"Waiter, Is This Scone Organic?"

• Share

No place is safe from the postmodern obsession with all things natural and New Age. Not even the medieval English town of Totnes. Nestled in the lush pastures and wheat fields near Dartmoor in southern Devon, Totnes for decades made a quiet living from cream teas, antiques and postcards. But these days, it's a magnet for urban refugees running the kind of bohemian business normally associated with trendy metropolitan neighborhoods.

Twenty years ago, Totnes' idea of radical was reduced-fat cream. Now, a stroll through its Tudor-period East Gate reveals a hipper breed of vendor ensconced in the centuries-old shop fronts. Green Shoes, tel: (44-1803) 864997, cobbles to order "vegan" footwear from a synthetic leather called Lorica.

A few doors down, Willow Vegetarian Garden, tel: (44-1803) 862205, serves mostly organic food and drink in a tasteful, rustic dining room. Nearby, small boutiques boast Japanese, British and other European designer threads, while others hawk surf and skater wear. And despite its ramshackle-sounding name, housewares retailer Tumble Home, tel: (44-1803) 863024, stocks a collection of funky furniture.

If you'd like to spend the night, try Norwegian Wood, tel: (44-1803) 867462, located five minutes out of town and run by an exemplary new Totnes resident, Heather Nicholson — a practicing nutritional therapist and iridologist (someone who claims to be able to diagnose ailments by studying the iris).

This "organic bed-and-breakfast" is housed in a beautifully converted barn, overlooking an undulating patchwork quilt of fields. Guest rooms are decorated in colors that represent "harmonious auras," while breakfasts are prepared according to your food tolerances. Needless to say, there isn't a cream tea in sight.