Hunsader Farms KOA

Hunsader Farms KOA

Hunsader Farms KOA in Bradenton, Florida, is a little bit country, a little bit quirky, and has a whole lot of charm!

First of all, let me say that we are not affiliated with KOA, or anyone for that matter.  I’m just sharing our 2022 journey, which happened to include some KOA campgrounds. Because of its uniqueness, Hunsader Farms KOA is one of my favorite places to camp!

History of Hunsader Farms KOA

According to their website, the three Hunsader brothers left their Wisconsin dairy farm back in the 60’s to start a vegetable farm in Florida. The farm prospered and grew and was handed down to their sons. It is now owned and run by David Hunsader and his family.

Not only is this a working farm, they have also expanded to include a petting zoo, a produce market, and in season, you may pick your own vegetables!

Camping – Down on the Farm

When we pulled into Hunsader Farms KOA, I think my exact words were, “How cute is this?!” I remember excitedly sitting forward in the seat to take it all in.

The first thing I noticed was the adorable produce market right at the entrance – a red-painted barn structure with an open-air array of colorful fresh vegetables. There was a wooden cart parked out front, driven by a stuffed scarecrow, and full of gorgeous pansies for sale.

Our late check in was a breeze, and we continued through the farm, past the petting zoo toward the campground. We passed more wagons, tractors, and scarecrows, as well as faux buildings set up to look like an old-time village, including a saloon, jail, and train station.  As we drove down the gravel road, a large field to our left was already planted with rows and rows of tomato plants.

We had scored three nights at the farm, and were looking forward to staying put for a while instead of moving every night. I was really hoping to finally have a campfire! And we were in dire need of doing laundry.

Turning right onto Tomato Trail, we found our Site # 15, complete with water and electric. There was no sewer at our site, but a convenient dump station was available. These sites are not super-private like the state parks we stayed in, but our spot was spacious and we weren’t on top of our neighbors.  It was a level, gravel site, and we were under some oak trees, all in all a pretty sweet spot.

The laundry was excellent, very clean and only a short walk away. Although I was no stranger to a laundromat – I’d used them plenty in my younger days – this was my first experience with a campground laundry. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that or what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities here. Loaded the clothes in the washers, plunked in a couple dollars’ worth of quarters, and after setting my timer, went back to our RV to wait. In a little over an hour, our big blue laundry bags were empty and our RV bins full of clean clothes. Successful mission!

The weather took a turn and became cold and super windy – like almost blow-you-over windy. So, we spent our first night tucked in our cozy RV, electric heater running, listening to the wind blow and little nuts falling off the trees and pinging off the top of our RV.

Camping Company

On our second day, the wind had died down, but it was still pretty chilly.

Some family members drove down from Brandon to visit us, becoming our first official RV guests! There’s not a whole lot of extra elbowroom for entertaining in our RV, but we had plenty of space for the four of us to sit around our dinette table and catch up.

We took them up on their offer to drive us up to the camp store and buy some firewood.

After our purchase, we took a stroll through the store and antique shop tucked in the rear of the KOA office building. Then we purchased burgers from the Eat Shack and took them back to the RV to enjoy. Our guests were so kind to bring us strawberry shortcake as a gift, which we thoroughly enjoyed!

What a super day!

Brrrrrrrrrr

On our second night, the temperature got down to 30 degrees, but rebounded nicely the next day to the 50’s with sunshine! Hey it’s still better than what was going on back in Pennsylvania – we heard they had snow again.

After putting our dinner of beef stew in the crockpot, I walked up to the store and bought some fresh produce, local honey, a bag of coffee, and some apple butter. The market was adorable and had all kinds of unexpected country treats – what a joy!

I also couldn’t resist the lure of the potted pansy plants, and purchased three of them. (These happy plants ended up traveling all over Florida with us and ended up beautifully blooming in my Pennsylvania garden well into late summer.)

The sunshine felt amazing when I returned to the RV. It was warm enough for me to actually sit outside and soak it in while I enjoyed reading a book. A pretty perfect afternoon.

Getting hit on by an Ostrich

We did not go into the official petting zoo on this visit. But you can still see plenty of animals on the walk between the store and the campground. One especially humorous incident happened when we met the ostrich.

 I think it fell madly in love-at-first-sight with Walt! It stomped its feet, flapped its wings, got down on its knees and bobbed its head – I’ve never seen anything like it.  And it wasn’t for me, only when it saw Walt!

I Googled it when we got back to the RV. Sure enough, I found that Ostriches who are raised by humans can totally be attracted to them.  Who knew?

Some more S’mores!

On our last night at Hunsader Farms KOA, we finally had our first campfire of the trip! We bundled up and Walt built us a great fire.

There is something so special and comforting about sitting around a campfire. Staring into the dancing flames and taking in the warmth of it. I hadn’t done that since I was a child, and it was just wonderful to experience it again.

Of course, to relive my childhood memories, I had brought plenty of graham crackers, Hershey bars, and marshmallows with us in anticipation of many nights around just such a campfire.  I had even invested in telescopic marshmallow roasting sticks, which I may add, worked beautifully.

As we sat around the campfire, with the flavor of chocolate still lingering on our tastebuds, we thought back on all of the adventures we’d had since starting our official camping trip just one week ago – had it only been a week?  We marveled at how much we’d seen and done.

We’d visited with family, watched manatees swim, seen alligators sunbathing, had a photo-op with a parrot, walked several beaches, been face-to-face with history, collected shells, met interesting people, saw glorious sunsets, enjoyed a campfire, and met an ostrich who was totally into Walt.  And those were just the highlights.

It was another one of those pinch-yourself moments. We were realizing that this was our RV life, and how blessed we were to be living it!

Goodbye to Hunsader Farms KOA

It had been a wonderful stay at the farm. We had hoped to strawberry pick before we left but that didn’t happen. So many people had come over the weekend, that the fields were over-picked and temporarily closed.  Although I was disappointed, it was something to look forward to on our next trip.

Total cost for our site in 2022 was $ 55.66 per night. For about the cost of a hotel room for one night, we had enjoyed three nights camping!

The campground is open September 2 to June 2. Not only can you park your RV or pitch your tent, you could rent a Conestoga wagon, cabin, or Silo. There is a playground, dog park, soccer field, disc golf, catch and release fishing in the lagoon and gem mining. And of course the stores, petting zoo, exotic animals, and pick-your-own vegetables in season.

On weekends they have train rides for the kiddos and buggy rides. In March through April they have flower picking. A pumpkin festival, complete with live bands, crafts, BMX show, and other activities will take place on weekends in October. Strawberry picking is available from late December to March.

Hunsader Farms is a KOA like no other! We will return.

https://koa.com/campgrounds/bradenton/