Healeys Cyder Farm Cornwall – A family visit
The best part is you can visit Healeys Cyder Farm for free, and your visit can be tailored to suit what you want to do. Healeys is also dog friendly with all dogs on leads.
What is there to do at Healeys Cyder Farm
Surprisingly, quite a lot! I wasn’t expecting nearly as much, and there is something to suit your mood. I thought this might just be a place to see a “farm” but really just get alcohol.
It is so much more and here’s everything you can do:
Free Activities
Most of the Cyder Farm is free to visit with tickets for paid tours and Cyder and alcohol tastings.
- Farm Animals
- Jam Kitchen – also a shop to buy their jam
- Scrumpy Co Workshop
- Cyder Museum
- Welcome Desk – aka the shop
- Restaurant
Paid Tours
There are multiple different tours you can do and there is something for everyone.
- Cydermaster Pass- Tasting Room – including cyder, spirits, wine, soft drinks, home-made jam and more
- 1950’s Tractor ride through the farm and orchard
- Guided Cyder tour – All ages
- Full Access Tour – Adults only
You can find out all the details of each tour here.
Visiting with kids
I visited Healeys Cyder Farm at the end of the summer period, on a rainy day with a friend and both of our toddlers.
I didn’t feel anything was missing and everything was set up so well for visiting for young kids up to teenagers.
On arrival, we had booked our tractor ride and knew where and when to be to join the ride. For now, it was a slow pace through the farm exploring and letting the kids guide us what they wanted to see.
Visiting on a rainy day
Don’t let the weather put you off, other than walking from location to location, building to building, everything is undercover and with cobblestones in the farm area, you won’t be stomping in mud.
Farm Animals
The farm animals were our first stop and a great attraction to get up close.
On the farm you’ll find:
- Goats
- A horse
- Peacocks
- Chickens
- Pigs
- Donkeys
Other Activities
We slowly made our way around and what kid can avoid a ride on a vintage tractor? The surrounding buildings housed the jam kitchen and workshop.
The toddlers loved the jam kitchen and coming into fruit season, was great to show them how it’s made, taste a few different flavours and head home with a freshly made jar of jam.
They have a viewing platform to allow you can get a look down into the old vintage copper pots and watch them make the jam there and then.
We walked into the Scrumpy Co Workshop and this was like looking back into the past. Not the most exciting experience. This would be more exciting for older kids learning about it, but it’s still a nice addition to the farm.
Tractor Ride
The tractor ride cost £6 and was worth it. Both toddlers love tractors and to ride on a vintage tractor was a real experience for them.
Touring the Orchard
The tractor ride cruises through the entire farm, offering views of the orchards, fields, press house and distillery tanks. Taking approximately 10 minutes you’ll roll through the farm listening to a recorded local Cornish tour guide explaining the history and each different stop along the way. This was a great way to learn more, engage the kids and understand how the farm is run and why.
You’ll see the old ancient orchard and learn how the farm used to be run back in the 1800s as a dairy farm and was converted to a modern orchard. Although too young for my kids to grasp, this is great to show the older kids, helping them understand how food is grown, and picked and how the trees are managed.
The tractor ride has comfortable seats and the railings are tall enough but not too tall that any views are blocked. Strongly recommend doing this and we managed to feed the toddlers during the ride, so two birds with one stone!
Photo Credit: Healeys Cider Farm
As you meander through the farm at a slow pace you will begin to see the expansions to the farm. They are returning some of the outer fields to woodlands to create windbreaks for the farm which are crucial to the production of the apples and operating the cyder press facilities.
Touring the Cyder Pressing Facilities
This part of the tour leads you to the back of the new cyder press where you can see apples being unloaded into the press, ready to be sent into the press house and begin the journey to becoming cyder.
As you come around the back you are greeted by the Healey Cars which is an amazing collection of vintage cars that you can get up to very close and see inside.
Eventually, nearing the end of the tour, you will pass the Press house and bottling hall which are included in the other tours but you will see all the tanks holding their famous rattler and apple juice.
With toddlers this was well worth it, the constant next exciting thing to see kept them busy and showed them how farming operates. For older kids and adults this would still be worth the time to ride the tractor and learn more about the farm.
Restaurant
Afterwards, we visited the restaurant which is an amazing set up for families with baby chairs and plenty of space. The kids demolished the packed lunches and devoured the in-house-made scones and jam with a dollop of cream.
Options for adults were equally good in the restaurant but you can’t go past a cream tea and scone.
They include gluten-free and vegan options for visitors.
Leaving
With tired toddlers, we didn’t carry on and instead sampled what was available in the shop.
Three hours had flown by, keeping both toddlers entertained and both of us parents feeling the same.
Membership
The best part of all this is the day was mostly free, entertaining and educational for the toddlers and if we paid for membership which gives a tour, we’d get a year’s membership. We will gladly be back to do the full tour inside the facility, as well as a few cheeky samples!
Prices are cheaper online so book in advance and don’t discredit this place because it’s labelled a cyder farm.