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Green Meadows FarmA back-to-basics experience in the theme park capital of the worldby Kelly MonaghanOrlando is chockablock with family attractions. Yet even in the Magic Kingdom it's possible for the littlest children to feel that most of the attractions are for bigger people. If that happens to your little darling, you might want to consider pointing the rental car to Kissimmee's Green Meadows Farm.
The ethos of Green Meadows Farm is pretty well summed up by the quote from Luther Burbank that greets you on your arrival: “Every child should have mudpies, frogs, grasshoppers, waterbugs, tadpoles, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, animals to pet, hay fields, pine cones, rocks to roll, lizards, huckleberries, and hornets. Any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of their education.” Green Meadows Farm is spread out over 40 acres under the dappled shade of moss-draped Southern oaks. The farm is experienced via a guided tour that lasts about two hours. If the park is busy, you may be asked to wait until the next tour begins but on slower days you’ll be escorted to the tour in progress. (“When you get back to the chickens, you’ll know the tour’s over.”) If you like, you can simply stay with the tour and repeat it over and over.
The tour guides are the antithesis of theme park attendants. There are no spiffy uniforms or carefully rehearsed spiels here. These folks look and talk like they’re down on the farm, dirty jeans and all. It’s truly refreshing. But don’t expect to escape the edutainment. You’ll be treated to spot quizzes (“Who can tell me what a baby goose is called?”) and little known facts (“The pig is a very clean animal.”) as the guide shepherds you from pen to pen. Thanks to this tour I now know that the gestation period of a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig is three months, three weeks and three days. Of course everyone’s favorites are the farm babies, and you can increase your odds of seeing them by visiting during the spring or around harvest time. During October there is pumpkin picking and in November there are cowboys and Indians, featuring Indian dances and trick roping. Remember to wear sensible shoes — this is a farm, after all, and after a rain it can get muddy. The tour is long and covers a fair amount of ground. You can rent a “little red wagon” in which to lug the kids. Green Meadows Farm is only slightly off the well-beaten tourist track. Turn off Route192, Kissimmee's neon canyon of motels and tourist traps, onto Poinciana Boulevard heading south. The farm is six miles along on your right. Admission for everyone three and over is $15, tax included. The farm is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Green Meadows Farm, Ltd. Photos courtesy of Green Meadows Farm Kelly Monaghan is the author of Orlando's Other Theme Parks: What To Do When You've Done Disney, which he updates constantly at his web site, http://www.intrepidtraveler.com |
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This
is where kids meet kids — and piglets, and ducklings, and chicks. If you have
little ones between the ages of three and seven, this cleverly conceived and
well-run petting farm is sure to be a favorite memory of their Orlando visit.
Better yet, let their grandparents take them! Green Meadows is an ideal place
for this sort of trans-generational bonding experience. Meanwhile, you and your
spouse can take the in-room Jacuzzi out for a spin.
The
tour includes a short ride on a miniature railway and a bumpy tractor-powered
hayride, but the real stars of the show are the animals. This is not a working
farm but more of a “farm zoo” with widely spaced pens holding a fairly
representative cross section of American farm animals. There are also a few
more exotic species, like llama, buffalo, and ostriches, that are showing up on
your trendier farms. Visitors can enter most of the pens for a close-up
encounter. This is the city kid’s chance to hold a chicken, pet a baby pig,
feed a goat, milk a cow, chase a goose, and meet a turkey that has yet to be
served at Thanksgiving. Squawking guinea hens and stately peacocks (including a
stunning all-white specimen) roam freely about the grounds. And, of course,
there is a pony ride. The little ones love every minute. For doting parents and
grandparents, it’s a photographic field day.