5 Fantastic Farm Stays In The U.S. You'll Love

There is something immensely appealing about leaving the noise and frantic pace of the city behind for greener pastures. A place where you can learn more about where your food comes from, help feed and care for animals, pick produce and enjoy a respite far from the stress of daily life. Farm stays offer all that and more.

A traditional farm stay, also called agritourism, means staying on a working farm and interacting with farmers and their animals. These experiences range from rustic self-catering accommodations to more luxurious retreats. Here are a few options for different tastes and budgets where you can soak up all that farm life has to offer.

Leaping Lamb Farm on the Oregon coast is run by Scottie and Greg Jones, who left white-collar jobs to move to the farm in 2003. Guests stay at a self-catering six-bedroom, three-bathroom farmhouse and can participate in various activities from hiking to feeding animals to collecting eggs to picking produce. Scottie also founded Farmstay, a platform with more than 200 nationwide farm stay experiences, which she says add a hospitality component to farmers' operations while helping them learn the travel industry and build a diversification strategy for sustainability. For visitors, it's “a way to connect with their food, the natural world, their family and the farm and then return home with a better appreciation for local production, its price and the people who grow it.” The nightly rate is $395.

Central Colorado is home to Mountain Goat Lodge, a 20-acre property with breathtaking mountain views where guests can meet a herd of friendly rescue goats, take a cheese-making class and learn about caring for and raising goats. Co-owner Gina Marcell fell in love after adopting three orphaned goats, and now she and her husband, D’Arcy, rescue unwanted goats, rehabilitate them, and rehome them as pets. Accommodations include rooms and suites in the lodge, retro campers, a vintage trailer, tipis and a condo (located nearby but not on the farm). Rates are $219/night for rooms in the lodge or condo.

For a touch of glam with your farm experience, don’t miss Mama Farm, founded by actress Isabella Rossellini. Guests at the 28-acre regenerative farm in Brookhaven, New York, can immerse themselves in nature and interact with free-roaming heritage breed chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats and sheep during their stay. At the farm’s four-bedroom bed and breakfast, you’ll find cleverly designed rooms featuring personal touches from the Rossellini family’s furniture and art collections. Rates start at $350/night, breakfast included.

Situated on 40 acres of open fields and gardens, the Taos Goji Eco Lodge Retreat & Organic Goji Berry Farm in San Cristobal, New Mexico, embodies the complete cycle of sustainable living. Its fruits and vegetables are organically grown and pesticide-free, and the Lodge’s water comes from deep wells fed by mountain aquifers. Bird watchers will be pleased to discover that more than 100 species have been spotted on and around the property. The farm also has chickens, goats, sheep, alpacas and a mini donkey. It’s an ideal place to enjoy a peaceful and quiet retreat in a rustic cabin, some named after famous writers who have passed through over the years, including Georgia O’Keefe and Aldous Huxley. Rates start at around $300/night for a cabin and $270 for a glamping tipi.

Ideal for a large family or girl’s trip, Blind Buck Farmstead is an 18th-century, fully restored five-bedroom farmhouse that sits on a picturesque 180-acre private property in Salem, New York. Guests can take a private guided tour of the farm, where they pet and feed goats, donkeys, ponies, horses, pigs, barn cats and chickens. There’s also a glamping option with four fully-furnished canvas tents, firepits and a guided farm tour. Rates start at $500 a night for the whole house and $500 for all four tents and other camping amenities.

For longer-term stays where you spend your days working on the farm, usually in exchange for food and lodging, check Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, USA (WWOOF USA). The organization is part of a worldwide effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange and “build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.”



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