McCray’s Farm and Country Creamery

My family LOVES McCrays farm! My 2 yr old gets so excited when she sees the baby farm animals and gets to feed them. We love the hayrides and pumpkin picking too. McCrays must’ve listened to the previous reviews because they had all the haunted hayride props covered when we went for our pumpkin picking hayride. Great place to bring children for mini-​golf, petting farm, and ice cream!

I come here about once a month with my 2 year old daughter. The ice cream is really good, especially on a hot day. You just have to remember that this place is a farm and it’s going to be muddy, dirty and smelly. You can feed some of the animals, which is always fun for small children. The geese can be a little moody so watch your fingers, and the llama does like to spit on you, but seems to single out certain people. The hayride and pumpkin picking are always fun. They do drive through the haunted hayride area so if you have really small children then you should distract them because it can be frightening for them (My child seems to love it.)
If you are coming here any time during the winter months or after there has been a rainstorm then you should wear boots because it gets very muddy.
That being said they do need to clean the place up a bit. More gravel in the small parking lot, and it wouldn’t hurt to add more wood chips to the walking area through the animals. The bathrooms need the most attention as anyone that goes in there with anything less than a bottle of Bleach is a very brave person. The interior of the «restaurant» area could use some TLC as well. It does get quite muddy in there at times and could really use a remodeling job. Let me stress that this is a really good place to take small children to pet/​feed animals and get some really good ice cream and other dairy products.

Went here for hay ride + pumpkin picking with my young daughter.
The hay ride went straight through their Haunted Hayride set, chock full of corpses and dudes getting decapitated.
Daughter is still having nightmares over that.
Throw a tarp or something over them during the day, ffs.

So I drove up here all the way from Bristol, CT last night for the Haunted Hayride. I thought the Hayride and the Haunted House were pretty cool except for the staff member that was on our hayride with us. I understand things like not taking pictures and swearing, etc. Once she was done with her speech about using no electronic devices I decide to put my phone on silent. I didnt even take the phone out of my hoodie pocket and she comes over and threatens to throw me off of the hayride if I dont hand over my phone immediately. I have a slight argument with her about it and that I am not handing over my company phone to her and that all I was doing was turning my ringer off and she was adamant about throwing me off of the hayride. I sy

One star is more than this place deserves. mini golf is garbage and the worst of all is the haunted hay ride. Horrible employees that tried to kick people off our hay ride because they were too loud? Save your money and do something else this place is poorly managed

My boyfriend took me out to McCray’s for ice cream, a place he has been going to since he was a kid. When we pulled up, I was instantly in love. Farm fresh ice cream, animals, mini golf, in a beautiful country setting? Yeah!
Then I got out of the car. Whoever is in charge of cleaning up the poo, has been slacking on the job. WOW.
Now, I realize that farm animals come with a fragrance, but this was intense– and it’s not like we were trapped in a closed barn with them. This was open air, people. Yikes.
Fortunately, the ice cream/​food counter is indoors, where you can be protected from the odor of pig crap while eating. I’m pretty boring when it comes to ice cream and always order the same thing– Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip frozen yogurt– theirs was quite fine. My sweetie was very happy with the two flavors he had in his small cone, and the girls behind the counter certainly weren’t shy with the serving size. They have a nice variety of flavors, monster sized waffle cones, something called «ice cream pizza», and all kinds of cute looking cupcakes and baked goods in a case. They also serve burgers, grilled cheese, stuff like that.
I’ll bet it’s an adorable fall destination as well.
This place is cute as hell, but for god’s sake please improve the maintenance and care of your animals.

Ice cream is pretty bad, tastes watery and flavorless. But that’s not the worst part.
I have been on farms plenty of times in my life, and have friends who grew up on dairy farms. When I described the smell to them, they agreed it’s not the smell of a well kept farm, that it is the smell of animal waste not being cleaned up or processed properly.
It is a sharp ammonia like odor that you smell before you pull up and stays with you after you leave. Most farms I have been on have the low earthy smell-​where you can tell there are animals there, but it’s not overwhelming. The acrid smell is quite honestly overwhelming, and I don’t know why anyone would want to eat near it. It smells and appears like the animals environment is not tended properly, I am sure the pond is more or a cesspool at this point.
If that’s how they tend to their animals environment, I worry for the animal’s well-​being. By no means do I want to eat at this place.

Tried to go to the haunted hayride one night. Parking attendant was rude and so was the cop directing traffic. Girl tells us it’s a five hour wait. We decide to leave and pull into the field where we were told to park, and it’s all mud. We were stuck instantly and were spinning out along with everyone else. Five guys finally pushed us out and we left. Our friend slipped and fell into the mud. The parking attendant told us if we made our own row it would really piss her off. We never made it inside and just left with us and our cars covered in mud. We were never told to be careful of the deep mud or anything. The place sucks!

Ice Cream in the Pioneer Valley is the subject of intense debate in my household. After much discussion, the current consensus is that McCray’s is second best, but the best single scoop we’ve had came from here. We also come here more often than we go to our favorite. (McCray’s is closer and is extremely good.)
The Pumpkin ice cream was one of the top ten cones my husband has eaten in his life. It’s seasonal, so get it if you can. My usual scoop is the mint chocolate cookie (better than their mint chocolate chip). The portions are very large (I sometimes have a hard time finishing a Kid’s, which is smaller than small) and the prices are low.
Besides the ice cream, there’s a petting zoo. Down the hill, there’s a little mini golf course, which we’ve played. It wasn’t anything life-​changing, but was a fun afternoon’s activity.

Went for pumpkins– It seemed like most of the pumpkins were perfect, and when we went to pay it was actually really cheap, I’ll def. go back next year.

For little kids, McCray’s is a paradise of sheep and goats and ice cream. The hamkey happily scarfed her banana ice cream and loved peeking at all the animals, though I secretly thought the bunnies looked very sad even while the goats, sheep, calf, pony, and other critters pressed around for any nibbles you may have around your person.
The mister and I, being a bit more discerning, weren’t quite as ecstastic. We sampled several flavors of ice cream and sadly a lot of them tasted synthetic: the butter pecan, pistachio, and banana all seemed to be missing their namesakes in lieu of extracts and flavorings. However, the peppermint ice cream was excellent, made with actual peppermint pieces instead of peppermint extract. The «small» turned out to be bigger than my fist, easily more than a scoop and a half!
McCray’s is a bargain, what with the free petting zoo and cheap ice cream, so take the kids and don’t expect too much.

Kenneth B. writes «WHAT A LETDOWN!!» in his review. I respectfully disagree. McCray’s is not the best rustic ice cream stop in the Valley, but it’s not half bad either.
Their miniature farm zoo is great for kids to roam wide-​eyed in. «LOOKIT THE BUNNIES!» they’ll coo. Then you can take them indoors for some very good ice cream with sprinkles. The lunch menu of typical American farm stand fare is of typical quality for fried food. There’s usually plenty of seating, both indoors and out. There’s an ample lawn for kids to play on. Plenty of parking, too. The farm overlooks the Mt. Tom range across the Connecticut River, further adding to the bucolic backdrop.
McCray’s is somewhat off the beaten path, all the way in South Hadley. Some folks might be put off by a dedicated drive to South Hadley if coming from, say, Northampton or Springfield. That said, it’s just a quick five minutes up Lathrop street from the 202 bridge from Holyoke.

McCray’s farm is a fun place to visit, especially in the fall. You can take a hay ride out to the pumpkin fields where you can pick your own pumpkins. The hay ride is only $ 3 and the pumpkins themselves are really cheap. There’s also mini golf and really good ice cream. It’s not absolutely out-​of-​this-​world ice cream, but it is very good. It absolutely is great little place to take your kids or your date anytime, but especially in autumn.

Homemade ice cream at farm.

I was planning a trip with friends to explore Northampton, spend a day
out in the Pioneer Valley. I thought it might be nice, while out there, to
hit an ice cream stand. something a bit rustic, not right in
Northampton (otherwise would’ve simply gone to Herrell’s!). Did a
quick google search and came up with McCrays. OH!, I thought, I
hope this is a little gem of a place!
WHAT A LETDOWN! The place was dumpy. The girls behind the
counter were disorganized; the servings were miniscule; at least the
ice cream wasn’t as awful as the ambience, but no better than
average.
I don’t want to really bash the place too too badly, but as I was driving
away and saw the muddy mini-​lake they had by the stand, it was just
plain depressing looking. Very disappointing. Next time if I want to
bring friends to an ice cream stand kinda place, I’ll just hit Kimballs,
which is always reliable, with huge portions.