‘Farm, Forage, Cook and Eat’ – the beautiful River Cottage cooking school in East Devon lives its field-to-fork mantra in every course it offers. Spearheaded by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and with the brilliant Gil Mellor on head-chef duty, the school’s extensive course list runs the full gamut of cooking and eating, from hedgerow foraging and fermentation to blue-cheesemaking and butchery, along with providing training in kitchen-adjacent skills such as beekeeping, veg growing and setting up smallholdings. You can get stuck into the ultimate four-day rural retreat course covering meat, fish, veg, baking and ‘all things delicious’, or if you’ve only got a day to spare, the resolutely nose-to-tail ‘Pig In a Day’ is likely to be one of the most memorable experiences you can have with a cleaver in your hand. River Cottage is also behind a regular roster of short courses at London’s Borough Market.

Four days at River Cottage: from £780

Pig in a day: from £240

Happy digestion: from £240 Mushroom foraging: from £195

Borough Market courses: from £65