Hop Picking

The English county of Kent is synonymous with growing hops, a tall climbing perennial branded with the exquisite Latin name humulus lupulus (‘wolf of the woods’) used to make beer. The hop plant is “dioecious” - the female and male plants are separate; the female plant bears the hop. Farming the hop necessities supporting it with tall wooden poles (typically up to 5m), wire and string. In spring, the plants are trained up the string, reaching the summit in early July, when they begin to flower and develop cones.
In September the cones are harvested - the strings are long so hop-pickers are perched on top of a tractor to cut them down. The hops are then dried in a Kiln or Oast house. From there the crop is sent to breweries.

[@richwall6304]

That’s footage of where I used to work near faversham. Good to see footage of old Del Boy (in the garden with the scythe) and Arthur (with the hat in the machine shed).. both Kent legends!! 😁

[@AndrewG1989]

Never heard of hop picking. These men are very skilful.

[@richwall6304]

The biggest skill was the machine shed man (Arthur, with the hat on in this video). They would be responsible for keeping that whole machine going with blood, sweat and lots of grease.. Once a tractor ran into one of the posts and broke the whole trackway which carries the bines into the machine.. Arthur had it fixed and running again in less than 1 hour 👍

[@wonyankeesays5661]

Homebrewer says,,,cool