The family farm stay that includes a trip to the abattoir

“Step into the slaughterhouse”. This is not an invitation I’d ever imagined my daughter, Ella (12) receiving, certainly not on holiday. But this is the offering at Cheshire’s Tatton Park, where Field to Fork: Two Centuries of Farming at Tatton Dale Farm has just opened in the rare breeds farm after £1.3m Heritage Lottery Funded investment, with clever soundscapes and interactive exhibits animating farm life from birth to death.

We stepped gingerly into the new abattoir attraction, a brick hut near the pigpens where blacked out windows allow a backdrop for shadowy projections of a pig carcass. The five-minute Horrible Histories-style story, of a kitchen boy tasked with bringing pork to Tatton’s manor house, details the slaughter and butchery of a pig, complete with props: a bucket of blood, some sharp tools and a few piggy off-cuts. They’re plastic reproductions but real enough and the narrative, while a historic tale, doesn’t pull any punches. Ella, who has dabbled with vegetarianism, took in the entire show without bolting for the petting pens, awarding it 10/10 for “keeping it real”.

British farms are increasingly offering families hands-on experiences that don’t flinch from the realities of agricultural life, along with some lovely rural accommodation and hearty food. Farm stay holidays let urban children go free range, and are the most engaging way to learn how food gets from field to fork. It’s interesting to note that while the National Trust used to run farm stays with family activities, there’s nothing planned for this summer or next. However, elsewhere, from a new abattoir attraction to lambing and cheese making, there is plenty of authentic fun to be found on farms around Britain. Here are 10 of the best ways to learn more about field to fork eating.

1. Tatton Park, Cheshire

Petting farms are a staple agricultural attraction, but often the elephant (or rather, the condemned livestock) in the room is that the critter you’ve just cuddled is likely due for the chop. Not so at Tatton Park estate where the brilliantly revamped rare breeds farm offers the chance to step inside the old slaughterhouse to hear a Horrible Histories-style narrated tale of a pig’s journey from pasture to the manor house pantry, complete with bloody props and shadowy projections. A week at Tatton’s Dairy Farm Cottage, sleeping five, costs £642.

2. Abbey Home Farm, Gloucestershire 

Stay in this eco-friendly Cotswolds stone cottage set on a 650-acre organic farm with an award-winning shop and café that serves up farm-focused cookery courses and cheese-making classes. There are daily trailer tours with the chance to get involved with farm activities and meet the sheep, pigs and cattle, along with green woodworking lessons. And if you really want to immerse yourself in rural life, there is a shepherd’s hut, yurts, and a wood cabin to rent, too. Cottage from £600 per week (sleeps four).

3. Drover's Rest, Hereford

Take a stop at Drover’s Rest, a 16th-century staging post for farmers en route to market. Today’s welcome, courtesy of South African couple Kesri and Paul Smolas, is one of the warmest in the Welsh borders. This organic sheep farm comes with safari-style glamping tents, chic farmhouse cottages, and the focus is on communal living, with group dining, fun camp fire socials, pizza making sessions, and daily farm walks to help the Smolas family and kids collect eggs, herd sheep, feed the goats and churn cheese. From £695 per week in a Drover’s Rest cottage sleeping four, including breakfast.

4. WWOOF farms, Sussex

Live and learn on organic farms and smallholdings with the WWOOF network. Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms offers clean simple accommodation on proper working farms with all manner of opportunity to get involved knee deep in muddy farm action. This is the real thing, from butchery to biodynamic muck spreading, and if you’re not ready to commit to two weeks on an agritourismo in Italy, then book a UK taster day (£15pp) offered on two farms in Sussex. You’ll have the chance to try simple farming activities, ask lots of questions, and eat some home-grown organic food. If you're really keen, you can pay £30 for a joint membership/£20pp (children are free) and have access to stays at 600 farms in Britain where you can stay.

5. Sgriob-ruadh, Isle of Mull

Families can watch udder-to-vat cheese making (four times a week), and kids can have a go at milking (twice daily) on this BBC Food & Farming Award-winning estate off the West Coast of Scotland. You can visit the milking and maturing rooms at Sgriob-ruadh (Gaelic: meaning "Red Furrow" and pronounced Ski-brooah), a farm that produces the “king of Scottish cheddars”. A week staying in Cheese Cottage, a recently converted dairy building adjoining the milking parlour, costs £590 (sleeps five).

6. Hatherleigh, West Devon

Meet flocks of sheep, two working collies, chickens and miniature ponies on this Devonshire organic farm. A section of the Tarka Trail, and the otter-populated River Torridge where Spring Watch was filmed runs through the grounds, and guests are encouraged to watch cows being milked, help feed calves and muck out sheds, while the ‘Farms for City Children’ programme gives inner city schools an opportunity to experience life on a working farm. A family room costs £85 per night, based on two sharing (extra beds from £16 for children up to 12 years, £20 12-18 years).

7. Humble Farm, Monmouthshire

Courses in animal husbandry and lambing, plus feeding the pigs, mucking out and herding sheep are just some of the activities at the Welsh farm of broadcaster Kate Humble. Children as young as three can take morning tours (£50) of this 117-acre Monmouthshire estate with farmer Tim, and join in with whatever he’s up to, while older children and teenagers can take such day courses as animal husbandry and lambing (£100-130). A four-night stay at Humble Farm’s Piggery cottage (sleeps four) costs £415 including a welcome hamper of farm food and 10% off courses.

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8. Coddy’s Farm, Yorkshire

Sausage making is among the regular farm to fork courses held at this Yorkshire farm near the Peak District. Visit in lambing season (Easter holidays), when the half-day Farm Apprentice experience (£15) allows families (even with tots), to follow farmer Andrew around the estate helping him with his chores which, nature-willing, will include the delivery of a spanking new sheep into the world – followed by a farmhouse lunch where lamb may well be on the menu. A family room in the converted barn costs £130 including breakfast.

9. Cwmcrwth Farm, Carmarthenshire

Energetic farmers Fiona and Rob Park have created an agricultural playground at this small rare breeds farm on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. The couple has built a huge wooden castle for kids, and runs Junior Farmers Days where you can learn skills from mucking out to feeding and herding. Children can get involved with daily animal feeding and collect eggs plus there are ponies to groom and pigs to cuddle, and there’s even a Pig Arc in which you can sleep overnight in the pigs field. One-week at Cwmcrwth’s Hayloft cottage, sleeping four costs £995.

10. Knightcote Farm Cottages, Warwickshire

With 732 farms across the UK, not-for-profit organisation Farm Stay UK (farmstay.co.uk) offers rich pickings for hands-on rural breaks. A gentle introduction to agricultural life is on offer at New House Farm (cwmcrwthfarm.co.uk), a 600-acre arable estate in Warwickshire where crops such as wheat, barley, linseed and peas are harvested in July-August: a great time for farm tours where families can help out, usually trailed by farm dogs, Jilly and Polly. There are some “daddy” (tup) sheep, a carp lake, and a resident badger, too. Sleeplate Cottage, in a converted 17th-century barn costs £609 per week (sleeping four).