Hops Harvest

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I've mentioned before that my husband brews his own beer.  So... when you combine a gardener and a beer brewer, what do you get?  Hops growing in the backyard.  I bought a hops rhizome for my husband when I placed my seed order last winter.   Hops are an ingredient used in brewing beer, and they grow on a vining, perennial plant that can reach 20 feet tall when fully mature.  This rhizome was planted back in May, and look at how many hops we got in the first year!  A hops plant doesn't reach maturity until 6 years, at which time it produces a peak amount of hops for decades to come.

We've been toying with the idea of planting an acre of hops if we ever buy some land of our own.  I would not plant hops at my rented farmland, because hops are a perennial and can last for up to 50 years - that's quite an expense and undertaking to grow on land that isn't yours... ya know what I mean?

Here are some pics of our first hops harvest!  Let me tell you, they smell wonderful.