Capitol Hops Farm

We have hops - more than we expected when we started this experiment and that aligns perfectly with our mantra "expect nothing and you won't be disappointed."

The size of the harvest is unclear...maybe because we underestimated the size of our green thumb or maybe because we didn't adequately prepare the "farm". The last picture in the set is our initial harvest. We have sprouts on the vines ranging from beginners to almost ready to pull so maybe we'll get a few more. Not bad for are first ride on the tractor.

How they Grow it in PA

Our friends in Harrisburg, PA reaping what they sowed. You are looking at recently-harvested Cascade hops we featured in an earlier posting. Over 2 inches in length, they look ready for some home brewing. Cheers!

Hops Update

The hops above look pretty outstanding. Too bad they belong to somebody else. A good friend has been working his green thumb in Harrisburg, PA. He informs us some of the hops are sprouting buds - surely it's a matter of time until our friend is making homebrew with homegrown hops.

We were feeling pretty good about our hops until we received that picture. Because we are all about transparency here at Dumbarton our hops are pictured below.



We feel no shame - well, maybe a little.

They said It Couldn't be Done

It's just under a month and our baby rhizomes are showing some greenage. The "hard freeze" announced by the weather predicters in early April never arrived. Since then our region of the country has had an abundance of rain with just enough sun scattered about for good measure. We are hoping that plentiful rain is the magic ingredient if only because it helps us bear the miserable weather pattern we're stuck in.

Really, after planting we have put forth very little effort on this project. All the credit goes to mother nature. We didn't even have the decency to toss in some Miracle Grow. So far it's better to be lucky than good. If mother nature turns our expirement into a couple of towering hop vines we might start recycling.

Cheers!

HG-DBB

In early February we decided that our newest venture would be farming. Mostly because the local home brew shop, Maryland Homebrew, was offering it's annual opportunity to purchase hops rhizomes (or is hops singular here?). There are several reasons to grow your own hops:

• Go back to the roots of Americana - back to the farm, as it were.
• Go green - pluck them from your backyard garden rather than buying hops shipped in from Oregon.
• Failure is an option - apparently you can expect your first season of growing to be a big failure and that aligns nicely with the DBB mantra "Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed."

We planted on Sunday, April 5, 2009, when it was 65 degrees and nothing but sun (hops really like sun). Regular updates will be provided along with any available photographic evidence.

Tonight the weather "predicters" are calling for a hard freeze. At the risk of being repetitive: Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed.