Hop Pickin' at the Boormans'

This weekend I made the journey out to the Boorman's residence by Mount Doug for a session of hop picking. The Cascade hops were in full swing when I arrived and after some acrobatic vine cutting we were able to get the hops down and ready to harvest.
I was amazed at the density of the hops growing on the plants, despite our poor summer it looked like a bumper crop, which goes to show Vancouver Island is a fantastic place to grow hops and hopefully someday there will be many hop farms growing here once again. Once we had the hops on firm ground we were able to get down to the serious work of harvesting the bounty. I was blown away at the pungently citrus aroma coming from the cones, the air was permeated with the smell of unreal hops as we worked away, like hop harvesters of old. After three hours of picking and a delicous lunch our task was done, the hops were picked and ready to be dried, and I had a massive bag of fresh Cascades under my arm to take home with me. Looks like I'm finally going to get to brew that wet-hopped IPA I've been talking about, should be fun...

Cutting down the vines

Packin 'er up

Pickin' time

The hop hammock, Terry's s awesome drying technique