Well Cottage is 25 minutes from Daylesford by car — pioneering organic farm and farmshop near Kingham, with a celebrated café, creamery, bakery, cookery school and the Bamford spa. The obvious place to do the weekend shop.
Daylesford is the original organic farmshop, the heart of an estate near Kingham that has championed organic farming for more than twenty years. The farm grows over 300 varieties of seasonal fruit, vegetables, salad and herbs, and the shop is a destination in its own right: an on-site creamery turning out artisan cheeses, an award-winning bakery, a beautiful café and a grocery brimming with produce grown or made on the estate. Beyond the food there is the Daylesford Cookery School, Bamford natural skincare and clothing, and the nearby Bamford Haybarn Spa, making it as much a day out as a place to shop. Around 25 minutes from Well Cottage, it is the perfect stop for a long, leisurely lunch and a basket of provisions to take home.
The farm shop itself is worth a slow circuit. The creamery counter turns out a rotating cast of artisan cheeses, from a creamy, lactic fresh curd to aged hard varieties that change with the seasons, and the bakery sells sourdough loaves still warm from the oven alongside proper croissants and seasonal tarts. Pick up a hamper of weekend provisions and you'll eat well back at the cottage. The café terrace is a lovely spot for lunch: the kitchen leans on whatever's ripe that week, so the menu shifts constantly. The Cookery School runs half-day and full-day classes, from sourdough baking to preserving and fermentation, and they book up quickly, so it's worth reserving ahead if you want a place.
Daylesford is around twenty minutes from Well Cottage by car, an easy drive through the lanes via Chipping Norton. Saturday mornings bring a crowd, so arriving early or coming on a weekday gives you the place at a more relaxed pace. The farm is open year-round, and autumn is especially good when the kitchen garden harvest is at its peak. We usually do both on the same day: shop at Daylesford in the morning, then walk across to The Wild Rabbit for lunch. The two sit on the same estate, and the kitchen at the Rabbit uses much of what you'll have just been looking at on the shelves. If you're looking for something restorative, the Bamford Wellness Spa sits on the same estate, with hot tubs, a steam room, and a full treatment menu. Combining a morning at the shop with an afternoon at the spa makes for one of the more indulgent days the Cotswolds can offer.
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.