Fun at the farm

Ever wanted to get a flavour of rural India and escape the city smog? Well, just take a three-hour drive from Delhi to Pratapgarh Farms where you can try out the rural life as a guest. Here you’ll get a chance to drive a tractor, milk a cow and even harvest sugarcane. And once you’ve worked up an appetite, you can tuck into country-style fare dished up on the farm like makki and baajrey ki roti accompanied by sarson ka saag — along with tasty parathas loaded with big dollops of butter made from the farm’s fresh milk.

Now, cut to Maachli, a 10-acre farm-stay in lush Sindhudurg, Maharashtra, where you’ll be put up in a 338sqft village-style hut. But don’t worry — to ease any aches and pains, each hut’s got an ultra-modern bathroom and a luxuriously sink-into comfortable bed. Here, guests are surrounded by dense coconut, betel nut and mango trees and they’re taught to cook Konkani cuisine on a mud stove. “It’s just beautiful here to relax and get away from it all,” says Prathamesh Samant, the property’s owner.

Earlier generations of urban Indians might have rolled their eyes at being offered a rural-style holiday in the heart of the countryside. But in our techno-age, as people get more distanced from rural life, holiday-makers are grabbing the idea of back-to-roots farm holidays.

“We realised many city people have completely lost touch with rural agrarian life, but are really interested in 
experiencing it. So we decided to open up our farms to the public,” says Ashok Malkarnekar, co-owner of Dudhsagar Farmstay in Goa. Here, on the verdant 34-acre property which grows mainly nuts and bananas, visitors can sample life away from the urban crowds. They can also enjoy the stunning beauty of Dudhsagar Falls, a tiered waterfall 
that is located on the Mandovi River.

Punjab is, of course, famous for its rich farmland and holidaymakers can get a feel of the state’s rural life at Punjabiyat, a farm located an hour’s drive from Amritsar. Here, guests stay in immaculately built huts made from mud dug on the property. They can get behind a tractor wheel or go clip-clopping along in a tonga. 

Alternatively, they can exercise their lungs by cycling to a nearby dairy farm 20 minutes away.

If you want, you can just laze about and “gaze at the glorious fields during the day and starlit sky at night”, says Ashish Bhatia, Punjabiyat’s owner.

When it’s time to tuck into a meal at Punjabiyat, you might dine in the fields or by a bonfire. The resort promises to enhance your culinary experience and serve each meal in a different setting. On offer, it goes without saying, is hearty Punjabi rural fare. But the farm also lays out continental fare for guests who like variety in their diet. The produce is from the farm or nearby.

“We offer four-poster beds in our cottages and great open-air barbecues. Also, our kitchen never closes, so you can dine anytime,” says Bhatia. And guests who want to go one step further can make their own culinary attempts in the kitchen. “You can try your hand at preparing some nice Punjabi food,” smiles Bhatia.

The trick of the perfect farm-stay is to create the right away-from-it-all atmosphere. Take Dudhsagar, the property in dense tropical forest. The resort offers two independent guest houses with verandahs and 
attached open-to-the-sky showers. Dudhsagar also features home-cooked meals and guided tours around the farm. “Our guests can help in our own vegetable garden as well as in cultivating all sorts of local fruits like jackfruit, papaya, vanilla and lemongrass to name just a few,” says Malkarnekar.

Besides that, guests can also milk cows and make their own ghee, experience a ‘natural fish spa’ in the nearby stream and learn to cook Goan food. And remember that the cooking lessons at Dudhsagar are very different — here you can pluck some of the ingredients yourself.

Of course, the key to it all is to offer rural-style activities that vary from one farm-stay to another. At Maachli, more adventurous guests can try climbing trees and use a traditional instrument to pluck coconuts and mangoes off trees. Alternatively, guests who are there on Fridays can slip off to the local weekly bazaar. And since Maachli is near the coast there is also the option of slipping off to one of the deserted Konkan beaches that are just a short drive from the farm.
Maachli has also gone to great lengths to offer the right local experience at the dining table. “We also offer regional home-made Malvani cuisine,” says Samant. And that’s not all. The food’s made from the organic vegetables and served either in earthenware pots or on banana leaves and ‘Patravali’ (leaf plates) in our dining area,” he adds.

For a rural holiday of a different kind, there’s Philipkutty’s Farm, where guests can stay in waterfront bungalows on an island in the backwaters by Vembanad Lake near Kumarakom in Kerala. The sprawling 535-acre farm covers almost the entire island and guests are taken on escorted farm walks and taught about regional farming techniques. “We grow coconuts, vegetables and many other fruits,” says Anu Mathew, the owner of the property. She adds: “We also have cows, geese, ducks and hens.”

On an entirely different note, you can also head off for a sunset cruise on a vallam (country boat) out on the open backwaters. Mathew also offers the option of a canal cruise through the narrow, winding canals where you can catch a glimpse of the unique backwater villages. And birdwatchers will have plenty to look out for. Another attraction is fishing in a very different way. “You can also try fishing by using our very own Chinese-style fishing nets, an ancient and traditional method in this area,” says Mathew.

And for those who want to add to their stay with rejuvenating treatments, the property offers traditional Ayurveda treatments and Yoga classes by professionals.

One pretty much unique farm which offers an entirely different experience is Acres Wild near Coonoor in the Nilgiris. The owner, Mansoor Khan, directed the cult movie Qayamat se qayamat tak (he also happens to be Aamir Khan’s cousin). Mansoor and his wife, Tina, opted to leave the bright lights of Mumbai behind and started their long-held dream of creating 
a cheese-making farm and a farm-stay. “We used to visit our house in Coonoor annually. So, when I wanted to shift my base permanently to Coonoor, I convinced my wife and the kids to move from Mumbai. It was tough, but eventually I got lucky,” says Mansoor.

Acres Wild is a rambling 22-acre property that offers accommodation in five cottages for around Rs 3,000 
onwards. Here, the main novelty for guests is the chance to enrol for a cheese-making course. “We offer a cheese-making course, where one can learn how to make at least two varieties of cheese,” says Mansoor. A basic 
two-day course costs around Rs 5,000 and an extra day will set you back by another Rs 2,000. He adds: “One can learn to make gourmet cheese from the milk of our hybrid Jersey and Holstein cows.”

People who enrol for the course get a 35-page course manual and are shown the finer points of cheese-making (they also get five litres of milk to make cheese). “Tina and the other instructors take the classes that are held every morning from 10am till six in the evening,” says Mansoor.

Pratapgarh Farms is slightly different from the other farms in that it mainly focuses on day-trippers from Delhi who first enjoy the three-hour drive from Delhi that offers spectacular views of vibrant yellow mustard fields and flocks of peacocks and other birds. When you enter the 12-acre farm you see sugarcane piled in a mound. “These are straight from our sugarcane fields,” says Subhash, the manager of the property which grows sugarcane, wheat and vegetables in its fields.
Depending on the season, Pratapgarh offers different activities. You could start early in the morning by picking vegetables at the farm and then helping with the cattle. And for sheer fun and games you could have a mudbath or have a dip in a tube well tank. On a different note, there are even activities like shooting.

Pratapgarh has organised its activities carefully. There are even camel rides that take guests around the property. And those who are so inclined can try their luck at pottery-making or the spinning wheel, or even draw water from the well along with the village ladies. Says Subhash: “We project ourselves as a quick rural getaway. People come, enjoy the local food and the ambience. We have guests who come here repeatedly, year after year. We use fresh produce from our farms in cooking.” The farm charges Rs 870 for a day.

Most of the farm-stays keep their charges reasonably inexpensive. They charge between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,500 for each day. And, for those looking to get away from the rigours of urban life, it can be just what the doctor ordered.