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For most of living memory the Senator stood in Big Tree Park, a bald cypress reckoned at around three and a half thousand years old, tall enough that Calvin Coolidge came in 1929 to stand in its shade and call it a national treasure. Generations of Longwood families kept meaning to walk their children down there. In January 2012 it burned, and now there is a preserved stump, a clone growing alongside it, and Lady Liberty next door at a mere 2 thousand years.
It is a hard lesson learned cheaply. Things that seem permanent are not necessarily available indefinitely, and a good outing postponed enough times becomes an outing nobody took.
This farm went the same way on a much smaller scale. It ran from 1988 until it closed, and Central Florida spent seven years without it. It is fifty minutes south and open again: cattle grazing over pasture, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits at the rail for the optional feed sold at the gate or online, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride and a playground under old oaks. Admission is $18 from age 2, free below, covering everything.
Coni and Bob Keyes started the farm in 1988 on shaded ground in Kissimmee. For nearly three decades it was where children across this half of the state first stood beside livestock, coming with school groups, for parties, or because a parent wanted them outdoors. Then the gates shut, and the gap lasted longer than anybody intended.
It runs again at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee behind it, and the reopening changed as little as it could. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all positioned where a child can get to them. The wagon ride still sets off out over the pasture. The oak canopy still handles the heat. New site, the same farm on top of it.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-nine miles and about fifty minutes south of Longwood, generally down I-4 or around on FL-417. That is comfortably a morning rather than a day out.
Start with the day. We open 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday, and 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on weekends, with Mondays and Tuesdays closed. The last admission is at 1:00 PM midweek with 2:00 PM on weekends. Weekday mornings are the quietest stretch of the week and suit the smallest visitors. Wednesdays carry Grandparents Day, when one grandparent comes in free with each paid general admission, all year rather than as a promotion.
Bring the food. There is no cafe on site, only vending machines, so make up a picnic with plenty of water and take one of the shaded tables kept for it. Sun hats, sunscreen and closed shoes for everybody, since the whole visit happens outdoors on grass.
Then drive down. Tickets can be booked online first or paid for on arrival; general admission needs no reservation. Entry is $18 per person from 2 years, free underneath, and we take all major cards and no cash. Parties of ten to nineteen are $15 a head, twenty and above $12 a head on a reservation, and one admission comes free with every twenty paid. Ask about the annual pass if you think you will be back. Feed is an optional few dollars — buy it at the gate or bought online with your tickets.
Plan Your Visit
Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens and the farm hits its busiest point. Clear about what it is: not a pumpkin patch, and not something we grow. Every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home included with admission, nothing extra charged at the gate. It is open every day we are open right through the season rather than on set weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt lands on 2 weekends around Halloween each year.
Birthday parties take almost nothing to arrange. Pick a date and time, pay up front, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It is $450 for up to 25 guests, anyone beyond that at $15 each, with four available daily across Saturday and Sunday, tables already out. Everyone invited has the run of the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground carry the entertaining. The look of the day and the food are yours. A note for guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and every part of it is outdoors.
Group visits work well from Seminole County and we take plenty from schools and community organizations. Ten to nineteen guests pay $15 each, twenty or more pay $12 each on a reservation, and each twenty paid earns one free. Easter Egg Hunts arrive every spring with other seasonal events across the year, all posted on our Special Events page and released first through Facebook and Instagram.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-nine miles and about fifty minutes south of Longwood. Most families run down I-4, or take FL-417 round if the interstate looks poor.
That fits inside a morning without eating the day. Set off about nine thirty, spend a couple of unhurried hours here, and you are home with the afternoon still yours. Have a look at your maps app before you go, since I-4 through this stretch is genuinely unpredictable.
Eighteen dollars per person for everyone 2 and older, with under-2s free. The single ticket takes in the whole farm — every animal, the wagon ride and the playground — with nothing further charged inside and parking included. Bring a card, as we take no cash anywhere on the property.
Groups pay less per head: $15 each between ten and nineteen guests, $12 each from twenty upward on a reservation, plus one free admission per twenty paid. There is an annual pass covering a year of unlimited visits 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 where the morning really starts.
Not at Green Meadows. We are a petting farm, we grow no pumpkins, and we would not describe ourselves as a patch. The Pumpkin Zone is our fall version, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from it and carries it home free with entry.
Longwood learned in 2012 that the things worth showing children do not wait indefinitely. This farm closed for seven years once and only reopened because the city stepped in, so the same lesson applies — take them while it is here. It is open on all of our open days rather than weekends alone, and the Candy Hunt takes place on 2 weekends around Halloween. Dates are published on our Special Events page and are shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do. Choose your date and time, pay in advance, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 and covers up to 25 guests, with further guests at $15 each, and four run each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables laid out.
Since guests can wander the entire farm, the entertaining sorts itself before you arrange a thing. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground take it in turns. Tents arrive plain, so the decorating and the catering are entirely your call. Do tell 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 day is spent outdoors throughout. Weekend tents go early in autumn.
A picnic, mainly, and plenty of water. There is no cafe here, only vending machines, which does surprise first-time visitors. Shaded tables are kept for exactly this, and lunch in the open with cattle grazing beyond the rail is a decent half hour of anybody’s morning.
Otherwise dress everybody for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, sun hats and sunscreen. Old oaks cover most of our ground so it stays cooler than you might expect, though the weather here does as it likes. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave Longwood, call (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you honestly whether to set out.
Particularly so, and a weekday morning is the best time to bring one. The paddocks are calm, nobody is waiting at any rail, and children under 2 come in free. Nothing here is loud, timed or in need of explanation, which matters more at that age 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 smallest stays at the fence. Arrive at opening if you can — the mornings are cooler, the animals are livelier, and you will be back in Longwood before anybody needs a nap.
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