Where? Green Meadows Petting Farm, Ijamsville, Maryland
Hours
Per the information on their website, the farm is open from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Wednesdays is Grandparents Day! No Reservations required. This means that for every regular admission ticket, a grandparent enters for FREE.
How much? Their current regular admission fee is $16.00 per person for anyone two years old or more.
BUT, lesson learned from my first visit last year, always check Groupon.com. They usually have a Groupon available for less than $16.00. Right now they have one, for as little as $11.90. Check it here! If you buy more than one ticket, the price per ticket is even less.
FYI For a grandparent to enter for free, the admission ticket that will be used for the grandparent must be bought at the regular rate. Therefore, the Groupon is only good for the extra people. And if you still want to go, without any grandparents, then the Groupon is how you get the best deal.
Pets: No pets allowed.
Restrooms This is the number one reason why I like this farm. I mean, the animals look very well taken care of, the farm is very nice and has plenty of open spaces and play areas for the kids, but the truth is there’s many petting farms in the area. So, the existence of a real restroom is what stands out.
Most farms have porta potties. Not this one. It has a very nice and spacious clean restroom with a changing station!
Tips to visit
Bring the following essentials
- Sunscreen, Hats, an umbrella, and shades this farm is big and there’s not a lot of shade on your path to one animal area to the other. There are multiple tents with picnic tables, which is great. There’s also a shaded area with trees near by the playground. But other than that, the sun shines very bright here!
- Here’s the two main sunscreens I use for the face and body
- Water and/or juices there was a snow cone truck on site and they do sell water and sugary drinks. But, as always, bring your own if you can.
- Wipes because I always carry wipes. They can clean any mess!
- Cooler: to keep your drinks cold. You can also bring fruits here. I use this 5 quart cooler that is small enough to fit on the wagon and sturdy enough to keep things from spilling and getting smashed!
- Baby carrier: If your children are too little and don’t walk, consider bringing a baby carrier. I wished there was a baby carrier I could recommend but it’s been so long.
- Stroller: there’s a path that connects the animal spaces that is mostly gravel-like and dirt. You can definitely push a stroller. I did it!
- Wagon: If your children don’t need the back support that a stroller provides, I suggest you bring a wagon because it’s easier to carry stuff there. I almost always have it in my car during summer time. I also carry with camping chairs which I put on the wagon. Why? Because, your children will move around the farm. The distance between where the animals are is far from the playground and slides. So you can’t just watch them from one place. Therefore, I move with them and sit on my chair while they play at a particular spot.
- Food: There’s a food kiosk on site that sells hot dogs, nachos, donuts and snacks.
More details of Our Experience
I have another blog post from our visit last year, Summer 2020, during the pandemic. You can read it here!
Even though, this time we went on Grandparents Day, with my kids grandparents, my parents, ha-ha! Therefore, it was a little different.
We visited on a very hot day and the animals weren’t very active. Even though, the ones that are allowed to be fed were very eager to say hi and eat the food!
Many of the animals were resting at shaded areas. For a thorough tour of the animals at this farm read my blog post from last year and my instagram post, including the stories. I also noticed that some animals at the barn were different from last year. Like this Llama!
Their iconic Brahma steer, Tank, was inside the barn and agreed to take a selfie with me!
There’s bunnies that can be petted too and some of them are up for adoption. See picture below!
Apart from wandering around seeing all the animals, you can take a hay ride through the woods and there’s two farm themed playgrounds. But the most exciting activity is the pig race. The hay ride and the pig race take place every hour. See video below for the pig race!
All in all, if you are looking for a petting farm to take your kids, this one is great. You can’t beat the Grandparents and/or Groupon deal. Plus, the nice restroom!
For other farms where kids can pet animals check the following: Butler’s Orchard, Baugher’s Orchard and Clark’s Elioak.
Go to my instagram page for more videos of the farm.
I hope you have a great time visiting this beautiful place. Being in contact with nature is proven to make you feel better and happier. Let me know if you go how it goes and remember that the easiest way to stay on the loop is to follow me on insta, where I also share videos and more on my stories/highlights!
Please, share with your family and friends and comment below, and/or send me an email/message with suggestions of what else you would like to see here. I want this page to be as helpful as possible. Thanks for reading!
LuzWanderer 