Last Chance to Really Learn About Growing Hops

Yep, tomorrow you can learn about the truth of growing hops south of the Mason Dixon Line.  We are offering our last special hops tour in conjunction with NC Beer Month.  You will have an in depth tour, culminating in a sample of beer from on of our buyers, Lookout Brewing ( where the tour will follow), a free hop plant, and more back up info in your endeavors.  It starts at 2 pm.

Hawaiian Tour At The Farm

We were honored to welcome the Agricultural Leadership Program Class from Hawaii to the farm last week.  The Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawai‘i provides leadership development opportunities for those working in Hawaii's agriculture, natural resource management and rural communities. 
I met folks that were doing everything from farming fish in the ocean to breeding new plants as well as University professors.  There were 16 of them that have been on a week long tour of North Carolina visiting farms and agriculture adventures from the coast to the mountains where my farm was targeted as an example of sustainability and history. 

A group shot of the crew

 

I got to show them all about the farm from our latest addition to alternative energy, the ram pump


The ram pump is able to pump water 3 times higher than the source and uses not electricity, gas, or other conventional energy source other than gravity.

and also let them see out total solar array, solar hot water system, gravity feed drip irrigation, and our composting two room toilet facility.

We look at our hop plants just out of the ground as well.  Hops never, ever, fail to get attention.

I have one last thing to say, aloha, but bring your jackets!

 

 

4^th Annual Hop Harvest Tour At The Hop’n Blueberry Farm




Cascade Hops

This year, the annual Hop Harvest Tour at the Hop’n Blueberry Farm is proud to partner with Lookout Brewery in Black Mountain to highlight their hops in a locally produced "fresh hop" beer. The tour is scheduled for August 3, 2013 at 1pm.




Hop pickers Tony Mackley and Owen Grooms



For the past five years the farm, one of the first in North Carolina to produce hops commercially, has gained national recognition as a supplier of local grown hops for the breweries of Western North Carolina and the Southeast. Because of this, owner Van Burnette created the Tour to show people how hops are grown and what they look and and smell like.

His tour offers a unique first hand perspective to potential commercial and home hop growers. And, to top off the end of the educational aspect, they will be offered a sampling of beer made from his hops by Lookout Brewing in Black Mtn., NC. This is just the beginning of the second half of this event.

This year Van teamed up with the owner of Lookout, John Garcia, to produce one of the very first truly local and fresh beers in the country. Van and his crew picked the hops early in the morning when they were at their peak of perfection and dropped them off to Lookout Brewery, just 3.5 miles down the road where they were added to the "boil" immediately.

This was all so carefully orchestrated so that a true "fresh hop" beer could be produced. This is a rare occasion for an "Eastern beer" because to have a fresh hop beer, the hop must be picked and added to the beer within 12 hours.

Meanwhile, John got his recipe ready and left town to gather the rest of the North Carolina produced ingredients including malt from Riverbend Malt, a locally produced malt from barely grown near Salisbury.

When it all came together, with water drawn from the wells of Black Mountain, a beer like no other began it’s process of fermentation to produce a product made fresher than anyone could ever hope for in the country. A "Fresh Hop" beer.

Van will offer a sampling of this beer to show off the aspects of this spectacular beer and then the tour will be directed to Lookout Brewery around 2:30pm., where John will show everyone just how all of these ingredients are added into the brewing process. Folks will get an up close and personal feel of the brewery and see and smell the process of beer being made.

More of his specially produced products can be purchased after his tour of the brewery. With out a doubt, the folks will be able to understand why his brewery has become the "talk of the town"!

Tickets are $10/person and may be purchased at the farm on the day of the event.  For directions to the farm, see our webpage at www.hopnblueberryfarm.com