There is no better way to teach your kids to connect to the natural world than to visit a farm. Whether you pick strawberries or apples, go on a hayride, run through a corn maze or buy fresh tomatoes, a farm is the perfect environment to talk to your kids about where food comes from and how fresh fruits and vegetables grow, and to learn about farm animals and their young.
In addition to many wonderful traditional farms that families can visit in and around Pittsburgh, there are also unique farms that offer a completely different experience. Here are three of our favorites:
1. Hope Haven Farm Sanctuary
Franklin Park
hopehavenfarm.org
Hope Haven is a nonprofit farm animal sanctuary that rescues farm animals such as pigs, goats, sheep, llamas, donkeys, alpacas, emus and farm birds that have been surrendered at local animal shelters, saved from factory farms or confiscated by local animal control officers or police. At Hope Haven, previously unwanted, neglected or abused animals are able to live out their lives with comfort, food, companionship and lots of love and affection from human caretakers and friends. Veterinarian Karen Phillips, who specializes in surgery and primarily works at shelters to spay and neuter animals, founded Hope Haven 12 years ago.
“This is a very special and unique place in Pittsburgh,” she says. “We want people to meet the farm animals, hear their stories and get to know them.”
Two such farm animals at Hope Haven that have a heartwarming tale to share are Butters and Boaz.
Butters is a miniature horse that had been so neglected that when Phillips and her volunteers first met him, his overgrown hooves curled up like elf shoes. Malnourished, matted and covered with parasites, Butters came to Hope Haven in 2014, and despite the fact that he didn’t like or trust people, he began to thrive at the farm. He gained weight and turned into a “gorgeous, sassy boy.” Now, he loves people and happily takes treats from everyone.
Butters’ best friend is a mini donkey named Boaz who was found in an auction house kill pen. One of his hoofs was deformed, and because he was not neutered, he had multiple bite wounds from being corralled with other horses.
Male donkeys have a reputation for being aggressive with other animals and people if they are not neutered, but on the day that a farrier came to trim his hooves, Boaz briefly had to share a stall with Butters, and to everyone’s surprise and delight, the two “minis” immediately bonded. In fact, Boaz displayed no aggression and only wanted to nuzzle Butters and be close to him. Boaz turned out to be so non-aggressive that a risky castration surgery to neuter him was canceled, and the two best “mini” friends are now together all the time.
“We are not a petting zoo,” Phillips clarifies. “We are an interactive sanctuary. Although the animals love to interact with guests, they are never forced to as they can always move away if they want. The animals are not here for entertainment, because this is their home. This is where they live.”
From May through November, Hope Haven holds public events. The season usually kicks off in May with a Mother’s Day event, like a tea party, where the sanctuary staff talk about how animals are good mothers. During the season, they offer tours and events that tie in to environmental themes. For example, last year, there was a pollinator craft class where participants made ceramic bee cups. This year, they are going to make “toad abodes.”
Hope Haven also holds a summer Kids Camp in July, with registration typically opening in June. Kids have to be 7 years or older to attend events on the farm, but even younger kids can attend Kids Camp.
“Now, more than ever, we need people to join us,” Phillips says. “We are Pittsburgh’s only farm sanctuary. There are very few farm sanctuaries in the state and the country. We would love for Pittsburghers to embrace us. We need volunteers, board members, donations and people to follow us on social media and like and share our posts.”
Phillips hopes to move Hope Haven to a new property in Harmony, so the sanctuary will be starting a capital campaign soon to help fund building the structures needed to take care of the animals.
“I hope Pittsburgh takes us under their wing and helps us to expand. It’s a wonderful time for people to join us and feel part of the family. It is such a pure, loving environment.”
2. Schwirian Sunflower Farm Elizabeth
schwirianfarm.com
For the past 30 years, Jay and Leslee Schwirian have lived and raised their
three kids on a 78-acre sunflower farm. In the summer of 2020, in the middle
of the Covid pandemic, they had an idea. “We thought it would be nice to open
up our field to the public so people could get out of the house, be outdoors
and not have to worry,” Leslee Schwirian says.
The couple did not expect to get thousands of visitors at their first Sunflower Festival—typically held in July—but every year, 20,000 visitors have come to enjoy the spectacular beauty of their sunflower fields in full bloom.
“People were so grateful; they keep coming back,” she says.
Apart from a small parking fee, everything else at the festival is free. Families can walk around the field, bring a blanket and have a picnic lunch, take photos and pick their own sunflowers in a designated section.
“After the 10 days [of the festival], the flowers look pretty ugly,” the couple says. “They look like brown sticks.” So, for the rest of the summer, they let the plants mature. In the fall, they harvest, wash and clean the seeds and then press them to produce sunflower oil.
They use a cold-pressed process without any chemicals or heat. With a special press, they squeeze the seeds to extract the oil. Even so, some oil still remains in the seeds, which they then feed to their sheep. Later, they use the sheep’s manure to fertilize their field.
“It’s a big circle,” Jay Schwirian says. “We are using every bit of the sunflower.”
During the festival, kids can have fun with a bubble station and a scavenger hunt. This year, the farm is offering something really special: Hands-On Hive Tours.
Families (even those with young children) will have an opportunity to put on protective beekeeping suits and visit the farm’s honeybee hives. “Our purpose is to educate the next generation to understand what nature gives us and to preserve our environment,” he says.
Guided by an experienced beekeeper, visitors can pull out a wooden frame dripping with honey and taste fresh honey straight from the hive. “When you are holding the frame and you can feel, and smell and hear 1,000 bees, it is so powerful,” Jay Schwirian says.
The Hands-on Hive Tours will be by appointment only. “We can only do it on nice days,” he explains. Apparently, bees also get grumpy in bad weather.
3. Goat Rodeo Farm & Dairy
Allison Park
goatrodeocheese.com
Goat Rodeo Farm & Dairy is a 130-acre, family-owned farm located in Allegheny County.
“We have about 100 goats, between the milking, teens, kids and bucks,” says owner India Loevner. “Right now is kidding season. A lot of baby goats are being born, so we have lots of goat’s milk.”
And what do goat farmers do with goat’s milk? They make cheese!
Cheese made from goat’s milk is called chevre, a soft, spreadable cheese which many people simply call “goat cheese.”
“Kids really like it because it doesn’t have a ‘funky flavor,” Loevner says.
For the Loevner family, cheesemaking is a collaboration.
“My son, Will, majored in agribusiness at Penn State [University]. He is the farm manager, cheesemaker and he works with the goats,” she explains.
For the past 10 years, the family has collaborated to create numerous award-winning cheeses, like one called Bamboozle, which is a mixture of goat’s and cow’s milk and has a “supple, semi-soft texture with notes of prosciutto and peanuts,” and another favorite, Hootenanny, a Gouda-type cheese made from goat’s milk. One of their most popular cheeses is Wild Rosemary, which, as the name suggests, is hand-pressed with freshly dried rosemary leaves.
“Cheesemaking is a tricky puzzle,” Loevner says.
The tricky part is that cheesemakers can’t taste their cheese until three months after they make it because three months is the minimum amount of time a cheese needs to age before it can be eaten.
Although the Loevner family makes cheese all year long, their goats “dry off” in November, which means they don’t produce milk anymore, so at the end of every year, they get cow’s milk from Turner’s Dairy to supplement their supply. Though at the time we spoke to Loevner, she was excited because they were preparing to make their first batch of spring goat’s milk cheese.
Because it’s run by a small staff and they need to focus on the goats and cheese,
the farm is not open to the public. But this summer, take a moment to look for
the Goat Rodeo cheese, which is widely available in the Pittsburgh region, and
talk to your kids about goats and cheese. You can explain to them how a local
family raises goats and makes this cheese that you see in the market and at a lot of restaurants.
And if your kids wonder what it’s like to live on a goat farm, remember this fun quote from Loevner: “Goats are more fun than berries.”
