Evening Standard: Six of the best foodie farm stays in the UK

Once upon a time farm stays (or farms-with-rooms) were considered scruffy and uncharted territory for cultured city types. These days, however, thanks to its essence of slow-living and sustainability, it’s the ultimate countryside getaway.

The booming farm-to-fork culture is undoubtedly responsible for this seismic shift – where foodie stays are now graded on their authenticity, more so perhaps than the Egyptian cotton thread count, and where ducks waddling past breakfast tables or lambs bleating in the barnsbehind a hot tub is the sliver of bucolic life us Londoners came for.

Of course, some of these have slipped too far into gimmick territory, so here are some real farms, with real livestock and real provenance – from London restaurateurs setting up west country boltholes with creative, paddock-led menus to lonely Highland farmhouses-turned-boutique hotels feeding kitchens with home-reared lamb, venison and wonky turnips. Where the food, views and woodland romps elicit RightMove rural fantasy on the slog back to the Big Smoke...

Coombeshead Farm, Cornwall

Any gastronome heading south west will have Coombeshead on their radar: Cornwall’s farm-to-fork trailblazer that marries lofty city chef standards with top-notch rural produce and a slow lane appeal. Chefs and ex-New Yorkers Tom Adams and April Bloomfield (Tom co-founded London’s Pitt Cue Co.) took their culinary nous to a dairy farm on the green fringes of Launceston (think acres of Hebridean sheep-grazed meadows, oak-lined streams and pretty woodland). A made-from-scratch philosophy led from the get-go, with an on-site bakery, rustic-but-ravishing dishes (Red Devon beef with creamed kale and nettle; Mangalitza terrine & piccalilli) from the surrounding veg patches and fields, and reverential design that respects and references its dairy farm origins. Rooms are criss-crossed by light-timber beams and decorated with agri-cool vases of dried wheat, cosy sitting rooms are adorned with flea market trinkets and warmed by the glow of fisherman lamps. But previous guests, however, know it’s all about the farm’s house-churned butter lathered onto its own sourdough with orchard jam. Doubles from £200 per night, coombesheadfarm.co.uk