Karnataka: Rare Earth Farm

A chocolate lab, answering to Rubedo, chats up a huge puffy, ruffled featherball of a turkey cock. A mop-topped calf bats tasselled eyelashes at young guests. Geese honk and hew in graceful curving lines on the stream running glossy and brown. Traditional verandahs with built-in benches and hammocks sling low in the trees, inviting temporary residents of the two earth-and-stone cottages to read, watch, laze, photograph or snooze. The 8-acre working organic farm, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, near Kaggalipura, puts food on your table from the produce of its cash crops and fruit orchards. There is a pool as well as bicycles, besides the opportunity to help out on the farm, beneath the mango, areca, coconut, cashew, sapota and sitaphal groves. Tariff: Rs 7,000, for a 24-hour stay for two in one of the cottages, all meals included. Contact: +91-9972464622, www.facebook.com/rareearthfarm