2012 Season
Weekly Update: May 16....Top Cable Install
WET....we have had a ton, literally, of rain over the last few weeks and our little rhizome babies are doing their best to keep their shoots above the puddling water. We have made a few crude trenches to help but will need to address the problem in a much bigger fashion soon. This weekend we will install the upper wire and pick up our coir. We will unveil the HOPMOBILE for the first time and we are super excited about that...(look in the Our Journey tab to see pictures). We will check back next week and let you know how it went...here's to a few dry days....please?
Weekly Update: May 21....Top Cable INSTALLED!
The HOPMOBILE made a successful debut on Saturday (We know it may look dangerous to some but we assure you it was tested and tested again and meets and exceeds our safety standards) enabling us to install our upper cable. All went smoothly and we are wired and ready to go. We install the coir on Memorial Day Weekend and then its up to the hops to enjoy all the hard work we have put in so they can live a wonderful life.
Weekly Update: May 29....Coir is Up!
We spent Sunday stringing our coir and enjoying a beautiful day. Steve started the smoker in the wee hours of the morning and smoked the pork butt all day. We swam, played, blew bubbles, and enjoyed some Sierra Nevada pale ale from the keg. It is up to the hops to make us proud. We will make sure they are watered and weeded and be on the constant look out for pests and disease. Look for an announcement soon for our 4th of July Open House Blow Out Hopstravaganza!!
Weekly Update: June 12
Hopstravaganza!!!! More details to come....Click on the pic to the left for a larger view...
Weekly Updaye June 20
Team Hydration is hard at work watering our thirsty hops. We also placed some llama poop on and around our hop hills. So between the poop and frequent watering, we hope our little hops will be happy as we enter the "dog days" of summer.
Weekly Update July 9....OPEN HOUSE
We would like to thank all of those who attended our first Open House. It was a huge success and everyone had a great time. We were pleased to welcome family, friends, and new friends. Please click on the picture to the left for the gallery. A special thanks to Brown's Brewing for the donation of the very tasty Brown's IPA.
Weekly Update July 12.....Water, Water ,and more Water...
It has been a long time since we have had any measurable rain. We are roughly -3.5" behind normal rainfall year to date. We had a rather wet spring that helped out tremendously with the lack of a winter snow pack. Unfortunately, this June has been a very dry one and we need rain! So...we have been trying to water our hops as much as we can. We will continue until we get a much needed soaking rain event. We ask all our loyal HopRidge Farm followers to do a special rain dance for all crops!!!
Weekly Update July 17....Our Rain Dance Worked!!!
Well we received a much need rain on Sunday, July 15 and a little bit more in the following days. The field looks a lot better and we have hops popping out all over the place. We had a ton of Chinook rhizomes not grow at all this year so we went ahead and ordered hop crowns to make sure our field will be near 100% growth. These crowns are awesome and should catch up to our currently growing plants and yield a harvest this year. Plus we have been implementing a little secret weapon that is starting to pay off big time. More on that later...maybe...
Weekly Update July 20....Second Planting...WOW
Wow...we planted some of our hills that did not grow with some replacement crowns. They were unbelievably thick and filled with roots. We are very excited about these and cannot wait to track their progress. Check out the full gallery in the Our Journey tab.
Weekly Update July 25....New Crowns doing Well
Well we had a bit of a scare as the crowns we planted last week lost all their top growth and looked like they got hit by a blast furnace. I am happy to report they have recovered and have a ton of new shoots coming up. So we are near 100% growth rate overall for our field. Also, new hop cones are popping up all over the place so we should have a harvest this year...yay! We started to apply mulch as well to try to keep some of the moisture in our hills and to help the water we do apply stay and not run down the hill.
Weekly Update August 7....CHINOOK
Well our growth may not be tall but we have tons of cones forming all over the place. We even have full size cones on the Chinook. Our harvest may not be huge but there will be a harvest!
Weekly Update: September 10: Where have we been?? Harvesting....!
Sorry for a lack of updates! Life somehow has a tendency to get in the way of updating your website...darn life! We have been harvesting our hop cones as they mature and will make a final push this coming weekend. We will also be brewing our first ever HopRidge Farms Signature IPA, utilizing the four kinds of hops we are currently growing. We have also just secured our crown stock for next year. Cannot wait to announce what we will be growing next year...but not yet!
Weekly Update September 17: Final Harvest and Brew Day
Our first growing season is behind us as we completed our final harvest this past weekend. It was a typical fall day with crisp blue skies and a cool wind. On Saturday we sampled a all star line up of IPA's and brewed what we hope is an all star in the making..the first ever HopRidge Farms Signature IPA brewed with the four varieties we are growing. Click the picture on the left for the rest of the photos.
Weekly...well, monthly Update? November 6...
We began work on the 3 rows that we will be installing/planting for 2013. We have the rows pretty well ripped up will till and apply lime soon. We are really excited to get three more varieties into the ground for next season!
