FISHERS, Ind. – Living in a highly developed community doesn’t mean losing a connection to a farm. A desire to provide opportunities for residents to learn more about agriculture led to the creation of the Fishers AgriPark in fall 2019, according to the park’s operations manager.

“Mayor (Scott) Fadness wanted to take this 33-acre property and teach the community about agriculture,” Trevor Wildey said. “The goal was to teach residents about where their food comes from, how it’s grown, and to offer fresh, free produce to our community.”

The AgriPark offers u-pick produce, farm animals, a sensory garden, and includes a tree nursery, he said. The park is owned by the City of Fishers and managed by the Fishers Parks department.

The number of visitors ranges from 150-500 daily, depending on the time of year and what’s available for u-pick, Wildey said. The park typically sees more than 40,000 visitors annually, he added.

“There are animal encounters, produce picking, self-guided nature play, opportunities to check out equipment on the farm, and personal engagement with the farmers that care for the land,” Wildey explained. “Each season we listened to what the community wanted and started adding from there.”

The park opened May 1 for the season and closes in October.

U-pick options, depending on the time of year, include squash, beans, sweet corn, peppers and tomatoes, he said. “The typical season for us is late May/early June through October. Pretty much any vegetable that grows in our region, we attempt to grow.”

The tree nursery has more than 300 trees, 200 of which are native varieties such as red/sugar maples, Kentucky coffee, tulip, black gum and oaks. The rest are fruit tree varieties, Wildey said. The longer-term plan is to use their shade trees in other parks around the city and offer fruit from the trees to the community, he noted.

Mike and Beth Johnson, of Fishers, have visited the park a couple of times, once with their son, daughter, and grandchildren, and a second time with their daughter and granddaughter.

The park has activities and exhibits for adults and children, the Johnsons said. People may visit during park hours and pick produce for free. The park offers a rotation of crops that are ready for picking, they said.

“They have several animals that are out that you can watch for fun along with your kids: a goat, a horse, a pig, some cattle, sheep, and some chickens,” Mike said. “We pet the horse and pig, who came up to the fence.”

Their grandchildren enjoyed picking produce, he said.

“They have a very creative playground, with different apparatus for balancing, a ‘wall of sound’ with all kinds of noisemakers, a seesaw, mud kitchen, sandbox areas with large tires, stumps and logs, a small lean-to,” Mike said. “We had to almost pry (the grandchildren) away from the playground.”

The park also has a nature trail, and corn maze in the fall. The family enjoyed learning about agriculture, they said.

“In the corn maze, our youngest grandson was fascinated in finding ears of corn on the stalk, which he hadn’t seen before,” Beth said. “He then wanted to look for them on about every other stalk of corn we passed.”

Making a periodic visit helps to gain awareness of what crops are in season during the year, the Johnsons said. They said they would recommend the park to others, as it’s a good opportunity to get the family outdoors, enjoy nature and get some produce from the garden to use in cooking.

Wildey said the AgriPark offers “pop up” events that could be classes on gardening, beekeeping or pickling/cooking using produce from the garden. The park has a partnership with the local school where every second grader visits the farm three times a year as a part of the school’s curriculum, he said.

“We have a classroom onsite with a teacher that educates students on topics such as equipment, erosion, plants/animals, and how to grow your own foods,” Wildey said. “We typically have around 1,400 second grade students come through each year. We also offer eight weeks of summer camps with about 60 kids a day. Each week is a different theme ranging from animal husbandry, equipment on the farm, becoming a farmer, etc.”

He said the AgriPark’s staff appreciates comments from the public.

“We’ve had an amazing response and great feedback from our community,” Wildey said. “Our community farm wouldn’t be possible without the support of our amazing volunteers, or without listening to what the community needs are.”

For more information, including hours, visit www.playfishers.com/217/Fishers-AgriPark.