very nice experience.  Plus, I got some great photos out of the deal.

More of the pictures can be found here.