Spend Time on a Farm without Leaving the City Limits
The Queens Farm Museum offers junior gardener programs.
The largest and longest continuously operated farm within the city limits since 1697 does more than grow food, it also focuses on education. There are field trips, junior gardener programs and Girl Scout troop visits to this pastoral stretch of Little Neck Parkway at the eastern edge of Queens, out where the cattails grow taller than people.
This bucolic bit of enchantment also includes a Monarch butterfly way station, an apiary producing some of New York City’s finest honey, and an assortment of goats, alpacas, sheep and chickens. Its goal is to highlight biodiversity, climate change, and health and wellness. The farm is owned by New York’s Parks Department and, in a unique merger of art and nature, works with support from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Council, the New York State Department of Agriculture and the New York State Council on the Arts.
The Queens Farm Summer Camp runs from July through August 8th with one-week sessions, but campers can register for additional weeks. The day programs run from 9 am to 3 pm for kids 6 to 13 years old. Campers get hands-on experience planting and harvesting, drying herbs, learning about weaving and quilting, pickling vegetables and even churning butter. Nature walks, building terrariums, making art, scavenger hunts and getting up close and personal with earthworms are all part of the fun. The cost is $475 per week, with discounts for siblings and for signing up for multiple weeks. There are also sessions during winter break (February 17-21, 2025 9 am-3 pm) and spring break (April 14-18, 2025 9 am-3 pm) for kids 7-12 years old at $450 per session or $400 each for siblings.
From June 17th through August 30th, summer field trips welcome student groups for farmyard adventures geared towards pre-K to 5th grade or 6th through 12th grades. Younger visitors get a tour of the farm focusing on history and sustainability, a hay ride and hay to feed the kids (the baby goats, that is). Preteens and teens learn agricultural techniques that preserve biodiversity, visit livestock and tour the colonial farmhouse. The half-day summer programs require a minimum of 20 participants (students and chaperones), and cost $9 - $15 per person. Check the website for updates or changes, or to register.
Queens County Farm Museum
73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Queens, NY 11004
718-347-3276
education@queensfarm.org