Sunny Brae Hop Farm
Carlisle, PA
Wonderful people (a married couple) doing a difficult and labor intensive job. Pennsylvania may have rich soil, but its rain, humidity and wildly varying microclimates bring pests, mites and crop-killing molds and make hop growing outside of the Pacific Northwest a real challenge. Despite that, they make a good go of it with mostly organic techniques, providing much-needed hops to local breweries.
On this day volunteers from Tröegs Brewery helped them train hops: twisting the small, prickly bines around the ropes in a clockwise direction (the only way they will grow). In a month, they will climb to the top of the poles and weigh 60-80lbs per plant by harvest time.
Saw lots of orchard orioles and bluebirds working the fields, but I kept my camera in the bag and concentrated on the task at hand.
Sunny Brae Hop Farm
Carlisle, PA
Wonderful people (a married couple) doing a difficult and labor intensive job. Pennsylvania may have rich soil, but its rain, humidity and wildly varying microclimates bring pests, mites and crop-killing molds and make hop growing outside of the Pacific Northwest a real challenge. Despite that, they make a good go of it with mostly organic techniques, providing much-needed hops to local breweries.
On this day volunteers from Tröegs Brewery helped them train hops: twisting the small, prickly bines around the ropes in a clockwise direction (the only way they will grow). In a month, they will climb to the top of the poles and weigh 60-80lbs per plant by harvest time.
Saw lots of orchard orioles and bluebirds working the fields, but I kept my camera in the bag and concentrated on the task at hand.