FARMING
On a chalk stream in Hampshire, Hugo Hardman is encouraging a healthy appetite for freshwater trout
It is the depths of winter on the River Test in Hampshire. Frost coats the water meadows nearby. The outline of ancient woodlands accentuates the beauty of this tranquil habitat, home to water voles and kingfishers. In the still air, a heron watches and waits for the trout that swim in these clear, cold waters. The trout are in their element because the Test is a chalk stream, arare and precious habitat. The river owes its existence to the layer of chalk that stretches from Wiltshire and Hampshire through the Chilterns to East Anglia and East Yorkshire. Chalk is extremely porous, making it an excellent filter for rain falling on the hills, which then emerges through aquifers as the pure and mineral-rich waters that are avaluable haven for wildlife. Of the 260 chalk rivers in the world, 224 are in the UK.
ChalkStream Foods’ supplier diverts water from the Test into its fish farm and then returns it back to the river. “We borrow some of the river for two hours, then put it back as we found it,” explains Hugo Hardman, who co-founded the business ten years ago after tasting trout reared in the Test. “Trout had been out of fashion since the 1980s and cheap salmon had become ubiquitous in many restaurants and hotels,” he says. “People were wary of eating trout because it often tasted a little muddy. I wanted to prove that the fish could be incredibly tasty especially because of where they lived.”
NET RETURNS
Having grown up in Hampshire, Hugo spent many years as a food and drink entrepreneur in London before returning to the area to start his company. Determined to prove that local chalk stream trout was a delicious and sustainable alternative to salmon, he invited chefs, hoteliers and retailers to go fishing on the Test. To do this, he joined forces with Arthur Voelcker, a family friend and fisherman, who still takes prospective customers fly-fishing nearby. “He lives and breathes fish and is obsessed with anything to do with them,” Hugo says. “I join them on the river when I can but, compared to Arthur, I’m an amateur.”
