Hear from Our Customers
Bartow is the seat of a very large county and it shows in the working day. The courthouse, the school board with its twelve thousand employees, the law firms, the phosphate offices — a great many Bartow parents spend their week inside institutions that run on calendars, filings and meeting times. Polk County devotes some six hundred thousand acres to agriculture, and a fair amount of the paperwork for it passes through this town.
Children experience none of that directly, but they do feel the shape of it. School day, pickup time, activity, dinner, bed. What is genuinely scarce is a morning where nothing at all has been scheduled and nobody is waiting on anyone.
We have no timetable to offer. Gates open at ten and after that events unfold according to whichever animal wanders over. Cattle graze across the pasture; alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits come to the rail for the optional feed sold at the gate or online. A Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride sets off through the trees when it sets off. A playground sits under old oaks. Entry is $18 for anyone 2 and older, free below, and covers the whole property.
The farm dates to 1988, when Coni and Bob Keyes established it on shaded ground in Kissimmee. Through the best part of three decades it was where children across this county first stood beside livestock, arriving on school buses, at birthday parties, or with a parent who wanted them outdoors. Then it closed, and seven years elapsed before anything replaced it, which nothing quite did.
The farm operates again at Lancaster Ranch Park, supported by the City of Kissimmee, and the reopening preserved rather than reimagined. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits remain close enough for a child to lay a hand on. The wagon ride still works its way across the pasture. Old oaks still manage the heat. Fresh ground beneath, unchanged purpose above.
You will locate us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, around forty-six miles and roughly an hour northeast of Bartow, typically via SR-60 and US-27 or across on I-4 to the 192 corridor. Much of the country between remains cattle and citrus, so the journey previews the destination.
The day matters most at this range. Gates open Wednesday to Friday, 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, with Monday and Tuesday closed altogether. The gate stops taking arrivals at 1:00 PM Wednesday to Friday with 2:00 PM on weekends. Midweek that hands Bartow families three hours after an hour behind the wheel, so weekends win almost every time. Wednesday does bring Grandparents Day, one grandparent free alongside each paid general admission.
Assemble lunch beforehand. There is no cafe on site, only vending machines, and having driven an hour nobody wants to hunt for food afterward. Shaded picnic tables are kept for it. Bring generous water, hats, sunscreen and closed shoes rather than sandals, as the visit unfolds entirely outdoors on pasture.
Then drive northeast. Tickets can be secured online first or paid for on arrival; general admission requires no booking. Entry is $18 per person from 2 years up, free below, and we accept every major credit card and no cash whatsoever. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 apiece, 20 or more pay $12 apiece with a reservation, which brings one free admission per 20 paid. At an hour out, the annual pass merits real thought. Animal feed is optional — buy it at the gate or add it to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall brings the Pumpkin Zone, comfortably the busiest thing we do all year. Setting it straight from the outset: we are not a pumpkin patch and we do not grow pumpkins here. Every paying guest chooses one from the Zone and takes it home included in admission, with nothing added at the gate. The Zone is open every day we are open through the season rather than on set weekends. Our Halloween Candy Hunt happens across 2 weekends either side of Halloween.
Birthday parties demand almost nothing from you. Pick the date and time and pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Tents cost $450 and hold up to 25 guests, anyone further at $15 apiece, with four running daily on Saturdays and Sundays and tables already positioned. Every guest has the freedom of the entire farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground manage the entertaining while you arrange nothing. Decorating and catering stay with you. Worth noting on the invitation: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the celebration is held outdoors throughout.
Group bookings make particular sense from Bartow, and we host plenty from county schools, churches and community organizations. Rates stand at $15 per person from 10 to 19 guests and $12 per person from 20 upward with a reservation, plus one free admission per 20 paid. Easter Egg Hunts land in spring with further seasonal events across the year, all published to our Special Events page and released first through Facebook and Instagram. Paying ahead moves a sizeable party through the entrance far quicker.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, around forty-six miles and roughly an hour northeast of Bartow. SR-60 across to US-27, or I-4 toward the 192 corridor, are the 2 usual approaches.
That is a proper drive and we would rather say so plainly. Weekends give you four hours at this end instead of three, which an hour each way genuinely requires. Consult your maps app before departing, since both routes change considerably with the time of day.
Entry is $18 per person for everybody 2 and over, with under-2s admitted free. That single ticket takes in the whole farm — every animal, the wagon ride, the playground — with nothing further charged inside and no parking fee. Bring a card, since we accept no cash at all.
Groups pay less each: $15 apiece from 10 to 19 guests, $12 apiece from 20 upward when reserved, carrying one free admission per 20 paid. There is an annual pass covering unlimited visits across a year from purchase, which at this range starts paying for itself on the third trip. The feed is an optional extra — buy it at the gate or include it when you book online.
Not at Green Meadows. We are a petting farm, we grow nothing, and calling ourselves a patch would not be accurate. What we open each fall is the Pumpkin Zone, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and carries it home free with entry.
Bartow runs on schedules — courts, offices, county business. Nothing here does. There is no pumpkin slot to book and no timed entry, and the Zone is open every day we are open rather than on a few weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween, with dates on our Special Events page and shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
Very much so, and from this distance it is the sensible way to come. Group rates open at ten people: $15 apiece from 10 to 19 guests, and $12 apiece from 20 upward with a reservation, which additionally brings one free admission per 20 paid. Polk County schools and congregations make up a fair share of our group visits.
Reserve in advance and settle up beforehand where possible, as it clears a large party through the entrance markedly faster. There is open ground here rather than a set route, so a big group disperses naturally and finds its own rhythm, while the shaded picnic areas give everybody somewhere proper to sit and eat together.
Lunch, above all, at this distance. We run no cafe, only vending machines, and after an hour on the road that is not a welcome discovery. Shaded picnic tables stand ready, and eating in the open with cattle beyond the fence repays the trip. Carry more water than seems necessary, particularly across summer.
Otherwise dress everyone for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it runs cooler than forecasts imply, though Florida does as Florida pleases. If the sky looks unconvincing before you leave Bartow, call (407) 994-2775 first rather than gambling an hour on it.
2 to 3 hours covers most visits, which fits a weekend window comfortably. The opening stretch nearly always goes on feeding animals, then the wagon ride, then the playground, with lunch fitted in at one of the shaded tables. Nothing runs to a clock, so departure happens when your children have had their fill rather than when a schedule dictates.
From Bartow it pays to arrive at opening. Mornings are cooler, animals are livelier and the paddocks are emptier early on. Reaching us at 10:00 AM on a Saturday leaves four hours available if you want them, which sits far better against an hour’s drive than a compressed midweek visit.
Know Before You Go
Other Services we provide in Bartow