Celebrate Mom with Fresh Air, Good Food, and Farm Hospitality
Celebrate Mom with Fresh Air, Good Food, and Farm Hospitality
Dig Deeper Blog
Authentic Farm and Ranch Stays. What's in a Name?
Scottie Jones
3 min read
(Header Photo: East Hill Farm)
We are so excited to present our updated website! This has been a labor of love, time, patience, and outside support.
Berry Fields Farm
We launched our first website in 2010 to introduce the term ‘farm stay’ into the American vernacular of travel and to give our farmers and ranchers a place to promote their experiential offerings. Looking back over those years, we know we were successful.
Checking brands, Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranches
But, now the brand of real working farms and ranches offering lodging is being diluted on sites that don’t verify the authenticity of their operations. Anyone can tick the box for farm stay on many of the best known booking engines.
We have worked too hard to let this go unchallenged!
Owens Farm
What you will find on the Farm Stay USA website are only farms and ranches that meet our Accreditation Standards. Our member partners promise an immersive experience in their rural lifestyle, whether it be a chance to help with chores, see food production first-hand, or experience the warmth of rural hospitality.
Hillside Homestead
Unlike other sites, we don’t only promote by location, but rather by the activities you can get involved with, the amenities you require, the food you would like to eat. Want to milk a cow or goat? Want to help herd cattle? Want a private bath or to eat organic? We’ll show you which farms and ranches offer these things.
Hull-O Farms
Only 2% of the U.S. population still lives on farms and ranches. That means the other 98% reside in
suburban/urban areas, disconnected from our rural countryside, the natural world… and ultimately each
other.
We would like to invite you to stay with us. It won’t be dirty; it won’t be boring; we won’t make you work; and it will be fun!
Bonne Terre Farm
What you may not realize, but of utmost importance, your visits help us reduce the agricultural risk of
our operations by diversifying our income, gives us on-farm jobs for our kids, and brings money into our
rural communities. So, thank you!
White Oak Pastures
Insight: This site and our nonprofit trade association (The US Farm Stay Association) are operated by two farmers who have their own farm stay business. We love being involved with our members from all over the country. We are proud to be part of the farm stay movement. And, ultimately, we love to show off to travelers the best authentic working farm and ranches vacations in America, ever!
Jean Marie's Garden
Berry Fields Farm
We launched our first website in 2010 to introduce the term ‘farm stay’ into the American vernacular of travel and to give our farmers and ranchers a place to promote their experiential offerings. Looking back over those years, we know we were successful.
Checking brands, Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranches
But, now the brand of real working farms and ranches offering lodging is being diluted on sites that don’t verify the authenticity of their operations. Anyone can tick the box for farm stay on many of the best known booking engines.
We have worked too hard to let this go unchallenged!
Owens Farm
What you will find on the Farm Stay USA website are only farms and ranches that meet our Accreditation Standards. Our member partners promise an immersive experience in their rural lifestyle, whether it be a chance to help with chores, see food production first-hand, or experience the warmth of rural hospitality.
Want to milk a cow or goat? Want to help herd cattle? Want a private bath or to eat organic? We’ll show you which farms and ranches offer these things.
Hillside Homestead
Unlike other sites, we don’t only promote by location, but rather by the activities you can get involved with, the amenities you require, the food you would like to eat. Want to milk a cow or goat? Want to help herd cattle? Want a private bath or to eat organic? We’ll show you which farms and ranches offer these things.
Hull-O Farms
Only 2% of the U.S. population still lives on farms and ranches. That means the other 98% reside in
suburban/urban areas, disconnected from our rural countryside, the natural world… and ultimately each
other.
We would like to invite you to stay with us. It won’t be dirty; it won’t be boring; we won’t make you work; and it will be fun!
Bonne Terre Farm
What you may not realize, but of utmost importance, your visits help us reduce the agricultural risk of
our operations by diversifying our income, gives us on-farm jobs for our kids, and brings money into our
rural communities. So, thank you!
White Oak Pastures
Insight: This site and our nonprofit trade association (The US Farm Stay Association) are operated by two farmers who have their own farm stay business. We love being involved with our members from all over the country. We are proud to be part of the farm stay movement. And, ultimately, we love to show off to travelers the best authentic working farm and ranches vacations in America, ever!
Jean Marie's Garden
We would like to invite you to stay with us. It won’t be dirty; it won’t be boring; we won’t make you work; and it will be fun!
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Where Hospitality Comes Naturally
Across the country, farms are welcoming guests in growing numbers, from short visits to longer stays, offering a close look at everyday farm life. It’s an invitation to see where food comes from and to experience farm life. Those who have chosen to do this have done so thoughtfully. There is no performance or theme, but instead a form of welcoming, a chance to share the land and introduce the families who care for it. From the outside, visiting a working farm can feel a little unexpected. The farmer has laden the breakfast table with jams they made and eggs fresh from the chicken coop. You step outside your door to pick fresh fruit from the orchard, or maybe you’re invited to try your hand at milking a dairy cow or holding a bottle of warm milk for a calf. The lights are on for your late arrival, and a friendly note on the table welcomes you to the farm. This is a visit to a family’s home in the countryside. At Farmstay, we work with farms and ranches across the country that welcome guests in many different ways. Some are just beginning their hospitality journey. Others have been opening their gates for decades, shaping hospitality through lived experience rather than any single formula. This is a small glimpse of the many farms that do this kind of hosting especially well (the first three farms on our list were early U.S. pioneers in farm hospitality, welcoming guests as far back as the 1950s).