Explore a 60-Acre Oregon Farm Stay with Stargazing, Bottle-Feeding Baby Goats, and a Scenic Waterfall

The farm makes it easy to connect with nature.

Dense fog danced atop the mountains as I drove on winding coastal roads lined with towering Douglas fir trees. I was headed to my first agritourism experience at Leaping Lamb Farm & Farm Stay, a small sheep farm in Alsea, Oregon.

Leaping Lamb Farm & Farm Stay was originally a homestead back in 1896. The current owners, Scottie and Greg Jones, bought the property in 2003 and started operating it as a farm stay in 2006. The agritourism experience offers guests a chance to isolate themselves from people — Alsea is a community with only 220 residents — and connect with nature. Moreover, Scottie Jones emphasized that the farm stay also fosters family connections, bridging generational gaps (for example, between grandparents and grandchildren) as they embrace the slower pace of farm life.

Agritourism is not a new concept: It has been trending in Europe since the 1980s to help farmers earn extra income to sustain their farms. Consequently, according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, there’s a similar upward trend in agritourism in the U.S. This type of experience can be enjoyed regardless of your location through Farm Stay USA, a nonprofit initiative by Scottie Jones aimed at connecting guests with authentic working farms, ranches, and vineyards.

Having grown up in the tri-state suburbs, I had minimal interaction with agriculture and farming. In fact, my nearest encounter with the farming world was the produce section at my local Whole Foods. However, everything changed seven years ago when I relocated to the picturesque countryside of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Here, I frequently visited the local farmers’ market, brimming with meats, vegetables, jams, and other locally harvested goods. I quickly learned the advantages of shopping seasonally — the first time I bought blueberries felt as if I were tasting the fruit anew.

At Leaping Lamb Farm & Farm Stay, I stayed in an upstairs corner room within the expansive 4,000-square-foot farmhouse. Although the building is over 120 years old, it features several modern upgrades: a washer and dryer, central heating and air conditioning, alongside a large deck equipped with a grill. Notably, the five-bedroom, three-bathroom farmhouse accommodates up to 12 guests comfortably.

The barn features various animals for guests to engage with: 24 ewes, 32 lambs, two rams, chickens, a turkey, a horse named Tater, an adorable miniature donkey named Chip, and a handful of goats. You can participate in an educational guided barn tour or help with chores, including feeding the animals, collecting eggs, and bottle-feeding baby goats. Moreover, for those willing to get a little dirty, you can even assist in cleaning up after the animals.

The farm also boasts a garden and a greenhouse where guests can get involved in gardening or harvest fresh ingredients for their meals. In fact, the farm stay experience includes a DIY continental breakfast for guests to prepare meals to their liking using garden-fresh produce and eggs. To complement your meal, the kitchen is stocked with basics such as sugar, salt, pepper, seasonings, honey, flour, oils, cereals, fruits, bread, and milk. If you wish to prepare a lamb dish, the farm sells its pasture-raised lamb directly to customers.

Other farm stay activities include berry picking, foraging for mushrooms, hiking or biking on the forest trails, seasonal fishing in the Alsea River, picnicking at nearby Alsea Falls, splashing in Honey Grove Creek that runs through the farm, and stargazing on clear nights.

To conclude my stay at Leaping Lamb Farm, I embarked on a 20-minute morning hike up the mountain to a tranquil spot in the woods called Merlin’s Tree, where I was rewarded with serene stillness in an ancient forest. Before returning to the farmhouse, I gathered two freshly laid eggs from the barn to enjoy with the bread the hosts had prepared for me. It’s safe to say that my first farm stay experience exceeded all expectations — I had certainly traveled a long way from my previous encounters in the produce section of Whole Foods.