Roots Down Organic Hops

Cascade, Magnum and Galena

acomber — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Picked the 2nd batch of Cascade and two additional varieties - Magnum and Galena - today, all three have amazing aromas!The 1st batch of Cascade has been bagged and can be ordered now. Orders can be picked up from Roots Down's CSA pick-up sites, from the Kingston and Ottawa markets, or for a small postage & handling fee delivered anywhere in Canada.

The first of the 'C' hops

acomber — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:57:58 +0000

We spent a cool Labour Day afternoon hand picking the first lot of Cascade. With the two additional rows of Cascade planted last year, we'll have a lot of Cascade hops available for sale this year. Please check our ordering page to see when the first lot of Cascade will be available to order.

2011 Ontario Organic Whole Leaf Hops

acomber — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:40:46 +0000

The first crop of 2011 hand picked and hand packed certified organic whole leaf hops are now available to purchase from Roots Down Organic Farm.Please check our ordering page to see what varieties can be ordered now and picked up from Roots Down's CSA pick-up sites, from the Kingston and Ottawa markets, or for a small postage & handling fee delivered anywhere in Canada.

First crop of hops for 2011

acomber — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Hallertauer was ready to be picked. A fun afternoon and evening hand picking the first crop of hops for 2011. With the aroma of lupulin in the air, we enjoyed a great dinner with brisket and chicken from the Pig Iron Barbecue and some beer samples from Kal Wallner, The Electric Brewery.We made some modifications to the oast (hops dryer). We added two additional fans to the top of the dryer to help improve the flow of the air and duct piping to remove the moist air from the room. We also placed a dehumidifier in the room to remove moisture from the air and provide heat for the dryer.

The bines must be trained

acomber — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Another late start to training and pruning meant that some bines had already grown over six feet! With help this year, we were able to train all of the bines, weed around the crowns and prune back all of the unwanted shoots in less than a day.

Weed control

acomber — Fri, 13 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Controlling weeds in the hops yard has been a very time consuming task especially over the last couple of years with wetter than normal weather.This year we decided to see if we could control the weeds using a porous ground cover. We were able to source some reasonably priced ground cover from BFG Supply Co. in Lancaster, NY. We rolled out the ground cover the length of each row, created holes for each crown, slid the ground over the row and pegged it down. We also added rocks to ensure that the wind didn't get underneath and blow it away!

Feeding the hops

acomber — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000

A little later than we planned, however we were finally able to plant some new rhizomes and feed the hops.The survival rate of the rhizomes we planted in the four new rows last year was mixed. The Cascade, Chinook and Zeus varieties did very well, however Magnum and Centennial were spotty and Saaz didn't survive at all. We were able to take rhizomes from older rows in the hops yard and plant replacements.We applied a good measure of compost and an alfalfa based fertilizer (to help boost nitrogen levels in the soil) to all of the plants in the hop yard.

Crooked poles

acomber — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0000

A beautiful spring day - perfect for chopping down more black locust trees for the trellising in the four new rows in the hops yard. Selecting trees for poles is challenging as black locust trees do not grow very straight.Stacked the poles for drying - we can't place them in the ground immediately after chopping them down as they will start to grow again!

2010 Ontario Organic Whole Leaf Hops

nstamand — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:06:17 +0000

The first crop of 2010 hand picked and hand packed certified organic whole leaf hops are now available to purchase from Roots Down Organic Farm.Please check our ordering page to see what varieties can be ordered now and picked up from Roots Down's CSA pick-up sites, from the Kingston and Ottawa markets, or for a small postage & handling fee delivered anywhere in Canada.

Making an Oast

nstamand — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:41:47 +0000

After a couple of years of cobbling together a temporary structure for drying hops after each harvest, we needed to make an oast (hops dryer) that could handle the increasing volume of hops being picked each year.With help from Chris Velden, a chef from Halifax, NS who is a big supporter of local and sustainable food, we designed and built a hops dryer that can hold up to 20 lbs of hops. Standing just under 8ft tall, the hops dryer uses three booster duct fans to push air through ten drawers with bottoms made from door/window mesh screen.The new hops dryer now makes it very easy to rotate the hops for even drying and we are able to dry the hops in less than 48 hours.