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).
Hull-o Farm
Durham, New York
Hosted by Sherry Hull
This 7th generation farm has the welcome mat out for its two private guest houses on property. The original 1810 farmhouse where the Hulls live has a great room and wrap-around porch that offer a welcome place to share stories and memories with the farm family or other guests.
Frank will take anyone out for chores who wishes to accompany him and Sherry hands out Young Farmer certificates to children who participate.
Liberty Hill Farm
Rochester, Vermont
Hosted by Beth Kennett
A working dairy farm and member of the Cabot Creamery, Liberty Hill opens its farmhouse doors to overnight guests, offering a firsthand experience of life on a multigenerational dairy farm.
Beth is there to greet you on arrival and keeps the kitchen warm and welcoming, serving breakfast and dinner family-style around the farm table. Guests are also invited out to the barn, where Bob shares a firsthand look at the dairy in action.
East Hill Farm – The Inn
Troy, New Hampshire
Hosted by the Adams Family
For many guests, East Hill Farm represents the classic American farm inn. For decades, this family-run farm has welcomed guests with shared meals, open barns, and seasonal traditions, shaped in large part by Jennifer Adams steady presence and care as a host. It’s the kind of welcome that feels both familiar and enduring, why so many families, one generation following the next, return year after year to reconnect with a place filled with memories of a farm family’s hospitality.
Bonne Terre Farm
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
Hosted by Jennifer Gray
Bonne Terre Farm offers a thoughtful and gracious model of farm hospitality in rural Louisiana. The farm invites guests into a place shaped by art, music, history, and atmosphere.
Jen is an attentive host, calm and grounded. Her hospitality is southern at its best. Even the animals are welcoming. Guests are encouraged to enjoy the landscape as it unfolds, unhurried and unforced, with a strong sense of connection to place.
Graves Mountain Lodge
Syria, Virginia
Hosted by Eric Starck
Set against the Blue Ridge Mountains, this property originally hosted travelers as early as the 19th century in the old farmhouse. These days Graves Mountain Lodge offers a compelling example of how farm hospitality can scale without losing its soul.
Three generations of the Graves family work the gardens, orchard, lodge and restaurant, welcoming guests year-round and adding more stories of hospitality to this land.
Airlie Farm Bed & Breakfast
Monmouth, Oregon
Nancy Petterson
Airlie Farm is well known for its Quarter Horse stock. Just as well recognized is the warm hosting in its farm house B&B.
For over 25 years, Nancy has welcomed guests with a smile and breakfast overflowing the dining table. Guests are encouraged to slow down, visit the foals in season, play with the goats, and just drink in the countryside and its sunsets.
Scurlock Farms
Georgetown, Texas
Hosted by Sheron Scurlock
Scurlock Farms reflects a warm, family-centered approach to farm hospitality. Located in central Texas, Sheron welcomes guests into a lived-in landscape shaped by daily work, open space, a river, her mother’s renowned artwork, and a long connection to the place.
Guests are invited to enjoy the farm as it is, comfortable, welcoming, and rooted in real life rather than presentation. Hospitality feels natural, shaped by care and warm home-baked muffins!
Heritage Hollow Farm
Stockton, Illinois
Hosted by Aby Breed
The hashtag “Your Farm Away From Home” says it all. This working sheep farm, an easy drive from Chicago, invites guests to immerse themselves in all they do. Aby welcomes guests to the property and loves to demonstrate and get help with morning and evening chores for the full-on experience. She will also remind guests that relaxing in the hammock or by the fire for some much-needed rest is just as important.
The hospitality focus here is comfortable lodging, privacy, and a variety of experiences for guests to enjoy at their farm away from home.
Taos Goji Eco Lodge and Farm
San Cristobal, New Mexico
Hosted by Elizabeth Vom Dorp
Set up in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range of New Mexico, Taos Goji’s host Elizabeth invites guests to watch the sunrise with a cup of pinon coffee in hand and then come in for a breakfast made with ranch fresh eggs.
The hospitality doesn’t stop there. There’s an open invitation to wander, explore, taste, harvest and share in the labors of the ranch: organic Goji fruits and vegetables. There is also the reminder to make oneself “at home”.
Dogwood Hills Guest Farm
Harriett, Arkansas
Hosted by Thomas & Ruth Pepler
Dogwood Hills Guest Farm has a mother-daughter team behind it. Friendly and welcoming, these ladies demonstrate farm hospitality rooted in simplicity, care and good food for their guests.
The farm is located in the Ozark foothills near Harriett, Arkansas. Guests can relax in the quiet that comes from being well off the beaten path. It’s a place designed for rest and re-connection, where the welcome feels warm, genuine and easy.
Hospitality at its heart
What unites these farms isn’t a checklist of amenities or a single hosting style. It’s an understanding that farm hospitality is shaped through experience, responsibility, and long-term relationships with both land and guests. Each visit may look a little different and that’s what makes it memorable because no two farms or their hosts are alike.
At its heart, farm hospitality is about genuine care and welcome. It’s about sharing a lifestyle and a place with others. It’s friendliness; it’s a smile; it’s taking time away from the day’s work to open the door and invite guests in, for a stay, for a meal, for a story.