You know it’s spring when…

Posted: March 30th, 2008 | Author: Stacy | Filed under: Chit Chat | No Comments »

… the hops starts growing again! Every year, the whole plant dies off in the fall and I have to cut it down to the crown. Then it comes back to life in the spring, starting out like weird purple asparagus. This will be the third year I’ve had this plant in the same location, which probably means it’s going to be huge this year. I harvested 2 gallon bags of cones from it last year, which is more than enough hops for a homebrewer for an entire year.

I took the hops as a rescue plant from a friend, and was told that it’s Cascade. But it’s not! Instead, it appears to be Willamette hops, which is just as well for me since it’s a slightly lower alpha hops (4-6%). Kathy and I have talked about using some of the hops for wedding flower arrangements this fall! Grow little hops, grow!

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