Sunflower Seeds

I've written previously about the similarities between Ukraine and Kanas on my travel blog and the longer I'm here the similarities are more and more evident.  Kansas is the Sunflower State and one of major agricultural products grown in Ukraine.  These trinkets we came upon at one of the markets could easily be found on the shelves of the Kansas Sampler.  

Ukraine is also the second largest producer of sunflower seeds, behind Russia, even though Russia is over 28 times larger than Ukraine.  The larger grocery stores here have rows and rows of sunflower seeds and it's clear that they are a staple while in America they are usually the realm of children and professional baseball players.