Harvesting Hops with Our Organic Oregon Growers

Experience the 100+ years of history behind our organic hops from a third-generation Oregon farming family, from harvest through processing!

As we step out of the car on a sparkling August afternoon, we’re immediately hit with a wave of intensely fresh, funky fragrance—the scent of hops ripe for the harvesting. Farmer Pat greets us in front of his home, which stands to the side of the fertile acreage his family has owned and cultivated since 1912. As we exchange introductions, we exclaim over the intoxicating aroma drifting from the fields around us. Pat glances back at his hop vines with a brief look of satisfaction, but when he turns back to us a moment later, his look is more serious than proud.

“They’re looking good now, but it hasn’t been easy. We had some challenges this season, and now we need to get our crops harvested while the conditions are right,” he says. “Then again, growing organic hops is never easy.”

We climb into Pat’s pickup and roll out into the fields themselves, right alongside a row of vibrant green organic Fuggle hops destined for the pantries and apothecaries of our customers. This heritage variety originated in England back in the 1880's, and its natural resistance to several of Oregon’s common pests makes it an attractive choice for an organic grower. Pat’s grandparents began cultivating Fuggles in the wake of a downy mildew blight that hit the budding American hops industry in the early 1930s, just a decade or so after the family began growing the crop for sale to overseas brewers (during U.S. Prohibition).