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Oakland is a small town at the western end of the West Orange Trail, sitting on the south shore of Lake Apopka with a nature preserve and a boardwalk running out into the wetland. Children who grow up here learn something that many Florida children never do: that land can be damaged and then, slowly and expensively and over decades, brought back. It is a good lesson and Oakland teaches it better than most places.
There is a second lesson that a preserve cannot quite give, which is what land looks like when it is being used well rather than repaired. A farm is not a wilderness and does not pretend to be one. The pasture is grazed on purpose. The animals are fed on a schedule by people who know them individually. Nothing is left alone, and it works.
That is the morning on offer forty minutes southeast of you: cattle out across the pasture, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits close enough to touch and feed, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride through the trees, and a playground under the oaks. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 and older, under-2s free, covering all of it together. Come at ten and you are back in Oakland with the afternoon still going.
Green Meadows opened in 1988 when Coni and Bob Keyes set it up on a shaded stretch of Kissimmee ground. For the better part of thirty years it was where an enormous number of Central Florida children first stood next to a cow, whether that came about through a school trip, a birthday or an ordinary restless Saturday. Then it closed, and seven years went by with nothing taking its place.
The farm is open again at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s support, and the reopening was faithful rather than reinvented. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all near enough for a child to reach over and touch. The wagon ride still heads out into the pasture. The old oaks still keep the temperature sensible. More ground than before, and the same idea running on it.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-nine miles southeast of Oakland and about forty minutes on the road, most easily via the Turnpike toward the 192 corridor. The last few miles run through open cattle country, which tells you fairly clearly what sort of morning is coming.
Choose your day to start with. We open Wednesday to Friday, 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, and stay shut on Monday and Tuesday. We stop admitting at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with 2:00 PM on weekends. Weekday mornings are the quietest of the week and suit very young children. Wednesday is also Grandparents Day here, when one grandparent comes in free with each paid general admission, every week of the year.
Bring lunch along. There is no cafe on the property, only vending machines, so pack a picnic and a good deal of water, and use one of the shaded tables we set aside for it. Hats, sunscreen, closed shoes. Anyone who spends time on the preserve boardwalk already knows how to dress for a Central Florida morning outdoors, though there is rather more shade here than out over the wetland.
Then come across. Tickets can be booked online first or bought when you arrive. Admission is $18 a head for anyone 2 and older, with under-2s free, and we accept every major credit card and no cash at all. Larger parties pay $15 each from 10 to 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 thing. Animal feed is an optional extra — buy it at the gate or add it to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens and the farm is at its liveliest. We would rather state it plainly than let anyone assume: this is not a pumpkin patch and no pumpkin here was grown here. The Zone is where every paying guest chooses one and takes it home, free with the ticket, with no separate pumpkin charge. It stays open every day we are open across the whole season instead of a short weekend run. The Halloween Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends around Halloween, and those are the days worth aiming for.
Birthday parties need very little from you. Set the date and time and pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Tents are $450 and take up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four are available each day across Saturday and Sunday with tables already out. Every guest gets the whole farm rather than a marked-off corner, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do all the entertaining. Decorations and the menu are yours to organize. Please tell your guests: 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 fall weekends book first.
The calendar keeps turning around all that. Easter Egg Hunts come in spring, smaller seasonal events crop up through the year, and it all goes 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 paying in advance moves everybody through the entrance and out to the paddocks a good deal faster on the day.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-nine miles southeast of Oakland and about forty minutes on the road. Most families take the Turnpike south and join the 192 corridor from there.
It sits comfortably within a morning rather than taking a whole day. Set off around nine thirty, spend a couple of unhurried hours with the animals, and you are home by early afternoon. Worth checking your maps app first, as the run through the tourist corridor changes a lot depending on the time.
Admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and above, and children under 2 come in free. That single ticket takes in the entire farm, meaning all the animals, the wagon ride and the playground, and nothing further is charged at the gate. We are card-only and accept no cash, though every major card is fine.
Group rates apply from ten people: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward when booked with a reservation, which also includes a free admission for every 20 paid. There is an annual pass covering unlimited visits for a year from purchase. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is the thing children remember longest.
Not at Green Meadows. We are a petting farm, we grow nothing, and we would not call ourselves a pumpkin patch. The Pumpkin Zone is our fall version, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from it and carries it home free with entry.
Oakland sits beside a lake that took decades of patient work to bring back, so nobody here needs telling that the honest version of a thing beats the advertised one. The Zone is open on every day we trade, not only on weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt is held on 2 weekends close to Halloween. The dates are listed on the Special Events page and are shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
Gladly. Settle on a date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent costs $450 and covers up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and there are four each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all with tables provided.
Every guest has the run of the whole farm, so the entertainment is arranged before you have thought about it. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle it between them. The tent comes plain, so the decorating and the food are entirely up to you. Do mention to your guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the celebration takes place outdoors throughout. Weekend tents disappear early in the fall.
A picnic, mainly. We have no cafe here, just vending machines, and it does catch out visitors who assumed there would be food. Shaded picnic tables are set aside for it, and eating outdoors with cattle grazing behind you is a good half hour. Bring plenty of water too, especially through the summer months.
Beyond that, dress for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen for everyone. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it is a fair bit cooler than you would expect, but Florida still does as it likes. If the sky looks uncertain before you leave Oakland, call us at (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you straight whether the drive is worth making.
It suits them particularly well, and weekday mornings suit them best of all. The paddocks are quiet, nobody is waiting at any fence, and the under-2s come in free. Nothing here is loud, timed or in need of explanation, which counts for a great deal with a 2-year-old.
The ground is 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 at the rail with the feed. Arrive at opening if you can. The mornings are cooler, the animals are livelier, and you will be back in Oakland before anybody falls asleep in the car.
Know Before You Go
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