Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Evolution of a Hops Yard

Unfortunately hops yards of this magnitude do not spring out of the ground spontaneously, though it may seem that way from these pictures. It requires a lot of hard working and planning. Most of the credit must go to Master Farmer Evan Williams.

An empty field on route 41, just north of Great Barrington. 

Cut black locust - extremely strong, rot-resistant wood. Not pictured: countless hours of labor pealing the bark off the posts.


  The outside posts go in slanted away at an angle to help hold up the eventual weight of the plants pulling inward.

An excavator with an auger attachment drilled 5 foot holes into the ground, into which we buried the posts.

 Sixty posts pointed skyward.


Cabling.

Next year it will all be green (knock on wood).

- Ezra

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