Hops and evening sky
Buckwheat smother crop
Buckwheat in full bloom this morning.
While our 185 baby hop plants are busy growing in our nursery this year, our half-acre permanent yard is undergoing soil preparations. Its first treatment? Buckwheat.
Buckwheat is known as a "smother crop" because it suppresses weeds. That's why we put it in. We need to get the goldenrod and grasses under control before the hops go in.
You mow the buckwheat down after it flowers but before it has a chance to go to seed. Today was our day to mow some buckwheat!
Pretty flowers. Too bad we're about to mow them all down!
Going.
And gone!
6 workers + 2.5 hours = 120 plants in the ground
We worked like a well-oiled machine. Fran and I moved row to row, measuring out 18" plant spacings and checking each spot for potential obstacles, like roots and rocks. Johanna carefully detangled each tray of baby hops, while Clancy laid out the plants. Bob delved into the planting, while Saul followed up with refreshments: organic fish-emulsion spiked water for the newly planted hops and pints of Griffin Hill's latest test brew, a delicious NY Mild, for us.
We added seven new varieties to our hop nursery: Cascade, Centennial, Willamette, Newport, Liberty, Alpharoma, and Ultra. How will these varieties do in our environment? Only time will tell. But I think we got them off to a pretty good start.
A vision of industry.
Johanna with Cascade.
Getting our hops in a row.
Johanna and Clancy plugging away.
First pints in the hop yard.
A well-deserved break.
Fran working through stumpy Row 8.
120 plants in the ground!
Still smiling, our work is done. It started sprinkling just moments later, which we took as an auspicious sign.