Embracing a passion for nature at 42 Acres in England
Hannah MacInnes reviews a self-guided retreat at 42 Acres in Somerset, where she discovers a labour of love, some hard-working beavers and gardens worth nibbling
I arrive at 42 Acres on a beautifully sunny cold, crisp January afternoon and the first thing I notice is the silence. It’s so peaceful here. All I can hear is birdsong.
The same tranquility pervades inside too. On entering the Hermitage, you leave your shoes at the door, something I’m immediately grateful for as it contributes to the clean, minimal feel of the place I will call home for the next two days.
The Self-Guided Retreat with its freedom to just ‘be’ in a wild but luxurious space: lake swimming, nourishing home-grown food, keeping to my own time, had hugely appealed - a spoiling treat I could fit into an otherwise busy life. And, as soon as I’ve set foot inside and then in my socks step onto the immaculate wood panel floor, the vibe here gives me a vivid image of my having to be physically dragged off the property when it’s time to leave. And this before I’ve even seen my room.
“I love how much I learn. It’s only with my feet on the soil, living and breathing the evidence, that I start to grasp the real meaning of concepts like permaculture and rewilding”
When I do, it certainly cements the feeling. It’s large and airy, with a high exposed beam ceiling and enormous bed so sumptuous I’m immediately excited about leaping into it. Light pours in from big lattice windows; one looks onto the lake, the other, lined with plants, onto the kitchen garden. Someone with a real eye for design has had a hand in these interiors: clean and fresh, minimal yet luxurious, they instantly instil comfort and serenity. Everywhere I find beautiful bouquets of delicate dry flowers that are dried on site in their own special garden.
My first experience - Regenerative Produce Gardening - is a continuation of the food and love theme which abounds and weaves through everything here. Head grower Dave shows me how they grow fruit and veg, and recently quinoa, with a focus on increasing biodiversity and working with nature. It is January so I have to leave a fair amount to the imagination but there’s so much passion and potential here. I cut an abundant amount of bright green rocket for the kitchen and then head back via the woodfired sauna in its magical woodland glen, adorned with fairy lights and which I alternate with freezing outside showers as the dusk closes in. Bliss!
I trudge back in my towel and after a warm shower snuggle up by the roaring fire in the library with a cup of tea and wonder when I last felt so fully relaxed.
Evenings bring an hour of yin yoga which is about as perfectly soothing as it gets. We lie in candlelight on the softest sheepskin rugs with a roaring fire, calming music and the dulcet tones of the delightful Bethany to guide us.
Then, relaxed and restored, it’s time for bed. I sleep from 9pm through to 7.30am when I run barefoot across the muddy grass for a plunge in the icy lake: embracing the morning, embracing nature, a perfectly peaceful and invigorating start to the day.
Though nothing is compulsory, the experiences are too good to pass up. Not least Garden Grazing with ornamental gardener Russel, who introduces me to an abundance of new plants as we smell, feel, and nibble our way around the gardens. I marvel at the amount of thought that goes into it all, as we find Corsican mint in the path cracks so the aroma will waft up when they are walked over. I taste sweet fennel, King’s spear, Salt Bush, and Olive Herb. Teeny Chinese artichokes that have been picked and washed earlier are presented to me on a plate.
Russel is a fountain of knowledge but profoundly humble with it. He knows the Latin names for all the plants and amazes me with the ways they can be incorporated into our diet. There are beds for different tastes, including a ‘sweet garden’ where they grow roots for syrups to flavour the food. I tasted yacon syrup straight from the jar.
I love how much I learn. I have interviewed many experts for podcasts about biodiversity but here the learning is interactive and raw, imparted by experts with experience and passion. It’s only with my feet on the soil, living and breathing the evidence, that I start to grasp the real meaning of concepts like permaculture and rewilding.
And rewilding is brought richly to life on my Guided Beaver Walk with Martin, another man of innate wisdom, who shows us how reintroduced beavers have gnawed down trees, built dams, a breeding lodge home and helped to create wetlands, habitats for other species and improve water quality. I picture them wearing construction vests. The whole thing blows my mind.
All food here is a true labour of love. The bread I have for breakfast, toasted with lashings of nut butters and organic jams is the most nourishing and delicious of things, packed with seedy goodness. I hope I’ll have the patience of these saintly chefs to make it at home.
In the dining room are teas aplenty, endlessly replenished jars of impossibly delicious freshly baked buckwheat and walnut cookies, energy balls, dried apple slices and a fridge filled with chilled bottles of kombucha.
Supper is at 6pm, which is wonderfully early for me, and which means you fall into bed early too and digest all the deliciousness.
Food is served buffet-style and one of the passionate chefs explains with justified pride what on the profoundly nourishing selection from their soil-to-gut menu they have put their efforts into. Think beetroot lasagne with the most al dente of homemade buckwheat pasta or sumptuous squash risotto, garden grown salads, vibrant veg and jars of homemade pickles bursting with flavour.
Puddings appear like wholesome versions of Michelin-starred fare: chocolate ganache sprinkled with raspberries, cacao nibs and a crispy sprig of sage and a vegan creme caramel, topped with ‘the first primroses of the season’.
Reluctantly, I leave, feeling rested, rejuvenated, full of life and of wonder for the natural world, as well as warmed by the immense kindness and depth of knowledge, albeit disguised behind profound humility, of those who work at 42 Acres. Those who, working alongside the wildlife and with the greatest respect for the land and the soil, make the magic happen.
