Harewood Gold made from Harewood Hops
If you follow the path around the Lakeside at Harewood, you’ll come to the Walled Garden, the oldest garden at Harewood. It was already under construction when building at Harewood House began in 1759. Its purpose was to provide the kitchens there with the finest fresh fruit and vegetables.
Horticultural skills of the very highest standard were nurtured there; new and exotic plants and food crops were introduced and specially designed buildings made to grow them in. It was extensively refurbished in the 1930s, with modern glasshouses replacing most of the old hothouses.
Today the Walled Garden is still a working kitchen garden growing a wide variety of both heritage and modern varieties of fruit and vegetables as well as several varieties of hops…
The Walled Garden is enclosed by old red brick walls, built at great expense, as brick wasn’t as cheap as stone, but prized for its heat retaining properties. Hop growing is a classic use of these walls – 7 different varieties grow here including Fuggle, Mathon and Whitbread’s Goldings Variety.
Wharfebank’s Martin Kellaway & Harewood Head Gardener Trevor Nicholson
These hops are now hand-picked by staff and volunteers every September, reviving a tradition to produce Harewood’s own modern brew of bitter and pale ale.
Harewood’s new Ale will be available this winter and throughout the year in 2012 to purchase from the Courtyard Shop.
Look out for our Harewood Gold event next September… ‘Harewood Gold: From Hops to Ale’