SANBORN, N.Y. (WBEN) - Thursday kicked off the annual Sunflowers of Sanborn on Saunders Settlement Road.
"It's just a fun event to come out," Louise Brachmann, the owner of Sunflowers of Sanborn, said. "You can take a walk around our beautiful 'U-Pick' section. You can cut your flowers and take them home. We actually put it in a bag of water for you so it lasts for a week, week-and-a-half."
Brachmann said their sunflower field closest to Saunders Settlement Road is about two weeks away from reaching full bloom due to the lack of rain recently. Their picking field inside the property has already blossomed and visitors have already started picking sunflowers.
In the past, visitors were captivated by the front sunflower field, but she worried about their safety due to its proximity to the road.
"It was for me personally," she said. "The amount of people that stopped. The field was just so beautiful and yellow. You'd come over the hill and say 'wow'. It's breathtaking."
A short time later, a woman asked Brachmann if she could put her young daughter in the sunflower field for a photo for her first birthday. Brachmann obliged and the field blossomed from there (no pun intended). She estimated that anywhere from 500 to 600 people show up daily during the week while upwards of 5,000 can show up on any given weekend.
Brachmann encourages people to take photos for their own personal use but she asks professional photographers to acquire a permit to shoot on her property.
Admission is free for all ages. Pets are also allowed on the property, though she said she wants pet owners to clean up after their pets. Flowers can be cut and taken home for $1 per flower.
The Sunflowers of Sanborn is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The vendors open at 11 a.m.