It’s January, 2010, and our rhizomes will reach their one year mark in May. The idea was great – organic hops grown right here in New Jersey. But it was late in the season. It would be difficult, but we would try. And that we did. We purchased the rhizomes, 260 of them, 7 different varieties. We needed a support system. Cedar Posts. Fortunately we were able to barter with neighbors. Then we started digging. And then we hit the shale. After many hours of back-breaking work, 3-foot holes were dug. 15 foot cedar poles were placed and secured. Wires were run. Holes were dug for the rhizomes. Fertilized with organic bone meal, covered with straw. Hop plants didn’t give us a chance to finish securing twine. Then life took over…and the hops took over the field…and we missed our harvest opportunity. We were able to get a good amount of Cascade (which are vacuum-sealed, sitting patiently in our freezer, any takers?), but for the varieties that needed special attention, they came and went.
Now it’s the end of January, and we are about to start it all up again, promising this time, to get the most out of our hard work. So it begins:
-Visit the field and see what the winter season has brought
-Secure wires that have come loose
-Purchase twine that will withhold the elements and weight of the plants
-Once the weather breaks, plow and fertilize (organically of course)
-Check drip irrigation system, make any repairs
-Hang up the twine and secure
-Continue with weeding, and fertilizing
-Watch the hops grow!
Now that we have experienced all of this, we know what to expect and cannot wait to see the fruits of our labor.
We successfully grew organic hops in 2009. Just not enough to make a profit off of it. Seems like we waited too long to harvest. This season was trial and error for us, now we know what to expect for next year. And this time around, it won’t be so backbreaking. We were able to collect enough Cascade for our own brewing pleasure. Perhaps that will be our “winter project” because apparently every season needs a project…happy brewing!
These pictures were taken on July 23. I documented the different things I found while these suckers are growing. If anyone has any insight on to why some of these things are happening, please share!
Burnt Leaves
I found some of the leaves were burning from the outside in.
And then I found some vines that just burned all the way to the top (thinking these vines met there match with a weedwacker).
Burnt Vines
I’m assuming these leaves were munched on by critters…the next picture may be culprit!
Something was hungry
Perhaps it was this little guy!
Tiny culprit
And even though discovering these things was discouraging, I came across this wonderful row of Hops:
Cascade Hops
Another Cascade
There seems to be problems dowloading the rest of the pictures. If you go to the link in my blogroll called “Progression of Hops”, it will take you to Photobucket where you can view the rest of the photos. Below is a picture taken right before I left, as you can see, a lot of the rows have either taken their time to grow or haven’t grown at all. I have no idea when we need to start picking the hops and I have no idea when to start cutting them down to the crown. Again, if anyone has advice or ideas, send them my way!
Look how green!
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There hasn’t been much going on in the organic hops world…I need to get myself over there to weed. I started one row already, takes a long time. Maybe I can recruit some people to help when they come up from NC….wink wink…
I also need to find out how the tomatoes and peppers are doing, I am trying to grow some on my balcony, but they don’t seem to be taking yet, plus there are crazy bugs all over them…it’s pretty gross.
We finally started getting the wire up that will support the cord when the plants grow. The hops need vertical support as well as horizontal support. I believe the boys finished the wire structure on Friday. We will then be able to start coaching the plants to grow up.
Garden at Sunset
Well we have the start of hops…This weekend turned out to be beautiful. The boys arrived back from AC alive with no arrests (that we know of). Us girls had an awesome time in Philly, and an awesome time at the zoo!!! Yesterday I headed out to Cross Country Nursery to pick up some pepper plants. This was my first time buying vegetable plants at a greenhouse. It was quite an experience. They give you this 50 page book with all of the varieties that they grow…along with a chart of how each can be used (stir-fry, stuffing, ornamental etc). I felt like I had entered into another dimension. Every plant looked EXACTLY the same, yet they were all different. Plus, the greenhouse did not have any sort of order and they didn’t have much left. So I chose what I thought would be good and went on my way. I bought 12 plants and it only cost me $23.00. Not too bad.
I ended up getting a variety of sweet peppers, a hot pepper (Ring of Fire) (and of course couldn’t get the song out of my head all day), some basil, cilantro and a tomatillo plant called Dr. Wiche’s Yellow.
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
I headed up to the farm to check on the hops progress. Wow, are they progressing! Rapidly. Wire and rope need to be installed immediately.
Not exactly where we marked it
This guy is about a foot tall
It was very exciting to see our hard work was paying off. We will need a good couple of hours to weed and throw down more straw. Perhaps this week if the weather cooperates.
I was able to get an hour of planting time in at the garden, below are pictures of lettuce, spinach and the new tomato and pepper plants.
This is not my lettuce, but will look like that soon
This is my pathetic lettuce...
This is quite tasty
Tomato & Pepper Plants
Pepper Flower
Since the hops project has leveled out for now, I can focus on planting veggies in the organic garden. I think I mentioned that I planted some lettuce seeds, which, apparently have started growing…
Farmer Jon’s (ha! No H in this one) spinach and peas may be ready for harvesting this weekend too!
Jon is picking up tomato plants from a local farm today. I would like to try and make fresh salsa and bruschetta this summer.
Here are the plants that I ordered:
Green Zebra - sweet & tangy flavor
Striped German - Complex, fruity flavor & smooth texture
Brandywine - Rich, complex taste
Amish Paste - Mildly sweet, few seeds
In my research of tomatoes, it seems that Green Zebra’s are not an heirloom, even though many advertise them as such. Weird…
I’m torn on what kind of pepper plants to buy. I am going to get the standard bell pepper (yellow, green & orange), a frying pepper (corno di toro yellow) and either a jalapeno or a chili pepper plant. I’m going to make a trip to Cross Country Nurseries on Saturday and check out what they have.
But in the meantime, me and the gals are going in to “The City” tonight which should never be called the city because there is only ONE “City” and this ain’t it!!!
