The idea of sharing holiday accommodation with a family of large, speckled pigs, a host of free range chickens and some gimlet-eyed goats might not sound very appealing. But my husband and I wanted to get away from it all in the heart of rural Britain without incurring an eye watering price tag for a chintzy bed-and-breakfast which had seen better days. So we took a chance and booked Huntstile Organic Farm.

The open space, the connection of the accommodation with the food and the long history of the house all combined to reinvigorate me- Helen Raine

We followed the mildly complicated internet directions through the rolling countryside of Somerset, down country lanes with 2.5-metre-high hedgerows and past gnarled oak trees sheltering herds of cows, pulling onto the gravel path at Huntstile within 20 minutes of leaving the motorway.

The place was a hit with our toddler from the instant we arrived. No sooner had we released the straps on the car seat, than he was pelting towards the chickens which were pecking around the old wooden wheel barrows overflowing with wildflowers.

The chickens of course took fright and scarpered but by this time, he had spotted the sheep in the pen beyond and there was no stopping him. In the meantime, we wandered around the farm trying to find out how to check-in.

We tried ringing the old pull doorbell on the solid oak, nail-studded door of the main house (which dates from the 1430s), but there was no response. Wandering through the deserted kitchen, which still had a tantalising smell of berries about it, was similarly fruitless.

Eventually, we resorted to modern technology and phoned the booking number, whereupon a polite young man with round glasses and a pointy beard materialised to show us to our room.

In my experience, internet hotel pictures have been cunningly taken so that the hotel room you are proposing to book looks big, bright and enticing. It’s only when you arrive that you discover you need to do the limbo to pass between the bed and the wardrobe and your room with a view actually overlooks a blank grey wall.

At Huntstile, the opposite was the case. Most of the farm was booked up so the lavish looking ‘Panelled Room’ (all Henry VIII-style wooden walls and cottage quilts), the romantic ‘Apple Loft’ suspended on a platform and the timber framed ‘Olde Wine Cellar’ were not an option. We were left with our last choice, the ‘Cider House’ which sounded vaguely vinegary.

When our guide opened the door, however, I was totally bowled over. The Cider House room itself was huge and beautifully decorated, making artful use of natural local woods, whitewashing and gorgeous furnishings to create a rural paradise without skimping on the mod cons.

But that wasn’t all. The room was attached, not only to a living area with extra beds, but to a loft bedroom. We are used to cramming the travel cot under a plywood vanity table in most bed-and-breakfasts due to lack of space, then spending the evening whispering in case the toddler awoke.

Here, we had the luxury of putting him to sleep in one room, sitting on the patio until nightfall, curling up on a comfy sofa and then retreating to our room for the rest of the night. For a parent, it was paradise.

But before we got to all that, there was a whole farm to explore and after a couple of hours in the car, the toddler was raring to go. He headed first under the granary, an ancient wooden grain store balanced on round ‘staddle’ stones to protect it from the mice.

Beyond that, were the pens for the animals; we spent a happy hour or so admiring the utterly relaxed pigs which had abandoned themselves to sunbathing. The goats also poked their necks through the fence to allow you to scratch the right spot.

Aside from enthralling small children, the animals on this working organic farm ultimately become dinner for the guests. They go straight from sunlit pen to plate minus all the chemicals that most farms use to rear their grain and animals. It’s a great place for children to learn where their food actually comes from.

We had arrived at an awkward, pre-dinner time with a hungry child and hadn’t booked a meal, but our host was unflaggingly helpful. Within an hour, we were sitting down to three plates so heaped with organic food, it would have served a family of six without difficulty.

There were home-reared meats, imaginative salads and bread so fresh and crusty it was hard to stop eating it to leave room for the rest. This was followed by a berry pudding and Somerset apple juice.

Southern England makes some of the best apple juice in the world if you know where to find it and this one left the taste of a crisp, ripe autumnal apple in the mouth.

We hadn’t asked the price of this phenomenal feast when we ordered it and expected a giant bill to match, but the toddler’s adult-sized portion was free (I’m ashamed to say that despite our own huge portions, we hoovered up his leftovers too; waste not, want not) and our two courses and juice came to around €35 in total, which was cheap almost to a fault.

After retiring for a calm night listening to the odd owl hoot, the chickens woke us in the morning and we enjoyed a similarly humongous breakfast followed by a bounce on the trampoline by our son and a farm walk past wildlife ponds and through dappled woodland to the Huntstile Stone Circle.

There’s more than you could ever hope to do in a weekend in this area; we headed to Glastonbury, but Kilve Beach’s fossils, the Cheddar Gorge Caves and Halswell stately home are also well worth a visit.

We left Huntstile with a worn-out child asleep in the car and a total bill of around €130 for a dinner, and bed and breakfast of outstanding quality. Better than that, I had a great sense of wellbeing.

The open space, the connection of the accommodation with the food and the long history of the house (mentioned in the Doomsday book), all combined to reinvigorate me. We only stayed for one night and wished we’d booked for more; for the price tag, the organic farm stay experience would be hard to beat.

For more information, visit www.huntstileorganicfarm.co.uk or to find another organic farm stay ithe UK, try www.organic-holidays.co.uk.