THEY say biltong and rugby have an inseparable relationship, so former Zimbabwe star Andy Rose has decided to take the “love affair” to the next level.
A legendary and unforgettable figure at Scottish club side Boroughmuir, Rose has been reliving his farm upbringing back home in Zimbabwe by operating a biltong business that started as a Valentine’s gift for his American wife Laura, whom he met in Scotland.
Rose, raised in Zimbabwe’s farming district of Macheke, now runs the thriving project – Rosey’s Biltong – from the United States, where he has been living since 2017.
“She (Laura) had recently travelled to Zimbabwe and fell in love with biltong,” writes Rose on his website.
“Laura loved this lean, healthy, and delicious dried meat snack! Upon returning to the United Kingdom, however, we found it next to impossible to find good quality biltong. After months of denying our cravings, I decided to build my own drying box, source my own ingredients, and try my hand at making small batches for Laura and myself. To our delight, I wasn’t half bad at it!
“As fate would have it, the drying box turned out to be larger than anticipated so we had some biltong left over from our initial batch. Not wanting it to go to waste, I took it down to my rugby club, Boroughmuir Rugby, and shared it with my teammates. They were immediately hooked on the great taste, high protein content, and limited list of ingredients used to make our biltong. It quickly became our go-to post-training snack.”
Rosey’s Biltong, from just being a tasty present for someone so special, has become a hit with clients in both the US and the United Kingdom.
“Rosey’s Biltong was initially started in the United Kingdom in 2014,” adds Rose. “Rosey’s is a small-batch biltong producer that prides itself on quality and traditional biltong flavour. Rosey’s Biltong products are only made using traditional methods, sourcing the best ingredients that are free from artificial additives and preservatives.
Rosey’s first began selling to friends and family, but as word began to quickly spread about our biltong we found ourselves shipping to customers all over the UK, and now the USA. When we moved to the United States of America in 2017, we brought the biltong idea with us, and Rosey’s Biltong is now made on our farm, in the heart of Michigan countryside.”
35-year-old Rose, who grew up on the family farm speaking Shona, Zimbabwe’s main national language, accumulated a significant number of Test caps for the African nation. He captained his country on one occasion when the Sables beat Kenya 29-14 in 2013 in a triangular series match in Namibia.
The ex-dynamic and tenacious loose-forward hopes that very soon, people in his homeland, Zimbabwe, will be munching away at the mouth-watering product of their local old favourite. – SportsCast.co.zw
