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There cannot be many towns of under six thousand people anywhere that host the largest research facility in the world devoted to a single crop. The Citrus Research and Education Center has been in Lake Alfred since 1917, with hundreds of acres of experimental groves, forty-odd laboratories and the biggest citrus library there is. Growing up here, agriculture is not an abstraction. It is the thing the town does.
What research groves are not, quite reasonably, is a place where a five-year-old can wander in and start feeding things. Serious agricultural work needs controlled conditions and closed gates. So plenty of Lake Alfred children grow up surrounded by the study of how things grow without ever having stood next to a cow long enough to notice it breathing.
That is a forty-minute drive away rather than a permanent gap. Our farm has cattle out in the pasture, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits along the rail, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride through the trees and a playground under the oaks. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 and older, with under-2s free, and it covers all of it. Feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online and is really the point of the visit.
Green Meadows opened in 1988, set up by Coni and Bob Keyes on shaded ground in Kissimmee. For close to thirty years it was where an enormous number of children in this region met their first cow, arriving with a school group, for a birthday, or simply because a parent wanted everybody outdoors. Then the farm closed, and seven years went by with nothing taking its place.
It is open again at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s support, and the reopening kept the original intact rather than reinventing it. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits all live near enough for a child to reach out and touch. The wagon ride still runs across the pasture. The old oaks still keep the heat sensible. There is more ground than before and the same idea working on it.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-eight miles and about forty minutes northeast of Lake Alfred, usually via US-27 or I-4 across toward the 192 corridor. The drive runs through a good deal of ridge country and grove land, which sets the mood before you arrive.
Choose the day carefully, since the drive is long enough to make it count. We open Wednesday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, closed Monday and Tuesday. Last admission is 1:00 PM Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. Midweek gives you three hours at the end of a forty-minute run, so weekends generally suit better. Wednesday carries Grandparents Day, when one grandparent joins free with each paid general admission, which is worth planning around if they are coming.
Pack a picnic before you leave. There is no cafe on the property, only vending machines, and after that drive it makes far more sense to eat here at one of the shaded tables than to head home hungry. Bring plenty of water, plus hats, sunscreen and closed shoes for everybody. Anyone used to MacKay Gardens or an afternoon at Gardner Park will find the ground here familiar enough, though there is a good deal more shade.
Then drive over. Tickets can be booked online first or bought at the gate. Admission is $18 a head from age 2, with under-2s free, and we accept every major credit card and no cash at all. Larger parties pay $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, or $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation, which also brings a free admission for every 20 paid. Ask about the annual pass if it looks like becoming a regular outing. Feed for the animals is optional, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall brings the Pumpkin Zone and with it the fullest stretch of our year. In a town that studies agriculture professionally, precision seems only fair: we are not a pumpkin patch and no pumpkin here was grown here. The Zone means every paying guest chooses one and takes it home, included in admission. It is open every day we are open through the season rather than on a few crowded weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt happens across 2 weekends around Halloween.
Birthday parties are very little trouble to arrange. Fix the date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent is $450 and includes up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four are available each day across Saturday and Sunday, tables provided. Every guest gets the run of the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertaining without a single arrangement from you. Decorations and the catering are yours to organize. Worth passing along: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the day happens entirely outdoors.
The calendar keeps moving on either side of that. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring, smaller seasonal events crop up through the year, and it all goes up on our Special Events page and out first across Facebook and Instagram. School field trips and larger groups are very welcome on the rates above, and given the distance from Lake Alfred a group booking often makes more sense than several separate family trips. Paying in advance speeds up entry considerably on the day.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-eight miles and about forty minutes northeast of Lake Alfred. US-27 or I-4 across toward the 192 corridor are the usual ways over.
It is far enough to be a planned morning rather than a spontaneous one, particularly midweek when we shut at 1:00 PM. Weekends give you an extra hour at this end, which the distance rather calls for. Check your maps app before you go, as I-4 through this stretch varies a lot by hour.
It is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and above, with children under 2 free. That covers the entire farm — every animal, the wagon ride and the playground — and nothing further is charged at the gate or for parking. We take all the major credit cards and no cash at all, so bring a card.
Groups are cheaper per head: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward booked with a reservation, plus a free admission for every 20 paid. There is an annual pass covering unlimited visits for a year from purchase, which earns its keep quickly at this distance if the first visit goes well. Animal feed is an optional few dollars, bought at the gate or bought online with your tickets.
Not at Green Meadows. We are a petting farm rather than a pumpkin patch, and we grow nothing on the property. Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home free with entry.
Lake Alfred has been studying how things grow since 1917. We make no claim to be part of that — what we offer is the hands-on end of it, animals a child can feed and a pumpkin to carry out. The Zone is open every day we are open instead of on set weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween. We publish the dates on the Special Events page and out first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do, gladly. Fix the date and time and pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 and covers up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and there are four available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all with tables set out.
Because every guest can roam the entire farm, the entertainment is settled before you plan anything at all. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground look after it between them. The tent comes plain, so decorations and food are entirely your choice. Worth passing on to guests that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and that the celebration is outdoors from start to finish. Weekend tents fill early through the fall.
A picnic above all, given the drive. We have no cafe, only vending machines, and it does surprise people. Shaded picnic tables are kept for exactly this and eating outdoors with cattle grazing behind you is a decent half hour. Bring plenty of water too, particularly through the warmer months.
Otherwise dress everybody for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it stays cooler than you might expect, though the weather here still does as it pleases. If the sky looks uncertain before you leave Lake Alfred, call us at (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you plainly whether the drive is worth making.
It spreads across ages better than most outings do. Very young children stay at the fence with the feed for far longer than parents expect, and the under-2s come in free. Older ones tend to move on to the wagon ride and the playground once the animals have had their turn, and there is enough ground to walk that nobody feels confined.
Adults generally do well out of it too, which is not something every children’s attraction manages. You get shade, somewhere to sit down and nothing at all to keep pace with. If grandparents are joining, a Wednesday visit brings one of them in free with each paid admission, which makes a three-generation morning easy to put together.
Know Before You Go
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