the hop harvest, 2008

I was fortunate enough lately, to have made a visit to Herefordshire -i could not resist stopping to visit a hop field, and assess the state of the crop. Hear, dear reader is the result. The bines were laden with their resinous cones, but some dry weather would help to make the ground a little easier for the tractors to move over. Marvel at the wonders of digital technology:

A handsome cone laden bine...



The height of the bines in this field suggests one of the dwarf 'hedgerow' varieties such as First Gold -Only attaining perhaps half the height of taller growing varieties, thus enabling easier maintainance of the crop, and use of a more efficient picking process...