2010 Hops Report #4

We went out and grabbed a couple of pictures of the lovely plants last evening in between rain showers.


















These plants are now about 6 weeks old and as you can see they are already taller than I am and will soon be taking over the back of the house, just in time to shade us from the heat of summer!

2010 Hops Report #3

These photos (actually digital images) are from a week ago, it was raining this weekend so I didn't get the latest growth yet.















We're currently experiencing perfect weather for these plants with 1 or 2 days of rain followed by clear sun filled days in between, and cooler than average temperatures! They're peaking in growth rate at around 3" to 4" per day!

2010 Hops Report #2

One week later and these lovely plants are going to town, or are they trying to reach the moon?

I tried to add some scale (not to the width, but to the height of the vines!) by letting Lightnin take this shot.











Soon we'll be reaping the benefits of hop flowers and shade!

2010 Hops Report #1

Yes folks the hops report is back by popular demand!
Well OK that populous included myself and Lightnin, but at any rate it's back!

We had what has been reported as one of the worst winters in the past 60 years here in our part of the world, but you wouldn't know that by looking at these beauties. They sprouted out of the ground a couple of weeks ago and are now just over 2ft tall. That's a growth rate of about 2" per day! Believe it or not they aren't at their peak yet and will soon be speeding up to about 3-4" per day growth rate!





















I haven't harvested them for the past 2 years(one I was in China 2 yrs ago and 2nd I was becoming reacquainted with America last year) but I'm thinking I might try to pay more attention to them this year.

By Request....the family!

I was able to visit Mom, Pops, Brother Tracy, Sister-in-Law Pat, Niece Sarah and my little sister while on this trip also. We had a wonderful lunch at a little place called Abigail's in Rocheport, MO. If you're ever in the area, stop by!





We also enjoyed a visit with our middle son, Daughter-in-law and Grandson this past weekend. There wasn't much time for taking pictures since we had such a short visit.