Children Get Taste of Farm Life in Orange

Children from schools and preschools around Orange County are learning about animals through the Green Meadows Farm program at Irvine Park in Orange. The monthlong program, which ends Friday, allows children to get close to more than 150 farm animals, including pigs, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese. “Kids can go in the pens and touch everything,” said Dan Keyes, one of farmers with the program, which operates similar farms in Wisconsin and Texas. “It’s not like a zoo where you just look.” Keyes said each weekday approximately 900 children visit the park, which is located on 35 acres just off the Costa Mesa Freeway at Chapman Avenue. For the price of admission, children get a two-hour guided tour, including pony rides and a cow-milking demonstration, as well as a hayride.