This summer I have been crazyyy busy, which means I haven’t gone on as many adventures as I had originally planned to.

However, the few places I have been to were not planned. They were more like a spur-of-the-moment adventure! And that includes my trip to Bailiwick Market & Cafe in Elbridge, NY.

Last week, I had made a post on my Instagram (@underthesun.blog) about sunflower fields you can visit in Upstate New York during August, and I had tagged two places I had been before, Wagner Farms and Wickham Farms, and I included a couple other spots that I found by searching on Instagram. One of them being Bailiwick Market & Cafe! I had never heard of them before, but they had great pictures!

Later that weekend, I saw two people I follow post pictures at Bailiwick, which made me really want to go since I had only heard of it recently! I honestly didn’t think I’d have time to make it to a sunflower field this summer, but since a meeting I normally had every Monday was scheduled for Tuesday this week, I had some free time and decided to head over!

So my friend Renee, her sister Angelina and I set out on our last minute adventure to Elbridge! The drive out there was BEAUTIFUL! We took Renee’s convertible, Sally the Sebring, and drove top down music up. Naturally, we listened to country music there and back, which made us feel so content with everything (forgetting about COVID for a few minutes) and just living in the moment.

As we approached Bailiwick’s, we saw a sunflower field on the right hand side of the road, just before the parking lot of the cafe. We assumed this was the field we would be walking through.

Renee, Angelina and I headed inside to find more information on the sunflower field since there hadn’t been any signs indicating what to do or where to go. Inside, we still couldn’t find anything, so we looked online and realized that the sunflower event had only been over the weekend!

We were disappointed, and thought about heading back home, but decided to ask if we could still stroll through the field. The owner was kind enough to let us! We really appreciated this, especially because I don’t think I would’ve been able to make it back before heading back to school!

As I mentioned before, we assumed the sunflower field was adjacent to the parking lot, but we were wrong! We had to walk up the hill on the opposite side of the building, and the sunflower field was up there! I don’t even think you can see it from the road. Because of this, and the fact that I heard of this place for the first time last week, I 100% consider Bailiwick’s a hidden gem!

Since the sunflower field wasn’t technically open, we had the field to ourselves! We didn’t have to worry about masks since we weren’t in proximity of anyone, but I imagine if we came over the weekend there still would have been plenty of opportunity to social distance because their sunflower field was HUGE!

After we took our sweet time wandering through the sunflowers, we headed back inside Bailiwick’s for lunch! They have a super cute market and cafe (cough cough – its in the name) and they have a huge menu! To be honest, we were overwhelmed with the menu, especially because we didn’t know what we were in the mood for.

I ended up ordering their Seymour Loft Spinach Salad, which had apples, candied walnuts, crumbled bacon, dried cranberries, New York cheddar and a maple vinaigrette. It was sooo yummy and it tasted like fall! I totally recommend trying this.

They also make homemade ice cream (which we were too full to try) but they had so many different flavors so I definitely want to go back to try it!

All in all, we had a great time and I definitely recommend making a trip here! On their Facebook and website, they only had this past weekend (July 31st – August 2nd) plus the weekend before advertised as the sunflower field being open, but I have a feeling this event will be open for a few more weekends! I would suggest keeping an eye out on their website and Facebook for more updated information.

Here are the coordinates for Bailiwick Market and Cafe : 43.030, -76.472

What’s your favorite sunflower field in New York? Let me know in the comments below!