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Anyone raising children around Haines City knows the particular frustration of Central Florida agriculture: it is everywhere and none of it is yours to enter. Groves run right up to the road. Cattle stand in fields you pass on the way to school. It is all private working land, quite properly fenced, and a child can spend an entire upbringing three feet from a cow without ever having stood beside one.
That is the gap we exist to fill. This is a farm that is open to the public, which is a rarer combination in this part of the state than it ought to be. Cattle are out grazing the pasture. Alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits come to the rail expecting something, and you buy the feed at the counter on the way in, so they are usually right.
It is about thirty minutes north of Haines City. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 and over, with under-2s free, covering the animals, the Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride out through the trees, and the playground under the oaks. Nothing is timed, nothing further is sold at the gate, and children set the pace entirely. For a town that calls itself the heart of Florida, it is a short drive to see what that heart actually does for a living.
The farm began in 1988 when Coni and Bob Keyes opened it on a shaded stretch of Kissimmee ground. For close to three decades it was where children across this region first stood next to livestock, arriving with school groups, with birthday parties, or simply with a parent who wanted them outside for a few hours. Then it shut, and seven years went by with nothing filling the gap.
We are open again at Lancaster Ranch Park, thanks in large part to the City of Kissimmee, and the reopening was deliberately faithful. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits all live near enough for a child to reach across and touch. The wagon ride still goes out across the pasture. The old oaks still do the cooling. There is more room now than there used to be and the same idea running on it.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-two miles and about thirty minutes north of Haines City, generally up US-27 and east toward the 192 corridor. The last stretch runs through open ranch country, which gives a fair preview of what you are driving toward.
Pick 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, with Monday and Tuesday closed. We stop admitting at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 2:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. Weekday mornings are our quietest and suit small children best. Wednesday also brings Grandparents Day, when one grandparent is admitted free alongside each paid general admission, running all year rather than as an occasional offer.
Bring lunch. There is no cafe on the property, only vending machines, so pack a picnic and plenty of water and take one of the shaded tables set aside for it. Closed shoes, hats and sunscreen for everybody. Anyone who has spent a morning at Lake Eva Park knows the drill for being outdoors here, though there is considerably more tree cover on our ground than most Polk County parks manage.
Then drive up. Tickets are available online beforehand or at the gate on arrival. Admission is $18 a head from age 2, with under-2s free, and we take every major credit card and no cash at all. Parties of 10 to 19 pay $15 each and 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, which also carries a free admission for every 20 paid. Ask about the annual pass if this looks like becoming a habit. Feed for the animals is optional — buy it at the gate or add it to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens and becomes the fullest part of our season. We would rather be straight about it than have anyone picture rows in a field: we are not a pumpkin patch and we grow nothing here. Every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home, free with admission. The Zone is open every day we are open right through the season rather than on set weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends around Halloween, and those are the loudest, best days we have.
Birthday parties ask very little of you. Lock in a date and time, pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent costs $450 and takes up to 25 guests, with anyone above that at $15 each, and there are four each day across Saturday and Sunday with tables already out. Everyone invited gets the whole property rather than a roped-off section, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertaining while you do none of it. Decorations and the menu are entirely yours to choose. One for the guest list: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the celebration happens outdoors from beginning to end.
The rest of the year keeps its own shape. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring, smaller seasonal events turn up across the calendar, and all of it goes on our Special Events page and out first through Facebook and Instagram. School field trips and larger groups from Polk County schools are very welcome on the rates above, and settling the bill in advance gets everybody through the entrance and out to the paddocks much faster on the day.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-two miles and about thirty minutes north of Haines City. Most families run up US-27 and cut east toward the 192 corridor.
That keeps a farm visit comfortably inside a morning. Set off around nine thirty, spend a couple of hours with the animals, and you are home with the afternoon still ahead. Worth glancing at your maps app before leaving, since US-27 changes character quite a bit depending on the time of day.
Admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and above, and children under 2 come in free. One ticket covers the entire farm — all the animals, the wagon ride and the playground — with nothing extra charged once you are through the gate and no parking fee. Bring a card, as we accept no cash at all.
Larger parties pay less per head: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation, plus one free admission for every 20 paid. An annual pass is available too, good for unlimited visits across a full year, which pays off for families who end up making the trip more than twice. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is money well spent.
Not at Green Meadows. We are a petting farm, not a pumpkin patch, and nothing is grown on the property. What we open each fall is the Pumpkin Zone, and a pumpkin from it goes home with every paying guest, included with entry.
Around Haines City you drive past a great deal of private land you cannot set foot on. This is the opposite arrangement — you get out of the car, walk in, feed the animals and leave with a pumpkin. The Zone is open on every day we trade, not only on weekends, and the Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends either side of Halloween. Dates appear on our Special Events page and are announced first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do, and they are among the best days we have. Fix the date and time and pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 and includes up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and there are four available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all set up with tables.
Since every guest can wander the whole farm, the entertainment sorts itself before you have planned a thing. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground manage it between them. The tent arrives plain, so decorations and catering are your call entirely. Let your guests know that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, available at the gate or with your tickets online. Come fall, weekend tents fill fast.
A picnic first of all. There is no cafe on site, only vending machines, and it surprises a lot of first-time visitors. Shaded picnic tables are set aside for exactly this, and eating outdoors with cattle grazing behind you is one of the better parts of the morning. Bring plenty of water as well, particularly through the summer months.
Otherwise dress everyone for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats and plenty of sunscreen. Mature oaks shade most of our ground so it stays cooler than you might expect, though Florida will still have its say. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave Haines City, call us at (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth the drive.
Particularly so, and weekday mornings are the best time to bring one. The paddocks are quiet, nobody is waiting at any fence, and children under 2 are admitted free. Nothing here is loud, timed or in need of explanation, which counts for more with a 2-year-old than almost anything else.
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 youngest stays down at the rail. Come at opening if you can — the mornings are cooler, the animals are livelier, and you will be back in Haines City before anybody needs a nap.
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