
In the beginning, there were sprouts…
This is year three of our hops growing project, originally planted for beauty and shade but finally this year, they will be used for a beer!
These “sprout” photos were taken on April 18, just around the time we were keeping the crops intentionally thin and using the extra shoots as meal supplements (there are all kinds of hops shoot recipes on the web!)

Unfortunately I’ve misplaced the photos of the fully grown plants and some beautiful close-ups I took of the flowers, but today – after we realized our homebrewing group just isn’t going to have time for this one – D put a call out on Beer Advocate to see if any homebrewer would like to use our fresh Nugget and Cascade hops.
He picked about 3.5 pounds of them, and shipped them off to New Cumberland, PA where they will hopefully become part of a Harvest Ale homebrew.
Hey folks! Thanks for the hefty hop booty! I’ve got 10 gallons of “Harrrrvest Ale” dry hopping this very moment!