BATTICE-HERVE FAIR

[BIZ/LEI: Battice-Herve, August 20]
The next agricultural fair in Battice-Herve will be on September 4 & 5. Remember that Proust recommended the local pears. The strong cheeses of the Plateau de Herve, the Ardennes ham and the splendid black apple and pear treacle of the area are, in themselves, world brands.

Charlemagne’s taste for fine cheese was born here too. But there is more than food; there are the people who produce it too; and, this year, the young farmers and the future of agriculture are center stage. The Province of Hainault is the guest of honor. However the horses and sheep and dogs from Liège will attract their supporters.

The horses will include a special breed, the Franches-Montagnes horse, named after an area of Canton of Jura bordering on France. This is where it was orginally bred as a light working horse. It remained popular both for farm work and with the army until about the 1960s. As demand for working horses fell, the breed survived because of a new leisure demand. They are used both for pulling carts and for riding. The town of Saignelégier, the centre of the Franches-Montagnes district, holds a horse market every summer which attracts thousands of people, and where the Franches-Montagnes breed is the undoubted star, as they no doubt will be at Battice-Herve too.

http://www.foireagricolebatticeherve.be/