Many farms are exploring market diversification and season extension by drying or “curing” herbs and flowers. Whether the crop is culinary herbs (e.g. sage, rosemary, thyme), traditional herbal medicines, decorative flowers, hops for brewing, or CBD hemp the basic approach is the same. Drying boils down to removing water from plant matter by evaporating it …
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I presented an update on small-scale hops harvesters at the 2014 Northeast Hops Alliance (NEHA) Winter Meeting yesterday. We also talked a bit about drying and pelletizing at small scale. The presentation is available here. A summary of harvesters is provided in the table below. One of the really exciting things for me to see …
Across the Fence, the longest running daily farm and home television program in the country, joined us when we were harvesting last summer with the UVM Mobile Hops Harvester. In this segment, hear from Nick Aleria of Yellow Dog Hopyard in Cabot. VT and Matt Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville, VT about how …
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I recently presented a summary of mechanical hop harvesters at the 2013 NEHA Hops Conference in Morrisville, NY. As I prepared that material I was struck by how far we’ve come since 2010. In just three years since our small team embarked upon the development of the UVM Mobile Hops Harvester, several independently designed mechanical …
