Manfredi Farms in Westerly, RI

My boys’ birthdays are less than two weeks apart, with the younger born right at the end of July and the elder in early August. Which means that for the first couple weeks of this month we are pretty much throwing a party at all times. This sounds like it would be really fun, but let me tell you, it’s exhausting! (And fun too.)

This year we decided to make this month even more chaotic by adding in a family vacation to Hershey Park complete with a way-too-brief stop at the Crayola Experience on our way home (more on all that to come!).

So in short, I’m still recovering 🙂

But since I took last week off from blogging (see note above about the family vacation), I didn’t want to skip out on a post this week completely. Especially since folks might be looking for one last shoreline adventure before the summer comes to a close.

So I thought I’d share a few pictures from this adorable farm we like to visit when we’re staying with my mom at her house in Westerly, RI. It’s called Manfredi Farms and it’s one part farm stand, one part petting zoo!

By the way, Westerly, which is just over the CT border, is a fabulous beach day destination for those of you living in eastern Connecticut, especially near the shoreline. There are some well known attractions there, like Misquamicut State Beach, the Watch Hill Carousel…and Taylor Swift’s summer house 🙂

Manfredi Farms is located at 77 Dunns Corner Road.

There’s a large parking area.

Just beyond the parking area is the farm stand.

But that’s not the exciting part (though their produce is excellent). Here’s why we love a visit to Manfredi’s: The Petting Zoo!

You can’t miss it. It’s on your left as you drive in. Goats, donkeys, sheep, ducks, chickens…even a big ol’ turkey the last time we were there.

Food for the animals is available for purchase in the store. It’s $3/bag (or bundle of carrots). They do take credit cards.

The set-up is pretty smart. First of all, there is a separate area between the main paddock and the outer fence where the chickens and ducks can waddle around. You can drop corn feed for them over the outer fence.

Then, there are these tube slides that you can use to deliver food to the larger animals.

If you need to wash up afterwards, there is this “restroom” with a portable sink.

Although we haven’t tried out these activities ourselves, according to their website Manfredi Farms also offers PYO opportunities (they were offering PYO sunflowers when we were there last week) and some special fall events too (hay rides, corn maze).

The petting zoo is open June through October, so there’s still plenty of time to stop by.

Now, I’ll be honest. We generally end up getting 3 or 4 bags/bundles of the animal food since the kids tend to blow through it pretty quickly. So at $3/bag, this can be a somewhat expensive 10 minutes of fun 🙂

But it’s such a charming place. And the animals are so full of, well, personality. We just can’t pass up a chance to visit while we’re in town. I’m guessing you’ll feel the same way!

 

 

 

 

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