With only three days until the hop harvest party, the owners of the Old 4th Hop Yard have hauled out the hop harvester to iron out any kinks that may have developed over the past year of sitting idle.
The dry run went smooth, with the harvester spitting the hop cones smoothly into the bucket and the stripped vines out the other end.
Alas, however, it was a dry run - beer won't flow until the actual harvest party on Saturday!
BTW, and for those who have never seen hops, they are the light green cones hanging on the vines. This has been a good production year as you can see a heavy crop of them on this one vine.
@stephanies Not many picked by hand anymore - hop production has really become quite mechanized in the last couple of decades. These guys use machines for most of the harvest and only pull a couple of vines for those who attend the party.
Very interesting photo of the hops Wendy. They look very pretty in their 'raw' state & the finished result should be welcomed too! Plenty of volunteers I imagine!
