11:01am Monday 20th February 2012
By Andrew Napier
AN event in the Meon Valley this Wednesday (FEB22) will celebrate the way food and drink used to be.
A pub in Droxford will pull a pint of real ale made with malt from barley grown on a farm a stone’s throw away.
The Bakers Arms will offer Bowman’s Ales which is brewed next to Bushey Down Farm where it was grown by Stephen Horn.
Such short food chains were commonplace in the 19th and early 20th centuries but are now extremely rare.
The celebration, Barley to Beer in Droxford, has been organised by Robin Appel, who lives in the village and who owns Warminster Maltings, where the Bowman’s barley was processed into malt.
The celebration starts at 7pm. Tickets for a hot fork supper are £15 but anyone is welcome to attend the party.
Meon Valley MP George Hollingbery will pull a pint alongside pub landlord Adam Cordery, Mr Horn, Mr Appel and the Bowman’s brewers Martin Roberts and Ray Page.
The aim is to raise £1,000 towards tackling death watch beetle in Droxford church.
Mr Appel said: “It will be a great celebration of local produce and localism.”
Mr Horn, of Bushey Down Farm, was recently awarded the title of malting Barley Grower of the Year by the Maltsters Association of Great Britain.
Mr Appel is an independent agricultural merchant based at Waltham Chase who set up his business in 1980. His firm supplies seed to farmers and buys grain from them to sell into the supply chains for brewing, baking and breakfast food industries. He bought Warminster Maltings in 2001. It now supplies 300 breweries in the UK and abroad.
© Copyright 2001-2013 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.romseyadvertiser.co.uk
http://www.romseyadvertiser.co.uk/trade_directory/