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Growing up in Belle Isle means growing up on the water. The Conway chain runs right through the middle of town, and children here tend to learn boat etiquette before they learn to ride a bike. Warren Park, on the lake, has been drawing families since it became one of the very first parks Orange County ever opened. There is a rhythm to a Belle Isle weekend, and most of it happens on or beside a lake.
Which is lovely, and also means something gets missed. A child can be entirely at home on the water and still have never held a chicken, never had a donkey lean into their hand, never watched a cow chew and understood that the animal was thinking about something. Those are different pleasures altogether, and they are slower ones. They need a fence, a bag of feed and an unhurried hour.
That is what we offer, about thirty minutes south of Belle Isle. Cattle out in the pasture, alpacas and goats along the rail, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride that heads out through the trees, and a playground for when the fence loses its appeal. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 and over, under-2s free, and one ticket covers all of it. Come at ten and you are back home in time for the afternoon on the lake.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened this farm in 1988 on a shaded piece of Kissimmee ground, and for the best part of thirty years it was one of the fixed points of a Central Florida childhood. School trips came. Birthday parties came. Parents who simply needed their children outdoors for three hours came, week after week. Then it closed, and Central Florida went seven years without it.
The farm is open again at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s backing, and the essentials came along unchanged. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits all live within reach of a child’s hand. The wagon ride still runs out into the pasture. The oaks still keep the temperature honest. There is more ground than there used to be, and everything else feels exactly as it did.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty miles and half an hour south of Belle Isle. Most families come down the Orange Avenue corridor or pick up FL-417, depending on where in town you start. Given how much of Osceola County is still working cattle country, the drive itself is a decent preview of where you are heading.
Choose the day first. We are open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. We stop admitting at 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. Monday and Tuesday we are closed. Weekday mornings are the calmest, which the youngest visitors appreciate. Wednesday is Grandparents Day too, when one grandparent comes in free with each paid admission, week in and week out.
Bring your own lunch. There is no cafe here, only vending machines, so pack a picnic and plenty of water and claim one of the shaded tables. Sunscreen, hats and closed shoes for everybody. Anyone used to a morning out on Lake Conway already knows the drill for Florida sun; the difference here is that mature oaks cover most of the property, so there is real shade to retreat into.
Then come down and see us. Buy online ahead of time or at the gate. Admission is $18 a head from age 2 up, with under-2s free, and we take all major credit cards but no cash whatsoever. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 each; 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, plus a free admission for every 20 paid. Ask about the annual pass if this looks like it might become a regular thing. Animal feed is an optional few dollars, picked up at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall opens the Pumpkin Zone, which becomes the busiest part of the farm for as long as it lasts. It is not a pumpkin patch and we grow nothing here — a distinction we would rather make ourselves than leave to the drive home. The Zone works like this: every paying guest chooses a pumpkin and takes it home, included in admission, no separate ticket and nothing weighed. It stays open every day we are open through the whole season, so a family from the Conway chain can drop in on a quiet weekday rather than fight a weekend. Our Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends either side of Halloween.
Birthday parties here are about as simple as they come. Pick your date and time and pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent is $450 and covers up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and there are four available per day on Saturdays and Sundays, tables included. Every guest gets the whole farm rather than a fenced-off corner, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertainment while you do nothing at all. Bring your own decorations and your own food. For the invitations: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the day is entirely outdoors.
The rest of the calendar keeps moving. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring and smaller events appear through the year, all listed on our Special Events page and announced first on Facebook and Instagram. School field trips and larger groups are welcome on the same group rates, and settling up in advance moves everybody through the entrance considerably faster on the day.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, about twenty miles south of Belle Isle and roughly half an hour on the road. Most families head down the Orange Avenue corridor or take FL-417, whichever suits the side of the lake you live on.
It is a comfortable enough run that a farm visit fits inside a morning rather than swallowing a day. Leave around nine thirty and you will be home for a late lunch. Have a quick look at your maps app before you go, since the southbound stretch shifts a good deal depending on the hour.
General admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and older, and children under 2 are free. One price takes in the entire farm: every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, with nothing added at the gate. Bring a card, because we are completely cashless, though we do take all the major ones.
Groups work out cheaper per person. It is $15 each for parties between 10 and 19, and $12 each once you hit 20 or more with a reservation, which also brings one free admission for every 20 paid. There is an annual pass as well, covering unlimited visits for a year from the day you buy it. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online and it is genuinely the thing your children will remember, so do factor it in.
Not really, and the honest answer is more useful than a hopeful one. Green Meadows is a petting farm, we do not grow pumpkins, and we are not a pumpkin patch. Each fall we open the Pumpkin Zone instead, and a pumpkin from it goes home with every paying guest, free with entry.
Coming from the lakes it is a short enough run to treat casually, and the Zone is open every day we are open rather than only on weekends, so there is no need to plan around a narrow window. The Halloween Candy Hunt takes place on 2 weekends around Halloween, with dates listed on our Special Events page and shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do, and we love them. The booking is straightforward: choose your date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent costs $450 and covers 25 guests, with anyone above that at $15 each, and four are available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all set up with tables.
The farm does the entertaining. Every guest has the run of the property, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground fill the time and you never have to organize a game. The tent is deliberately plain, so bring decorations and food and make it look like your child’s party. Worth telling guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the whole celebration happens outdoors. Weekend tents go early in the fall.
Lunch, mainly. We have no cafe, only vending machines, and it surprises visitors who assumed otherwise. There are shaded picnic tables set aside for it, and eating outdoors with cattle grazing behind you is a fine way to spend half an hour. Plenty of water too, particularly through the summer.
Otherwise dress for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen for everyone. Mature oaks cover most of the ground, so it is cooler here than you would expect, but Florida still has opinions. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave Belle Isle, call us at (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you honestly whether to set off, since everything we do is outdoors.
Very much so, and weekday mornings suit them best. The paddocks are quiet, there is no waiting at any fence, and children under 2 come in free. The scale is the thing: this is a farm rather than an attraction, so there is nothing loud, nothing on a timer and nothing that needs explaining to a 2-year-old before they enjoy it.
Practically, the ground is largely flat and shaded, there are picnic tables for a proper sit-down, and the playground gives older brothers and sisters somewhere to go while the little one stays at the rail. Arrive at opening if you can, because the mornings are cooler and the animals are livelier, and you will be back in Belle Isle before anybody needs a nap.
Know Before You Go
Other Services we provide in Belle Isle