Reared to high welfare standards and air-dried for 3 weeks, ensuring superb quality and taste.

Castle Farm has a herd of about 240 cattle made up of native European breeds including Aberdeen Angus, Devon, Sussex, Limousin, Charolais and Simmental. The calves are from small herds born near the Kent and Sussex marshes. Then, from the age of six months, they are reared on the lush meadows or steep grasslands of our beautiful Darenth Valley. In winter they enjoy the comfort of our purpose-built ‘Roundhouse’ – the ultimate in cattle luxury, designed to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Our livestock manager, David, knows each animal individually and ensures that the cattle are always healthy and content. Each animal is selected when in its prime and the meat is hung for three weeks to mature and develop its full flavour.

How to buy

Castle Farm Beef is conveniently vacuum-packed as roasting joints, steaks, braising or mince and sold frozen from the shop, alongside delicious meat pies. Special cuts, such as ribs of beef, rolled sirloins, t-bone steaks or whole fillets, or fresh Beef can be pre-ordered by phone. Because the beef is hung, air-dried for three weeks and then vacuum packed, there is no deterioration in quality from freezing.

For Christmas, you can start placing orders as soon as you want, but it is really helpful if customers can give us at least 3 – 4 weeks notice to ensure we can plan efficiently to set aside exactly what everyone needs. Many families rely on us for their most important meal of the year – so we take our responsibilities very seriously! Castle Farm Beef is Red Tractor Food approved – traceable, safe and farmed with care.

Traditionally, garlands of hops were hung afresh every year – for good luck – in the pubs and farmhouses of the hop-growing areas of the UK (Kent, Herefordshire and Worcestershire) but few people outside of these areas appreciated the decorative potential of a full-flowered hop bine until The Hop Shop started, in 1986, growing and marketing them nationwide specifically for interior use.

To achieve top decorative quality, our hops are grown at extra-wide spacing to encourage flowering along the full length of the bine. This means that they are bigger, fuller bines and more consistent in their flowering than hops produced from closely-spaced brewing hops which are always competing for sunlight.

The fully-grown bines are harvested from mid-August to mid-September when they are in their prime and have their freshest green colour. They are either sold as fresh-cut bines for immediate decorative use or dried in the dark in temperature- and humidity-controlled sheds to hold their colour. They are then boxed and stored in insulated, dehumidified stores for sale throughout the year. The decorative bines are approximately 3m (10ft) in length.

Hops are hardy plants and relatively easy to look after. They flourish in rich, moist, well-aerated soil and do not need much space to grow, especially if you are growing the dwarf varieties, like the prima donna. They grow happily in many parts of the UK if given good soil and protection from strong winds. The flowers develop in August and mature in early September. Being perennials, the stems need to be cut back to ground level in the Autumn and the plant will lie dormant until the Spring. Potted hop plants, complete with a screw peg, string and growing instructions, can be purchased direct from the farm shop from December until April.

ALL OUR PLANTS ARE CERTIFIED DISEASE-FREE – an important consideration when buying hops which can be susceptible to soil-borne viruses.