A day at Jimmy’s Farm

We have been to Jimmy’s Farm several times, which is the best review I can give a family attraction. One visit can be enthusiasm. Several visits mean it survived the opinions, appetites and differing attention spans of our family.

Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park is near Ipswich in Suffolk. It began with farmer and television presenter Jimmy Doherty’s rare-breed pig farm and has grown into a wildlife park with animals including polar bears, keeper talks, play areas, food, shops and seasonal events.

It works for mixed ages because it is not just a small children’s farm. Younger visitors have animals and play; older children and adults have wildlife, talks, walking and food. You can easily spend a full day there without having to stretch the final hour around a gift shop.

Book before you go

Buy tickets online in advance through the official ticket shop. Advance booking is usually the best-value and least-faff option, and it lets you check opening times and any special event affecting the day.

I am deliberately not putting ticket prices here because this article should remain useful for longer than a yoghurt. Check the live site for current rates, concessions, family tickets and any discounts.

If you love your visit, ask customer services about upgrading to a Wild Pass annual membership. Jimmy’s Farm currently advertises that today’s admission can be deducted when you upgrade on the day. Terms can change, so confirm at the desk before leaving rather than emailing me from the car park after everybody has gone home.

Annual membership includes unlimited visits and other benefits listed on the current membership page. It is worth doing the maths if you expect to return for seasonal events.

What there is to do

The name can make it sound like a traditional children’s farm, but the current animal list covers more than 100 different species and breeds. There are polar bears, lions, a tiger, brown bears and Arctic foxes, alongside capybaras, tapirs, meerkats, camels, reindeer, wallabies and lemurs. You will also find reptiles, birds, butterflies and the rare-breed pigs, sheep, cattle and chickens that connect back to how Jimmy’s Farm began.

That range is one of the things I love about it. It is not often that you can look one way and see a polar bear, then turn around and become equally pleased by a goat or a rabbit. The goats are always among my favourites. I cannot give you a particularly sophisticated reason for that – I just always love a goat.

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The polar-bear reserve is a huge part of the park, but the smaller animals stop the day feeling like a race between headline attractions. With such a wide mix in one place, everybody tends to find something they want to linger over, even when nobody agrees on which animal is best.

Talks, play areas and planning the day

Check the Plan Your Day board when you arrive and choose the keeper talks or activities you most want to see. The schedule changes, so I would rather build our route around what is actually happening that day than march everybody across the park for a talk that was on last summer’s timetable.

There are also adventure-play areas, den building and the bouncy pillow, which gives the children somewhere to use whatever energy they have apparently conserved while telling you their legs hurt. Allow a full day if you want to see the animals properly, catch a couple of talks, stop for lunch and leave time for play without rushing everybody around.

Food and shops

The Barn Restaurant and Coffee House serves breakfast, lunch, lighter food and cake, so you can eat there even if you have also brought enough picnic food to support a small expedition. We often take our own lunch because it works well for a larger family, then buy coffee, cake or an ice cream during the day.

It is also worth leaving time for the on-site shops. The Farm Shop sells meat from the farm, deli food, local produce, cakes, snacks and drinks, and there is a gift shop, sweet shop and plant centre too. It means you can take something home that is more useful than another plastic object selected during a five-minute gift-shop emergency.

How I do picnics

When I make a picnic, everybody gets their own compartmented box. I can fill each section with something that person will actually eat, which is far more useful than making one beautiful shared picnic and discovering that three people object to half of it.

Each person also gets a zip-seal bag containing things such as fruit, a protein bar or flapjack and crisps. Once the food has been eaten, the bag doubles as somewhere to put orange peel, yoghurt pots and wrappers until we find a bin. It is a very small piece of organisation that prevents the bottom of my backpack becoming its own recycling centre.

For the main part of lunch, I usually make pasta salad or couscous rather than wraps or sandwiches. Bread can go soggy after several hours in a bag, and fizzy-tasting bread is not a picnic experience anybody needs. Leafy salads can suffer in much the same way once they have been carried around, warmed up and thoroughly jumbled.

My favourite is a simple pasta salad. I use gluten-free pasta for mine and ordinary pasta for the children, then mix it with mayonnaise or vegan mayonnaise, tuna, sweetcorn, olives, a little red onion, chopped red pepper, fresh parsley and plenty of black pepper. It is filling, easy to eat and still resembles lunch when I open it several hours later.

For fruit, I choose things that travel well, such as grapes, apples, easy-peel oranges or chopped kiwi in a sealed compartment. Raspberries and strawberries are lovely at home but can turn into fruit compote without anybody asking them to. I add crisps, flapjack or another easy snack and usually avoid chocolate because it can melt even on a day that does not feel particularly warm.

Drinks go in cold, with a few slim freezer packs around the boxes rather than one enormous block taking up half the bag. I might take bottled drinks and a can of something else for later. The aim is to keep everything cool without carrying so much that the picnic becomes the main physical challenge of the day.

I prepare and chop everything at home, so the only cutlery we need is a fork for the pasta salad or a spoon for a yoghurt. Always remember the cutlery. There is no reason to carry a small knife around the park when you can do the entire job in the kitchen before leaving.

What else to pack

Everybody knows how much I love my little survival kits, and a wildlife-park day is exactly when they earn their place.

Hand sanitiser and wipes are particularly useful after being near the animals and before everybody starts digging through their lunch boxes.

Tickets downloaded to my phone, plus a screenshot in case the signal disappears.

A portable charger and refillable water bottles.

Sun cream, hats and light waterproofs, depending on what the British weather has planned.

Hand sanitiser, wipes, plasters and any medication we need.

Spare socks for the children – the bouncy pillow has a habit of turning perfectly dry socks into soaking ones.

Napkins and the forks or spoons needed for the food I have already prepared.

There are plenty of picnic tables, so I do not bother carrying a foldable blanket and this keeps the weight down to a minimum.

Between the individual boxes, slim freezer packs and everybody carrying their own drink, the main bag stays manageable and I still have room for the emergency items somebody will definitely ask for.

How to get the best value

Book online, check the events calendar and compare a day ticket with membership before visiting. If you upgrade, do it while your day-ticket transaction can still be verified.

Members may receive retail discounts, entry to seasonal events and offers with partner attractions, but use the current membership page for the exact benefits. If you qualify for a public-service or Blue Light discount, check the FAQs for how and where it applies because some discounts are gate-only.

Is it worth a full day?

Yes. Arrive near opening time, choose two or three talks, explore at a relaxed pace, stop for lunch and leave room for play. If you rush, you will miss the details that make repeat visits worthwhile.

The fact that people can take their own picnic makes it more manageable for a big family, while the café means nobody is obliged to become a catering operation before breakfast. That balance is part of why we have returned.

My final advice is to check the weather, book online and keep one snack hidden for the journey home. It will become valuable at the precise moment everybody insists they are not hungry and then changes their mind simultaneously.

Useful links: Jimmy’s Farm · Tickets · Wild Pass membership · Visitor FAQs