A Day on the Farm

One of my favorite Long Island activities is a visit to the White Post Farm. A stone’s throw from my parents house, its only about a 35-40 minute drive from Queens. The store, petting zoo and farm stand are open year round, along with seasonal activities, but the highlight of their year is the annual Fall Festival. (oh and the Thanksgiving pies are AMAZING!!!)

Last year, when C was 7 months old, we visited the Fall Festival with the little guy in the Bjorn. There wasn’t so much for him to see or do, but ever since last fall I’ve been super excited to return with a toddler!

We arrived at 10am and the Farm was very empty. We had our $2 off coupons (you can print them here) and in we went. Going early was the best, we didn’t have to wait in line or anything! By the time we left around noon, the place was a mad house, there was nowhere to park and there was a huge line to even enter.

First we hit the petting zoo, the camels in fact, and C actually freaked out a little due to their sheer size! My husband bought a bucket of feed and since we were clearly some of the first customers of the day, the animals must have been ravenous, they were practically knocking us over to get to the bucket.

So to calm the little guy down, we took him to the toddler playground and climbed & slid for a while. After about 15 minutes we returned to the petting zoo, this time to the sheep and goats. C has a book and a toy with sheep on them, so he actually recognized the “eeps”! These he loved petting and feeding. We had given up on our bucket, but I had some quarters to get a handful of feed out of the machine. C enjoyed feeding the sheep and goats off the little plastic shovel that came with the feed bucket.

After a snack and some hand sanitizer, hubby took C on a train ride (an additional $2 charge) and then we all went on a hayride around the fields. C actually sat on the bench, looking around at the other kids and enjoyed some pretzels.


After a relaxing hayride, we frolicked in the pumpkin patch and took the obligatory fall-kid-with-pumpkin photos! And even though “pumpkin picking & carving” is on my Fall 2010 to-do list, we decided against that this year since C really is too small and it make such a mess. We do however, have a decorative gourd from Trader Joes in our kitchen.

As it approached lunchtime, we sat for a few minutes and enjoyed a bit of the “Pork Chop Review” a show with super large pigs performing tricks and wearing silly costumes. And at the end of our visit, we tried out the bouncy house area. C did not enjoy the toddler bounce house, because he had to go in by himself and no parents allowed. But even though he was too small to go in the big bouncers by himself, kids under 36 inches could enter with a parent. Which was me!

Actually the huge bouncy slide was the highlight of the day. C and I went up the ladder and down the slide I think a total of 8 times. We were both worn out after that!

The Fall Festival is actually over for this year, BUT the day after Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday festivities at White Post, so maybe we will return this winter. And I’m sure we will be back next fall. 

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