South East Focus: Local sourcing

The link between farming and brewing goes back a long way. Once early man had started cultivating fields and producing crops, the very next item on the agenda was to earmark some of those crops for the essential task of producing a primitive beer with which to toast a job well done.

While things have moved on a bit in terms of both beer production and farming technology it's possible that we've also lost something in appreciating the relationship between the crops we grow and the food and drink we consume.

With the South East more closely associated with urban sprawl and commuter towns than with the rural economy, it's interesting to note that a pub company in the region is taking a lead in restoring that direct relationship. In fact, it's going a step further by putting its pubs at the heart of a local food 'virtuous circle'.

Shepherd Neame's 'Local Food from Local People' sourcing programme helped it win the Pub Company of the Year title in the 2006 Publican Pub Food Awards.By reinventing its supply chain, the company has given its managed pubs access to a wide range of local suppliers, enabling menus to put the emphasis on produce from Kent - the Garden of England, as it is known.Now the approach has been extended even further.

At the Dog and Bear in Lenham, Kent, the beef on the menu is produced from cattle fed on the spent brewing grain from Shepherd Neame's brewery in Faversham. Once the grain has been used to produce cask beers such as Spitfire and Bishops Finger there's still plenty of nourishment left in it to benefit the bovines.

The Dog and Bear's manager Anne Hogg says: "Shepherd Neame passes on its spent grain to the farm which supplies our local butchers, Rooks, which has has an excellent reputation with our local customers - and it makes sense for us to serve up flavoursome meat which hasn't clocked up unnecessary food miles and is traceable."

The brewery-fed beef is actively promoted in the pub through blackboards, posters and on menus, "and it sits well with our customers", adds Anne.The pub sources all of its menu from Kent through the local food scheme.

Anne and husband Brian are striving to operate an efficient, environmentally-friendly pub, which dovetails into the brewer's sustainable business model. So, to complete the virtuous circle, the pub's cooking oil is collected weekly by Canterbury-based Envirogroup, which recycles it as bio-diesel and sells it back to the brewery. And so it goes on…