Down on the Farm: Inside the New Fishers AgriPark

The Fishers AgriPark officially opened to the public on July 28, and the timing couldn’t have been better for something new to do outdoors that everyone can safely enjoy. The thirty-three acre park offers plenty of room to socially distance. Face masks are required and attendance is limited to a small number of guests through online pre-registration and waiting lists. Ten preview evenings for local residents are being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the end of August for a rolling grand opening before regular park hours begin on September 1. My parents and I went August 6, the same evening as the ribbon cutting ceremony.

A variety of native wildflowers were planted this summer in a one-acre wildflower field in the park. The most prominent flowers we saw in bloom during our visit were coreopsis. The cheerful yellow flowers with mahogany centers greeted us as soon as we entered the park. In the future guests will be able to take flowers home with you-pick bouquets.

Across from the wildflowers are three acres of produce gardens that were planted this spring, plus a high tunnel used to extend the growing season for crops like tomatoes and peppers. A high tunnel is a frame covered in plastic that’s a hybrid between a greenhouse and an open field. Constructed in March, it serves to protect vegetables from frost when they’re first planted. Close to fifty different crops were planted at the park. A complete list of what’s growing on the farm is available on their website.

All of the vegetables grown at the AgriPark are given away. When we visited, cabbage, kale, banana peppers, eggplant, zucchini, squash, onions, corn, cherry tomatoes, and okra were among the vegetables that had recently been harvested by volunteers and park staff for visitors to take home for free. Many crops are also available for you to pick yourself. In addition, produce is donated to local food pantries. We were amazed that not only is the park free to visit, you get to take home freshly picked veggies! Look at our haul!

Visitors were given cloth produce bags to carry their veggies in; bags could be decorated in the community barn as part of the evening’s activities if you wished. Other activities for kids in the red barn included a paint a chick craft and kindness rock painting. The kindness rocks were placed along a short nature trail near giant rocks where visitors could also leave their mark with painted handprints. Near the barn were live music and a food truck.

The Animal Encounter area is home to six four-legged park residents. Mudsock and Calfuccino are adorable cow toddlers, cross-bred steer calves born at the end of February. They were my favorite animals to watch. Spirit is an eight-year old Rocky Mountain horse and fan of grass, hay, and snacks. During our visit, a farrier gave Spirit a pedicure during a hoof-trimming demonstration. Ewes Darla, Marla, and Carla made an appearance after being enticed out of their little sheep shed with dinner.

I’m hoping to return for a visit this fall when the autumn attractions are ready: a corn maze, pumpkin patch, and two-acre field of sunflowers. I was hoping to see sunflowers when we visited, but they hadn’t bloomed yet with the exception of a single early bloomer. I walked the length of the tall sunflower fields looking for more smiling yellow faces, but they were not quite ready. The corn was already tall enough to get lost in too, but the maze is not ready yet. Two acres of several varieties of pumpkins and gourds were planted June 12 for harvest this fall, so they will be coming soon as well.

Other attractions at the park include a nature play area for kids and a tree nursery. The play area includes see saws made from logs, a wood building area, a sand pit with towers of tractor tires to climb on, and a “mud kitchen.” Two hundred trees, including sycamores, red maples, sugar maples, Kentucky coffee trees, tulip trees, black gum and oak trees, were planted in April to start off the tree nursery, which will be used to replenish trees throughout Fishers’ parks, facilities, and roadways.

On our way out, we received more grand opening goodies: cookies decorated like corn, squeezy stress reliever cow toys which look like Mudsock and Calfuccino, sunscreen and hand sanitizer. It was a really fun evening and reminded us a little bit of a mini version of the Indiana State Fair, which we’ve been missing this year. If only there had been elephant ears!

To visit the Fishers AgriPark, check out dates and hours at Play Fishers. Admission to the park is always free, but guests must register for a spot. The park is located at 11171 Florida Road in Fishers, Indiana on the southeast corner of 113th Street and Florida Road, just east of Geist Reservoir.