Louisville sits on the river, so an hour out of it does not stay in one state and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Ten of these farms are in Kentucky and one is across the Ohio in southern Indiana — Huber’s, out in the Starlight country at Borden, which is about twenty miles from downtown and closer than most of what is listed below. Every farm carries its real town and its real state.
Most of the ring runs northeast, up US-42 and I-71 through Oldham, Henry and Shelby counties, where the herd shares and the beef are. The rest sits south and southwest — Bullitt, LaRue and Meade — and a few of those are a full hour. We left them in because they come to town: free metro delivery, delivery routes, a CSA with pickups.
Call first, or check their own page. Nearly every farm on this page runs on the crop, not the calendar — Gallrein says outright that its season is weather dependent, and Huber’s asks you to check picking conditions before you drive out. Where a farm publishes hours we list them. Where it doesn’t, we say so instead of guessing.
pick your own apples, peaches and berries — go in season, call first — this lane, every state →
on-farm markets and farm stores, open when the crop is in — this lane, every state →
herd shares and farm dairies, described in the farm’s own words — this lane, every state →
beef, pork, poultry and eggs sold direct off the pasture — this lane, every state →
patches, mazes and hayrides, roughly late September on — this lane, every state →
choose-and-cut and pre-cut, wreaths and mistletoe, Thanksgiving into December — this lane, every state →
Answered off this page’s own list — nothing here that isn’t above.
Three farms in this ring run pick-your-own, and only one of them is inside Jefferson County. Hidden Hollow Orchard is a small u-pick apple orchard in the far east end of Louisville; its hours live on its own map-and-times page rather than the homepage, so call first. Gallrein Farms at Shelbyville has u-pick strawberries in spring and u-pick pumpkins in fall, on a season that runs mid-April through the thirty-first of October — the farm says outright that its growing season is weather dependent and crop timing shifts year to year. Across the river, Huber’s Orchard, Winery & Family Farm at Borden, Indiana rotates u-pick peaches, blackberries and flowers across roughly seven hundred acres, and asks you to call for picking conditions before you drive out.
Two farms in this ring advertise raw milk, both through shares rather than by the jug. Pink Elephant Farm & Kitchen is twenty-seven acres at Smithfield in Henry County, which the farm puts about thirty-five minutes from downtown Louisville; milk comes through a herdshare — a one-time share of the herd — and new members join off a waiting list form in the Dairy section of their site. Restoration Farmstead at Waddy runs a Shelby County herd share with home delivery included at no extra charge, but it does not publish which counties it delivers to. The realmilk.com listing names Shelby, Jefferson, Franklin, Oldham and Spencer — confirm your own address with Mark before you count on it.
Six farms on this page sell meat or eggs direct. Closest in is Foxhollow Farm at Crestwood, twenty miles northeast, where the market is self-serve and open daily dawn to dusk. Sherwood Acres Beef at LaGrange sells its own Belted Galloway beef out of a weekday farm store and delivers free through the Louisville metro on orders of fifty dollars or more. Dutch Creek Farm at Pleasureville takes orders through Barn2Door. Farther out, Barr Farms in Meade County and Cedar Valley Farms in LaRue County both sell meat on a share, and Restoration Farmstead sends pasture-raised meat and eggs out with the milk.
If you raise it, grow it, milk it or cut it within about an hour of Louisville and you’re not on this page, that’s our mistake and we’d like to fix it. Free listing, your links, your words, gone the day you ask.