Our Annual Hop Harvest Tour Is Coming August 22

Large three finger Cascade hops

It is time once again for our Hop Harvest Tour this year coming up on August 22 at the Hop'n Blueberry Farm starting at 1 PM.  This year our harvest all went to Lookout Brewery in Black Mountain.  Owner John Garcia made sure that our hops went into the boil the minute I took them over to the Brewery for one of the freshest hopped beer ever made from my hops so far.

John Garcia from Lookout Brewery pours a fresh hop sample

The beer will be called Van's Front Porch Ale which is a truly "fresh hop" beer.  It is also a very local  beer with malt coming from barely grown in the next county over and malted by Riverbend Malt in Asheville.  The water comes directly from under the ground in Black Mountain, and the hops--well, they from our farm located 3.6 miles from the Brewery!  If that ain't fresh, then the world is flat!

The tour will start with a tour of the farm and hop yard, with details given to the hop yard.  We will be cutting down some vines during this tour so visitors can get a real feel of what it is like to pick hops off of the vine.  After the tour, we will be sampling Van's Front Porch Ale and having drawings to give away hop plants, and hops.

The hop tour

This year we are going to have an Americana/Alternative Country style of music played by Company News, a great local group of three guys including Hunter Begley.  Hunter has been a part of the farm now for two years, helping out with the growing and harvesting of our hops.  We can't wait to have this addition to our tour.

We will be wrapping things up around 2:30 PM and hopefully directing folks down to Lookout Brewery to purchase more of their delicious beer varieties.  We will have some other things for sale at the farm during this time including a great hop stained glass piece made by my wife Martha and of course plants from our magnificent gardens.

Tickets are $12 and can be purchased on our website, hopnblueberryfarm.com under the farm store tab or can be purchased on the day of the event.  Be sure to bring your camera as the farm is truly beautiful this time of the year with new additions to our pollination gardens and our butterfly house full of native butterflies.  

The Spartan Super Mud Race Camping

A huge event is coming right into our valley on Aug. 29.  It is the Asheville Super Spartan Mud Race held at Grovestone only two miles from our farm.  It will be a great time to spend at the farm during the race to take a break from all of the action.

We will be offering primitive camping at the farm, ideal for RV's or tents.  We have a toilet facility and will have limited electricity on a share basis.  We are working on setting up an outdoor shower as well (no hot water!)

If you are interested call us at 828-664-1166.

 http://www.spartan.com/en/race/detail/837/overview?clickid=wPT1yfS-oUnLz5pyYcWEIUEKUkXwIMQNTUNhSE0&c3nid=158885&c3ch=Affiliate-IRSpartan Super Mud Race