Find peace at Feather Down Farms

Dream of escaping the hustle and bustle of life for the peace and quiet of country living? We've found the perfect answer. By Debbie Djordjevic

Everyone's talking about the quiet revolution going on in the countryside. Down on the farm the man who brought us Center Parcs has gone small scale with 'alternative' farm holidays aimed at those who want the experience without the muck.

My life is dictated by modern technology. I talk to my friends via email and text. I work, communicate and entertain myself online – and so does my family. I have 56 channels (well it's probably more but who can be bothered to count?) on my TV and I watch around 12. I catch up with the news via my computer and I make smoothies with the flick of a switch. I am smug about it all but often go to bed with a headache. In my fantasy world I bake my own bread and my children are sprung straight from the Boden catalogue.

So when the brochure for Feather Down Farms landed on my desk I could almost smell the fresh air… First problem was the resistance to my plan of 'up with the lark to gather fresh eggs and a quick wash over the clean water pump' with my children. Being girls of 12 and 14 they don't travel without somewhere to plug in their hair straighteners. And their weekends are just so busy.

'You won't want us there moaning all weekend, Mum!' said Nadia, shaking her head with horror at the pictures of tent and gaslight. 'My friends will think we're freaks!' responded Lily when I tentatively suggested that it may actually be 'fun' to get away from computers, satellite TV and shops for a whole 48 hours. I had to rethink the family experience angle and consider this a golden opportunity for a romantic weekend away without the children but with the husband.

So that is how we found ourselves on a beautiful September morning motoring through the Hampshire countryside to West Worldham, for a weekend of old-fashioned rural living at the UK's first Feather Down Farm. Will Brock and his wife Anna grow arable crops, rear sheep and have a herd of cows. They are famed locally for their beef and sausages (available in their butchers in nearby Alton) and for Anna's award-winning ready-prepared meals (www.annaskitchen.co.uk ), which are also sold locally or through her kitchen at the farm. They had been looking for other ways to diversify so when they saw an ad in 'Farmer's Weekly' for farmers interested in providing a new concept in holidays they were instantly excited.

'The more we looked into it and talked to Luite Moraal, the more we thought, yes we really can make this work,' enthused Anna as she led us from the car to the tent – our home for the weekend. Later husband Will expanded on their enthusiasm. 'Farming has become quite a soulless occupation of late,' he told me. 'Lots of farmers have had to lay off their farm labour and you end up doing all the work yourself and it is relentless – and quite isolating. We love to work with people and having feedback from locals on our butchers is really rewarding. Now we will have even more contact with people. I think when you have so much land at your disposal it is great to be able to share it.'

So what is all the excitement about? Well, this is camping for those that don't really 'do' camping but who hanker after time to live simply. The tents are large and extremely solid – they must be army issue but in a different colour because they are pretty permanent. Each tent is fully equipped so you don't need to bring anything – and if you run out of essentials like toilet paper or matches there is an honesty shop to replenish your supplies.

Will and Anna's farm has five tents that are far enough apart to provide some privacy. Our tent looked out onto the hen house (an old converted railway carriage), a clay oven (which Will often uses for a communal chicken and potato supper on a Saturday evening at a nominal fee per head), a couple of sheep and the surrounding countryside.

Each tent has a master bedroom with comfortable double bed, a room with bunk beds and a small double bed in a cupboard that younger children will absolutely love (especially as you have to stand on a stool to climb up into it). It reminded me of 'Heidi'. Lip service to all mod cons is paid in the form of a flushing toilet and running tap over the sink. And that is where the 'luxury' ends and the 'experience' begins.

First job of the holiday was to get the stove going. Thankfully Richard used to be a Boy Scout and grew up in the countryside so this wasn't really a chore but did set the scene for our back-to-basics weekend. Next we collected our bed linen and towels from the store to make up our bed.

Because there is no electricity, when daylight vanishes you have to live by candle and oil lamp so it's important to get organised as soon as you can. This also involved preparing the essentials for the evening – top of our list being to get the wine chilled in the cooler box (a thickly lined wooden cooler chest which you keep cool by adding iced hot water bottles!). You need to think simply because cooking has to be done in pots on the top of the stove. This gave us the perfect excuse to try one of Anna's ready-made dishes – a rich and warming Beef Stroganoff with salad and rice - and for self-catering thankfully there is a Sainsbury's close by so you don't need to suffer too much.

Life by candlelight is undoubtedly romantic and even the simplest of things took on a new and delightful spin. Instead of collapsing exhausted in front of the TV we completed a dominoes challenge (I won). Instead of loading and unloading the dishwasher we washed up our few pots and utensils by oil lamp in water heated by kettle on the stove, and because we had more to do but all the time in the world to do it in, we talked... and talked, a luxury that we don't often seem to have.

Morning brought sunshine but a very early start. Farms wake at dawn but nobody had told the cockerel who decided to start his macho strutting and crowing at about 4am. He was closely followed by his hens, the farm dog and a passing fire-engine, putting Richard in a state of total panic as he figured we must have left a candle burning and the tent was on fire. But waking to such a beautiful morning soon made us forget the early start and before long we had fetched fresh eggs from the shop (the children in a neighbouring tent had beaten us to the hen-house), and our bacon (bought the day before from the butcher's shop owned by our farmer hosts) was soon sizzling on the freshly fired stove. All that was left was the prospect of a three-mile walk through fields and woods to a country pub for lunch – bliss…

What you need to know

The Feather Down Farm at Manor Farm, West Worldham, Hampshire is open between March and October. You can book for weekends (Friday – Monday) or weekdays (Monday – Friday) or for full weeks. Prices start at £185 for the weekday break and bedlinen hire is £5.75 per person. There are now 17 farms available with feather Down Farms. For further details visit www.featherdownfarm.co.uk or call 01420 80804.

Debbie enjoyed her visit so much she tried another Feather Down Farms venue...