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There is a particular civic instinct in Winter Garden that is rarer than people realize. When Lake Apopka fouled and the new highways drew business away from the middle of town, the historic buildings on Plant Street could easily have been knocked down and forgotten. Instead residents organized, the trail brought people back, and by 1996 downtown was on the National Register. Families here now walk brick streets that only exist because somebody refused to let them go.
We mention it because the same thing happened to us on a smaller scale. This farm ran from 1988 until it closed, and for seven years Central Florida simply did not have it. Plenty of children grew up in that gap without ever meeting a cow. Then the City of Kissimmee helped bring it back at Lancaster Ranch Park, and the animals returned to a place where families could reach them again.
So what your children get here is something that was very nearly lost: open pasture, cattle grazing at a distance, alpacas and donkeys wandering to the rail, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride, and a playground under old oaks. Admission runs $18 for anyone 2 or over, with under-2s free, covering the animals, the wagon ride and the playground together. It is a thirty-five minute drive and an entirely unhurried morning.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened Green Meadows in 1988, on a shaded piece of Kissimmee land, and it quickly became one of those places every family in the region passed through at some point. Field trips arrived by the busload. Birthdays happened under the trees. Then the gates shut, and for seven years there was nothing quite like it anywhere nearby.
The farm reopened at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee’s help, and what came back was the original thing rather than a modernized version of it. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits all live close enough for a child to reach. The wagon ride still takes everyone out through the pasture. The oak canopy still keeps the heat manageable. The address changed and the character did not.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-six miles southeast of Winter Garden and about thirty-five minutes on the road, generally via the Turnpike or FL-429 toward the 192 corridor. If you have ridden the West Orange Trail out past the edge of town, this is the same countryside, a little further along.
Decide on the day before anything else. Our gates are open Wednesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and shut on Monday and Tuesday. The gate stops taking arrivals at 1:00 PM from Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. Weekday mornings are noticeably calmer. Wednesday also carries Grandparents Day, when one grandparent is admitted free with every paid general admission, which runs all year rather than as a promotion.
Bring food with you. We have no cafe on site, only vending machines, so a packed lunch and plenty of water are worth the five minutes it takes to sort. Shaded picnic tables are set aside for exactly that. Sun hats, sunscreen and proper closed shoes are sensible for everyone, since this is a farm rather than a park.
Then make the drive. You can buy at the gate or book online first. Admission is $18 each for anyone 2 and older, and the under-2s are free. We take every major credit card and no cash at all, which does surprise people. Larger parties pay $15 a head between 10 and 19 guests and $12 a head from 20 upward with a reservation, which also earns a free admission for every 20 paid. There is an annual pass worth asking about. The feed is an optional extra, available at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall brings the Pumpkin Zone, and the farm is at its fullest for as long as it runs. Worth setting straight up front: we are not a pumpkin patch and no pumpkin here was grown here. The Zone works simply — every paying guest chooses one and carries it home, free with admission, no separate pumpkin ticket and nothing weighed on the way out. It is open every day we are open across the season rather than on a short run of weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends around Halloween, and those are the busiest, best days we have.
Birthday parties ask very little of you. Fix the date and time, then pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Tents run $450 for up to 25 guests, with anyone above that at $15 each, and there are four each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables already set out. Your guests get the whole property rather than a corner of it, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground fill the afternoon without you scheduling a single thing. Decorations and catering are entirely your call. Do pass on to guests: 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. Fall weekends sell out earliest.
The rest of the year has its own shape. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring, other 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 are welcome on the group rates above, and settling the bill beforehand gets everyone through the gate and out to the animals far quicker on the day itself.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twenty-six miles southeast of Winter Garden and about thirty-five minutes on the road. Most families run down the Turnpike or FL-429 and pick up the 192 corridor.
That puts a farm morning comfortably inside half a day. Leave around nine thirty, spend the morning with the animals, and be back on Plant Street for a late lunch. Do glance at your maps app first, since the tourist corridor can slow things considerably at certain hours.
It is $18 a head for everyone aged 2 and above, and the under-2s come in free. That covers the entire farm, meaning every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, and nothing further is charged once you are through the gate. We take cards only, all the major ones, and no cash at all.
Group pricing helps if you are bringing a crowd: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward when booked with a reservation, which also includes one free admission for every 20 paid. An annual pass covers unlimited visits for a year from the date you buy it. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is the part children actually came for.
Not here. Green Meadows is a petting farm rather than a pumpkin patch, and we grow nothing on the property. The Pumpkin Zone is what opens each fall, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home included with the ticket.
Winter Garden is a town that decided its old main street was worth keeping rather than replacing, and there is a version of that instinct here too — no upsell, no weighing station, just a pumpkin that comes with the day. The Zone stays open every day we are open rather than on weekends only, and the Halloween Candy Hunt is held on 2 weekends close to Halloween. Exact dates go on the Special Events page and go out first on Facebook and Instagram.
Certainly. Pick your date and time, pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 and takes 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and there are four tents available each day across Saturday and Sunday, all with tables provided.
Because guests can wander the whole farm, the entertainment is handled before you organize anything. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground occupy everyone between them. The tent comes bare, so the decorations and the food are yours to arrange. Worth flagging to your guest list: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the whole celebration takes place outdoors. Weekend tents disappear quickly once fall arrives.
Lunch, first of all. There is no cafe here, just vending machines, and that catches out a lot of first-time visitors. We keep shaded picnic tables for the purpose, and eating outside with cattle grazing in the middle distance is a decent way to spend half an hour. Bring plenty of water, particularly through the summer.
Then dress for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats, sunscreen for everyone. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it stays cooler than you would expect, but Florida still does what it likes. If the sky looks unsettled before you set off, call the farm at (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you plainly whether it is worth coming, since every part of what we do is outdoors.
It stretches further than most children’s attractions do. Toddlers do best on a quiet weekday morning and the under-2s are free. Older children usually drift toward the wagon ride and the playground once they have had their fill of the fence, and there is enough ground to cover that nobody feels boxed in.
Adults tend to enjoy it too, which is not universally true of places built for children. There is shade, there are tables, and there is no schedule to keep pace with. Bring grandparents along on a Wednesday and one of them comes in free, which makes a three-generation morning straightforward to arrange.
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