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Rose picking Victoria Blue salvias.

The third session of the children’s summer program “Farm Days with Rose” will be held today, July 31, at Andrews Family Farm on Sound Avenue in Wading River.

Participants will get a chance to cut field flowers and make their own flower bouquet, as well as tour the farm and feed goats and chickens.

They’ll also get a chance to taste the first harvest of honey.

Sunday’s event, hosted by 19-year-old Rose Andrews, is designed to educate people about farming.

“I want to continue working on the farm and having the kids see it, touch it and experience it themselves — like I did,” she said.

While attending college at the University of Connecticut earlier this year, Rose said she decided to study farm and agriculture instead of nutrition science after volunteering for the Long Island Farm Bureau at elementary schools in Huntington where she talked to students about growing flowers, fruits and vegetables.

“It was obvious that the children I was with in the schools wanted to learn where their food comes from — that’s when the lightbulb went off in my head and I changed my major,” Rose said.

Her first “Farm Days with Rose” session took place in May and featured planting pots in the greenhouse. In June, Rose taught participants how to grow their own strawberries and vegetables.

Rose said her earliest memory of working on her family’s farm her mother, Denise, waking her up at 4:45 a.m. when she was about 8 and old enough to use scissors.

“We would get out by 5 a.m. cutting flowers in the field before sun rise,” she said. “I actually remember thinking no other kid my age was doing this stuff. I want the kids to see the farm like I did when I was younger.”

Rose works on the family farm with her siblings Bobby, Justin and Will. Their grandparents, Bob and Marie, both 81, started the farm in 1986 after farming in Plainview and Melville.

Rose’s mother and father, Bob Jr., started growing field flowers thirty years ago.

“It seems to have caught on,” Denise said. “Back then, when we started in the field and the five greenhouses, we were one of the first farms to grow zinnias, snapdragons, sunflowers and mixed bouquets. We pretty much do it now for our farmstand and wholesale markets … It is a beautiful time of the year out in the fields.”

“Farm Days with Rose” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon. rain or shine (participants will meet in the greenhouse if it rains).

The cost is $10 per child ages 5-12. To reserve a spot, email Rose at [email protected].

Scroll down for more photos.

Rose picking the Victoria Blue salvias.
Rose picking Victoria Blue salvias.
Farm worker Maria Trinidad makes mixed bouquets with Rose.
Farm worker Maria Trinidad makes mixed flower bouquets with Rose.
Rose picking snapdragons.
Rose picking snapdragons.
Rose and her mother, Denise, gather freshly cut field flowers.
Rose and her mother, Denise, gather freshly cut field flowers.
Sunflowers picked for wholesale buyers.
Sunflowers picked for wholesale buyers.
Farm Days with Rose in June. (Credit: Andrews Family Farm courtesy)
‘Farm Days with Rose’ in June. (Credit: Andrews Family Farm courtesy)
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