Emma Prusch Farm Park — Attraction in San Jose

They have spacious parking and the park itself is quite big. There's lots of chickens and roosters walking about. And for someone who is scared of birds, this place would be a nightmare. The chickens and roosters are free to roam. They also have chicken feed you can purchase near the tractor to feed the animals with. Please be warned that they can get quite aggressive. And by aggressive I meant some huge roosters running towards your direction from a few yards away and into the fray of other chickens getting free food. So if you're scared of them, like myself, you'll want to stay away as far as possible.

They have one big playground which can get packed on a weekend, especially in the morning. Lots of things going on, such as, events and parties on the picnic sites. The area for small animals was still closed when we went there but a goat and sheep came to us by the fence, looking for food. The smell can get quite overwhelming, especially by the barn.

There are restrooms that are well-kept at all times. Plus, they have vending machines for sodas that come very useful on hot days!

Update: Fall of 2022, I went there with my family again. We were walking around and saw a man emerge from the bushes. He seemed unkempt, his stuff/bag dirty, and I got the impression he was homeless. I didn't think anything of it. We walked around the park some more, and after half an hour, we want back the same way. The same man was washing his hands by a sink/grill. Near his backpack, was a plastic bag. I could make out the silhouette of a medium-sized chicken in it, not moving, with its legs up. Fast forward to May 2023, we came back and found the playground closed. So my son and I walked across the field and into the big steel barn-looking structure on the other end of the park. On our way back, my son stopped and stooped over. He saw a clump of feathers. A few more steps forward was another clump of feathers. And another. Then I saw bones and a little further on, I saw talons. Y'all! These chickens are being...

Update: They have opened the new playground and it is really cool and great for the 4 and up crowd. They do have a small slide, pebble play area and some steps to climb for the littles, but it is geared toward the older kiddos. They even added plenty of seating for the parents and new restrooms close by. Yay! As great as the playground looks, it is impractical in many ways. First, the most glaring omission is shade. They put teeny tiny shade triangles over the slides and thought that would do it. There is no shade for the seating and the new surface traps the heat in the area. To top it off, the slides are metal! They must have discovered their mistake since there are small pop up canopies temporarily placed at the bottom of the hot slides. I'm not sure why they didn't do larger shade sails all over the playground, but this seems to be a continued theme at new playgrounds in the area. They have planted some new trees, so future generations might have some shade, but it is lacking now. The other big glaring issue is with access to the larger slide inside the chicken. The only way up is to climb through two spider web type type climbers. In between is smaller ropes that aren't very sturdy and almost impossible for the 3-7 year crowd to climb. If they only would have added a third spider web in between, it would have made it easier. The only way my almost 6 year old was able to access the larger slide was to climb up it, and slide down. Being that it is a tunnel type, that isn't the safest option. Maybe they did it to make access only for older, taller kids. That might work in the parents favor since there is no way most parents are going to be able to get inside to access a younger child. Overall, we like this park, but will probably only come back in the cooler months.

Great park with nice playground and lots of paths for the kids to ride scooters. Animals too, but petting area...

A free community gem. Wish it were more in use but this is the coldest season after all. Grounds are cleaner than at any dog park. Great for walking my dog on a leash, and the grass looks so healthy and inviting for my dog to graze on. Nice to see BBQ and picnic areas worth reserving in future. It would have been the kind of place I would have loved to go to for an after school program on a weekly basis in community gardening or just lots of biology lessons starting in kindergarten from the life cycle of chickens to that of any fruit bearing tree. Then holy smokes, how about summer camp?! I think signage can be improved whether any walker can do a clean loop-around of so many feet or fractions of a mile on certain paths. Tad disappointing whether the construction fence area is off limits and/or a dead end.

Well adding to my 4 month old review. Emma Prusch does not disappoint! It has the only dog-friendly farm stand on a Saturday, and near the farm stand is a youth farm where my dog happily rolled in the dirt paths with dust-coated peacock poop between the raised beds. Construction on the massive play area is finished, and my dog (on a leash) and I enjoyed a sunny Saturday of happy families...