Yoki’s Farm: Family-Friendly Farm Experience in Tagaytay

I like visiting farm locations. I find that communing with nature is rejuvenating, and seeing how locals work makes me appreciate the agricultural and other nature resources in the country. One destination I recommend is Yoki’s Farm in Mendez, Cavite.

Yoki’s Farm is a 10-hectare farm providing a wholesome farm experience to its guests. It has a hydroponics farm, orchidarium, zoo and museum. You can visit here on a day tour or stay overnight in one of their rooms to enjoy all facilities, including the pool. This place is only several minutes away from the town proper of Tagaytay, so it’s a great destination for those who are looking for wholesome or family-friendly activities in the area.

Our visit to Yoki’s Farm

I visited Yoki’s Farm on a day tour in 2019. Here are the areas we explored in the farm!

Museum

This is my favorite part of our farm tour. I didn’t expect to find a museum inside a farm, but Yoki’s Farm has a huge collection of real items, antiques and displays.

At the entrance, we were greeted by roaming peacocks. We even found an egg! How cute. There were also various displays, including the largest laughing Buddha in the Philippines.

Inside, we saw old typewriters and machinery, swords and guns, jade dragon boats and Chinese vases, Buddha displays, statues of Anubis and Egyptian guards, gods and goddesses, terracotta warriors and more. It was seriously breathtaking. There’s an enclosed room where more expensive items are kept, most of it in gold.

I loved the feeling of looking at the culture of different worlds in this room. I also felt a sense of empowerment, seeing the statues of gods and goddesses that are worshiped and recognized worldwide.

For improvement, I hope they put labels on each display, with essential information and whether the display is real or a duplicate. I also hope they do regular cleaning on the collections — seeing as the room was an open space, dust tends to collect on surfaces and it’s a real shame to see these precious items degrade due to exposure.

Zoo

Yoki’s Farm also has a zoo where you can see tortoises and reptiles, birds, snakes, pigs and other livestock. If you want to get up close and personal, you can join one of the interactive activities.

There’s the bird shoulder perch, where a staff carefully places a bird on your arm or shoulder and you can take a picture with the animal. During our visit, there was a White Cockatoo, Blue-Throated Macaw and Palm Cockatoo. The blue-throated macaw grips tightly and may cause scratches but other than that it’s safe. The palm cockatoo is the biggest (and scariest, boo!) and it likes to perch on high places such as shoulders instead of the arms.

There’s also feeding activities for horses and zebra.

This is a family-friendly activity for the young and young at heart. Personally, I did enjoy seeing the pigs and cute little piglets, rabbits and horses. Also, there was an incident where two horses decided to mate and we almost got trampled as the female tried to get away, but in the end no one was hurt and we were all laughing about it.

Hydroponics farm

Yoki’s Farm is considered the largest hydroponics farm in Calabarzon, supplying a lot of vegetables in the region. Hydroponics is basically a process of growing plants without soil, using instead a nutrient-rich solution.

Yoki’s Farm offers a guided farm tour. Here you can see their greenhouses where there’s a variety of lettuce. You can pick and pay for lettuce, if you want. There are also herbs and other vegetation, such as chili, tomatoes, cucumber and more. The farm tour here isn’t as exhaustive as that in Costales Nature Farms in Laguna, but it was still enjoyable especially for people like me who like to see actual farming and plantation processes.

While we were walking around, we saw mulberry plants and tasted the fruit. Tip: choose the dark ones and make sure not to let the juice drip, as it may stain your clothes.

Other areas

There are other areas you can explore in Yoki’s Farm. There’s a kiddie playground, landscaped garden where you can relax and take pictures, lagoon and pavilion area surrounded by greenery.

The Farm Table restaurant

This is Yoki’s Farm’s in-house restaurant, which utilizes farm-to-plate method, i.e., the ingredients are directly sourced from the farm to ensure quality and freshness. It has indoor and alfresco dining areas.

The Farm Table serves salads, all-day breakfasts and other meals, as well as smoothies and juices.

We’ve tried various dishes here and I recommend the pumpkin soup (135), mushroom parmesan crusted fish fillet (P290), arugula pizza (P325, good for sharing) and Yoki’s signature salad (P290). For the drinks, their bestsellers are the Basil Lemonade and Pipino Calamansi Fresca (P85 each).

Hotel and resort

Yoki’s Farm also provides lodging for those who wish to stay overnight. There are couple and family rooms, which come with complimentary breakfast and farm tours.

If you wish to fully explore the farm, enjoy its features such as the pool or simply relax in a nature-filled area, I recommend booking for an overnight stay here in Yoki’s Farm.

Final thoughts

I’d never heard about Yoki’s Farm in Mendez, Cavite, prior to our visit, so I was surprised to discover how huge this place is (10 hectares, with 4 hectares in use) and the variety of activities to do here.

While the guided farm tour is a bit short for my taste, it’s still enjoyable and will benefit those who would like a wholesome farm experience or those who’d like to learn more about hydroponics farming. Yoki’s Farm is also ideal for family trips, as the small ones will surely the zoo and its interactive activities, the plantations and the kiddie playground. Furthermore, there’s a lot of open space for kids to run around.

I also like that Yoki’s Farm provides all-in-one experience. Aside from the farm tour, it also has overnight accommodation and restaurant where you can taste meals made from fresh ingredients in the farm.

I had a really nice time here. I wish I’d known about the overnight option, otherwise I’d probably have gone for that instead of a day trip. 🙂

Practical Info: Yoki’s Farm (Mendez, Cavite)

Yoki’s Farm is a great family-friendly destination in Tagaytay.

Opening hours: 8AM to 5PM

How to get to Yoki’s Farm

Address: 3 Tabluan Road, Palocpoc 1, Mendez, Cavite

In Tagaytay, ride a jeepney to Mendez and get off at the 7-11 town proper. Ride a trike to Yoki’s Farm.

To get back: It’s best to get your tricycle driver’s number to fetch you back to Mendez as there are no other PUVs passing by Yoki’s Farm.

Rates

These are the current rates for day tours (Updated as of May 2019):

By the way, you can also go inside Yoki’s Farm only to eat at The Farm Table (no entrance fee).

These are the current rates for overnight accommodations :

Contact

For inquiries, reservation and booking, you may contact Yoki’s Farm in the ff:

Facebook | Instagram |  email: yoki_farm@yahoo.com | mobile: 09178079588

Disclaimer: Thanks Katrina of Happy and Busy Travels for inviting us and Yoki’s Farm for hosting our visit! As always, thoughts and opinions are my own.

Have you been to Yoki’s Farm or other farm tourism places near Metro Manila? Let us know in the comments below!

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