Relax and learn - Places where you can pick up new skills

Devon’s orchards are the source of some of the UK’s finest apple juice and cider, but it’ll never taste better than this. During the autumn months, the folks at Little Poro offer you the chance to pick and press your own, picking up some juicy juicing tips as you go. It’s as simple process as you might imagine, but the art comes from the selection of varieties to get the best balance of flavour. You’ll have to see what’s on the trees when you’re there, then set to crafting your incredibly fresh juice.

Brook House Woods came about in part because owner Will saw a carved spoon at a market. Years later, after an apprenticeship to that spoon’s carver, he and wife Penny gave up their London lives to form the community of craftspeople known as Woodland Makers, at their fabulous treehouse site where you can stay while you whittle. Courses and classes can be anything from two hours to two days long, with the £35 spatula making class a great way to get started and to take home a genuinely useful souvenir.

Owners Lisa and Charles at Forest Garden have some impressive beekeeping credentials themselves, but for teaching they turn to the masters, Oliver Sinclair and Justin Cleveland Peck, both beekeepers for many years. The former will give you a grounding in maintaining a hive, while the latter will teach you to use surplus wax to makes an array of natural polishes, creams and candles. After you’re done, you can retire to any one of the beautiful yurts and cabins dotted throughout the woods.

Woodlands Farm is a place of colour and art, but you don’t just have to sit and appreciate it, you can get involved and take home a handmade souvenir. Owner Charles is a talented potter and can guide you through throwing your first basic bowl to turning pots and shaping handles. A two-day course held in the Woodlands Farm studio just up from your cool cabin, is £80 each for two, or £120 if you’re on your own. Charles will fire and finish your creations then post them safely back to you, so there’s not even the worry of getting them home.

The list of what you can do at Wilderness Wood, is long, very long. And there’s certainly more than one skill you can learn – but perhaps one of the simplest and most satisfying, is to learn about what’s all around you at this magical patch of woodland. Amongst other ID walks for other flora and fauna, they have a Winter Tree workshop – where you can learn to identify native and naturalised broadleaf species in winter by their buds, bark, and ‘twig morphology’. Before you know it, you’ll be spotting trees no matter the time of year.

Campbell Woods is alive with activities, to the extent you might have to come back for the others too. But one particularly enticing skill is learning bushcraft with Kate and Jen. They teach fire making, den building sessions, bushcraft, foraging, smelting, whittling and much more. If you’re into your camping and glamping, these skills will pay their way on every trip! And if you get time, there’s even some extra foraging and fire cooking sessions to try, so you’re all set to thrive in the wild – wherever you are.