Coming face-to-face with rare breeds, getting hands-on with olive oil production and guaranteed farm-to-fork make agricultural stays hard to beat. Lucy Kehoe picks Europe’s best immersive options
This article was taken from the May 2024 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.
Not all farm stays are odes to rusticism: in the sublime swoop of South Tyrol’s Passeier Valley, a renaissance has occurred at this 50-year-old family-run estate. The sibling duo at the helm of Apfelhotel Torgglerhof set out to reimagine agritourism for the 21st-century with surprising results. Rising from the apple orchards of Martin and Maria Pichler’s family farm is a glittering glass wedge of a building, roofed with green grass and elegantly juxtaposed against the more traditional Heidi houses also dotted across the property. The dusky, delicate interiors of the 44 rooms – all brushed cottons, raw-wood walls and soft forest hues – feel far from your typical farm stay. Make no mistake, though, the culture of Alpine cultivation runs deep: from dawn ‘til dusk, the orchards around the hotel buzz with the working operations of the apple farm and in spring the rambunctious fruit farm is awash with delicate pink-white blossoms. Guests are invited to get involved in farm life, depending on the season, helping with the apple harvest from August to October or picking grapes in summer’s last reaches. Cider tours are on the cards too, as are wine tastings with regional viticulturists. Spot one of the Pichlers en route to the orchards and they’ll likely offer a ride on the tractor and a mini tour of the farm’s inner workings. And then there are the hills to explore, alive with the stomps of mountain hikers. A stylish restaurant plating up farm-to-fork cuisine grown on site has been added by the entrepreneurial family, along with a spring-water- fed spa that sits beneath grassy hillocks, accessed by a hidden entrance like a Bond lair. Head to the space-age sauna – a pine- planked, circular room with spectacular views across the farm – for a dry heat infused with mountain herbs and local apples. It’s a modern-day, Tyrolean Garden of Eden – with no forbidden fruits.
Doubles from £282, half-board.
00 39 0473 645433, apfelhotel.com
There’s a painterly quality to the landscapes of Sweden’s most southern region: in summer, vibrant rapeseed thrives under the soft sun, while on the winding forest roads that take guests from Malmö to the centre of this farming area, rust-red barns sit amid lazily swaying grasses. The aristocratic Wanås Estate, with its medieval castle and 800-year-old woodland, adds to the canvas. A stay here is no lordly affair, though: the concept at Wanås is more akin to stopping by to see a friend. An old dairy barn transformed into 11 rooms offers white walls and minimalist furnishings – a haven of Scandi design. There are no TVs or coffee machines; instead, guests are encouraged to commune with their neighbours, both animal and human. Swedish delights including homemade toffee await in the honesty pantry (and bar), and a roaring open fire in the lounge invites conversation with strangers. The mud room, equipped with wellies and macs, provides protection from the weather – necessary when exploring the grounds of one of northern Europe’s largest organic dairy farms. Art and agriculture dance in tandem: alongside a sculpture park decked out with works by Yoko Ono and Hans Berg, guests can roam the sprawling grounds, seeking out eggs in roost houses and joining staff for a curated walk through the organic estate – just watch for the free-roaming wild boar. These snufflers, like the local mallard and cattle grazing the fields beyond the castle, frequently make appearances on the restaurant menu, where all produce used is grown, reared, made or hunted on site. Tasting menus might include pickled celeriac and cured wild boar in wild mushroom broth, gougères dusted in lingonberry powder and fresh cheese tartlets topped with edible flowers. The deli sells estate produce, so any tongue-tickling favourites can be taken home too.
Doubles from £286, including breakfast.
00 46 044 253 1581, wanasrh.se
Far from the rugged, granite peaks you might associate with rural Scotland, this grassland farm offers a bonnie farmyard stay that – timed well – will give guests a front-row seat to the lambing season on a working sheep farm. Just an hour out of Edinburgh, tucked between two pretty-as-a-picture Perthshire villages, Guardswell is a 60ha idyll that is home to steely-eyed Hebrideans, those small, hardy grazers with black-as-pitch faces and raggy coats running in colour from whisky-brown to coal black. In May, lambing (as well as kidding for the Angora goats) starts; rent one of the cottages, hilltop cabins or farmhouse rooms and you’ll be able to help feed the flock and watch as offspring are born under crisp spring skies, beside the delicate blossoms of farm apple trees. Other muddy-boots experiences include vegetable growing workshops (up here, rhubarb is ready to harvest in May), wild foraging and cooking, and in kitchen-based workshops you can learn techniques such as fermentation, using produce grown in the on-site regenerative kitchen garden and the greenhouse. In the hilltop, off-grid cabins, wood-burning stoves keep pesky springtime chills at bay, and windows more akin to natural picture frames offer views across the Carse of Gowrie and southern Angus – it would be easy to spend an entire stay lounging within, soaking up the design-led interiors and hidden beneath a soft sheepskin throw. Whether you’re tucked up in the modern shepherd’s hut or bedding down between the thick walls of the farmhouse, though, all guests are invited to use a communal open fire to cook up a storm in the evenings using produce plucked from the farm shop.
Doubles from £150. guardswell.co.uk
Olive oil has ensured the presence of civilisation along the pine-scented slopes of the southern Peloponnese for millennia: the roots of the olive groves carpeting the Laconia region stretch back to the ancient Greek era, so it’s no wonder the liquid gold sits at the heart of this organic farm. Sparkling seas entice travellers to the nearby Gulf of Laconia, but for those seeking solace among the pine forests, the biodynamic property offers the chance to experience the slow, cyclical rhythms of agricultural life on the Greek mainland, with guests invited to experience all parts of the process of turning bitter fruits into delicious oil. Arrive in winter to join in the harvest, or explore the oil’s intricacies with tasting in the groves led by in-house oil sommeliers when the weather is warm, before participating in farm-to-table cooking classes that make ample use of the oil. The farm takes its stewardship of Laconia’s landscape seriously: guesthouses, surrounded by headily scented lavender, are geothermally heated and equipped with a recycled water system. Inside, pared-back interiors include minimalist kitchens that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Brooklyn loft.
Doubles from £318, half board.
00 30 6947 151400, eumelia.com
For a pastoral foray into the West Country, look no further than the agricultural folds around Lewannick, near Cornwall’s border with Devon – specifically Coombeshead Farm, a self-sufficient, food-first endeavour from chefs Tom Adams (of London’s Pitt Cue) and April Bloomfield (New York’s The Spotted Pig). Since 2016, the chefs have created a guesthouse, restaurant, bakery, smokehouse and curing and pickling rooms on the former dairy farm. Beyond the 18th-century house lie 27 hectares of farmland, ancient woodland and traditional villages, so it won’t be long before you come face-to-snout with a snuffling pig or two or find a preening cockerel. There’s no television and barely a phone signal, so days are spent wandering among sheep, free-roaming chickens and bee colonies and snacking on complimentary clotted cream fudge. Five rooms are decked out in antique furnishings, and dinner is served in the barn, when Tom and his team offer a journey through the region’s larder, the nutty-brown-butter-doused asparagus likely plucked a few hours earlier. Wake to a communal breakfast of farm eggs, home-cured bacon, juicy sausages and fresh rye bread.
Doubles from £165, including breakfast.
When the soft winds blow across the low peaks of the Serranía de Ronda in Andalucía, there’s a flavour of the Wild West: sharp against the hazy sky, its wooded hills seem to hold the modern world at bay, keeping agritourism property Finca La Donaira suspended in time. The gracious Lusitano horses bred at this Spanish ranch add to the other-worldly mirage, the ancient breed appearing as ghosts of another era, silhouetted against pale sunsets. So too the rare, steeple-backed, horned pajuna cattle that roam the surrounding groves. In contrast, the rest of this rambling eco-retreat borrows a touch of California’s utopian free spirit, with whitewashed buildings creating cool alleys of shadow from the fierce sun. The intimate stay – just nine beautifully dressed, quirky rooms located in the old cattle stable – promises an old-world ethos but doesn’t skimp on luxury, with an on-site spa in the olive grove and wellness experiences such as yoga, meditation and stargazing included in its offering. Across 700 hectares, farming is guided by the celestial calendar: join a tour to meet the sheep, goats, chicken and cows who call the sun-baked landscape home. Elsewhere, guests are invited to visit the stables and learn about Spanish cow-rearing, or relax by the natural outdoor pool. A highlight is the healing bee experience – specially adapted hives enable guests to lie in statis, meditating to the soft hum of insect life (but safe from any stings). In the kitchen, New Nordic star Fredrik Andersson plucks and picksproduce to deliver a hyper-seasonal vegetarian dining experience enlivened by homemade dairy produce and farm-made olive oil.
Doubles from £650 (2 nights minimum), including all meals and drinks.
00 34 680 654454, ladonaira.com
Listen out for the doleful lament of the Ertebøllefår when staying at this Danish farm stay. No, that’s not some troll-like creature of ancient folklore stalking the fields of North Zealand (the northern end of the island that houses Copenhagen): rather, it’s a rare breed of sheep that, alongside Danish Red dairy cattle, call the dazzling beauty of Mangholm farm home. But curious rare breeds aren’t the only visitors likely to arrive unannounced at the door of your wooden cabin when staying at this agritourism accommodation. Alongside the reverberating chirps of insects hidden in the swaying summer grasses that surround this farm’s two rentable cabins, and the chorus of birdsong that begins and ends every day, free-ranging chicken are prone to stop by as they run around on a reccy of the 48 hectares of self-sustainable farm estate – Mangholm is something of an Old MacDonald farm experience. Open from May to September, the air smells like dry hay and wild roses, and dappled ancient woodland edges the sprawling vegetable gardens. The main farmhouse, home to a biodynamic restaurant, is a red-shuttered traditional barn building that wouldn’t look out of place in a story book. Book into one of the two wooden cabins – either the two-person Forest Cabin, a jauntily angled wood and glass creation flooded with natural light, or the Garden House, with its airy kitchen and living space, which has room for a family of six. Accommodation in this wild, natural spot is rustic (note, bathrooms are located a few metres away in the main farm buildings) but no less beautiful for it.
Doubles from £200. mangholm.dk
In Allgäu, cattle easily outnumber locals. There’s a fairy-tale feel to the mountain terrain in this bucolic corner of Germany: unlike the harsher peaks of the German Alps that crest the region’s horizon, the gentle heights of the Adelegg mountains contain grassy meadows, fruit orchards and cow-grazed pastures. It’s here, folded into the wildflower-speckled fields, that Christian Müller and Lisa Rühwald opened their reimagined farm stay, a Hansel- and-Gretel-worthy former hay barn transformed into three self-catering apartments, complete with sloping floorboards, wonky walls and wood-panelled exterior. Duck beneath the cascading wild rose that clambers up the facade and you’ll find cosy spaces within designed around the wabi-sabi principle of imperfect perfection, all equipped with fully furnished kitchens, vast copper bathtubs and funky kids’ bunk beds. Outside, cows wander freely, though they’re kept away from the natural spring water pool that makes use of the mountain waters. The self- service farm shop, meanwhile, is stocked with local dairy produce alongside everyday essentials (and, with this being Germany, beer). A beautifully planted sun terrace has a grill and outside fireplace for evening hedonism and the on-site sauna is perfect for soothing sore legs after hill hikes or slow cycles on the bikes available to rent. For recommendations, just ask the owners: they know the spots to find a hearty plate of spätzle or feierabend (‘afterwork’) beer, and can organise visits to goat and alpaca farms nearby.
Doubles from £214 (3 nights minimum).
00 49 8373 467 0322, dasrosso.com
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