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Polk City sits at the southern end of the General James A. Van Fleet State Trail, which runs almost thirty miles north along an old railway bed through the Green Swamp, past protected forest, wetland and a great deal of open cattle country. Families here ride it, walk it and know it well. There are few better ways to see working Florida from the outside.
From the outside is the operative phrase. All that pasture belongs to somebody, quite rightly fenced, and a child can cycle past a hundred cows across a season without ever having stood beside one. Watching cattle from a bike path and having a cow decide you are worth investigating are entirely separate experiences, and only one of them gets remembered.
The second is about forty-five minutes east of you. Cattle graze out across the pasture, and alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits come to the rail expecting the feed you pick up at the counter. There is a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride through the trees and a playground under old oaks. Admission runs $18 for anyone 2 and older, free below that, and takes in the whole property. Nothing is timed and nothing else is sold at the gate.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened Green Meadows in 1988 on shaded ground in Kissimmee. Over close to three decades an enormous number of Central Florida children met their first cow here, arriving with a class, for somebody’s birthday, or on a Saturday when a parent wanted everyone outdoors. Then the farm closed, and seven years went by with nothing quite standing in for it.
It is running again at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s support, and the reopening kept the original rather than reinventing it. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all close enough for small hands to reach. The wagon ride keeps crossing the pasture. The oak canopy still handles the heat. New ground, and the same farm working across it.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-five miles and about forty-five minutes east of Polk City, most easily via I-4 toward the 192 corridor. Much of the country in between is still ranch land, so the drive is a reasonable preview of the morning.
The distance makes the choice of day matter. Our 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 shut. Last entry is 1:00 PM from Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. Midweek leaves three hours at the far end of a forty-five minute drive, so weekends usually suit Polk City families better unless you can leave early. Wednesday does carry Grandparents Day, with one grandparent free alongside each paid general admission.
Pack the picnic before you go. We have no cafe on site, only vending machines, and after three-quarters of an hour on the road nobody wants to be looking for lunch. We set shaded picnic tables aside precisely for that. Bring plenty of water, hats, sunscreen and closed shoes rather than sandals — anyone who rides the trail already knows how to dress for a Central Florida morning outdoors.
Then drive over. Book online ahead or pay at the gate on arrival. Admission is $18 per person from age 2, with under-2s free, and we accept all major credit cards and no cash at all. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 each and 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, which also includes a free admission for every 20 paid. At this range the annual pass is worth considering if the first visit goes well. The animal feed is optional, available at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall brings the Pumpkin Zone and the busiest days we have. Worth putting plainly: we are not a pumpkin patch and no pumpkin here was grown here. The Zone means every paying guest chooses one and carries it home, free with admission, with no extra charge on the way out. It is open every day we are open across the season instead of a handful of weekends. Our Halloween Candy Hunt takes place on 2 weekends around Halloween.
Birthday parties need almost nothing from you. Fix a date and time, pay up front, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent is $450 and covers up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four run each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables provided. Every guest gets the whole farm rather than a corner of it, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do the entertaining and you plan nothing. Bring your own decorations and food. 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 is outdoors throughout.
Group visits make particular sense from this distance, and we take a good many from schools, cycling clubs and community groups. It is $15 per person between 10 and 19 guests and $12 per person from 20 upward with a reservation, plus a free admission for every 20 paid. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring and other seasonal events appear across the year, all posted on our Special Events page and announced first via Facebook and Instagram. Paying ahead moves a large group through the entrance much faster.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-five miles and about forty-five minutes east of Polk City. I-4 across to the 192 corridor is the usual route.
It is one of the longer drives on our list, so plan the morning rather than deciding on the spur of the moment. Weekends give you a four-hour window at this end rather than the midweek three, which the distance rather asks for. Have a look at your maps app before setting off, since I-4 through this stretch is unpredictable.
It is $18 a head for everyone aged 2 and above, and children under 2 come in free. That covers the entire farm, meaning every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, with nothing further charged at the gate and no parking fee. We take all the major credit cards and no cash at all.
Groups are cheaper per person: $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. An annual pass is available too, covering unlimited visits for a year from purchase, and it earns its keep at this distance if you take to the place. Animal feed is an optional extra, picked up at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Not at Green Meadows. We are a petting farm, we do not grow pumpkins, and we would not call ourselves a patch. Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home free with entry.
Plenty of families ride the Van Fleet Trail past cattle without ever meeting one. This is the version where you stop, get close and hand-feed them, and leave with a pumpkin as well. It is open on all of our open days rather than weekends alone, and our Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween. Exact dates go on our Special Events page and out first on Facebook and Instagram.
Very much so, and it is worth doing from this far out. Group rates begin at ten people: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation, which also brings one free admission for every 20 paid. School groups, church groups and cycling clubs all come out to us on these rates.
Reserve ahead and settle up beforehand where you can, since it moves a big party through the entrance far quicker on the day. There is open ground here rather than a fixed route, so a large group spreads out naturally and finds its own pace, and the shaded picnic areas give everybody somewhere to sit down and eat together.
Lunch above all, given the drive. We have no cafe, only vending machines, and it takes people by surprise. There are shaded tables for it, and lunch in the open with cattle beyond the fence makes the drive feel shorter. Bring more water than you think you need, particularly through the summer.
Otherwise dress everybody for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it runs cooler than the forecast suggests, though Florida still does what it wants. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave Polk City, call us at (407) 994-2775 first rather than making the trip and hoping.
It works across a wider spread than most outings manage. Very small children stay at the fence far longer than anybody expects, and the under-2s come in free. Older ones head for the wagon ride and the playground once the animals have had their turn, and there is enough open ground that nobody feels penned in.
Adults do reasonably well out of it too. There is shade, there are tables and there is no schedule at all to keep up with. Weekday mornings are quietest if you have a toddler in the party; weekends have more going on and stay open an hour longer, which from Polk City is usually the better trade.
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