A Certified Naturally Grown Farm - Saint Marys, Pennsylvania
It’s Been A Busy Season So Far!
Yup…I’ve been really negligent on my updating of the blog with weekly reports and photos. I can summarize it in one word: WET!
As such, I’m going to post a variety of photos from the start up til last week just to catch everyone up to speed and make a better effort to get back to a weekly update.
Rock on!
Slowly Buy Surely
Another early morning drive to Saint Marys from State College today. Was not looking forward to Farm work today as they were calling for some light snow, cooler temps and fairly strong winds. I can say “they were calling” as I work at AccuWeather and I know who “they” are 😉
Upon arriving most mornings at the Farm, I can figure I have at least one “to-do’s” from Mom and Dad which I truly am happy to do for them. Pretty much the least I can do for being stellar parents 😉
Today’s task was pretty simple, but also came with some great results. Mom picked up some remote/battery operated
Once the inside tasks were done, out to the lovely weather I went.
With the trailer back in the small yard, I could run the electric up from the barn and finish installing the new support bases for the scaffold. At the end of last
This time ’round, I accepted the help of my brother Mike and my Dad to get this thing reassembled. Somehow the last few years I’ve been able to do that on my own (NOT SAFE) and as I’m not getting any younger, thought it prudent. Additionally, we also will not be taking it down at the end of each season.
We are blessed to have a series of roads that criss-cross the boundaries of the fields. These include the Sportsmans Trail, which was the old Keystone Camp road…and the OLD OLD Keystone Camp Road that is
We’re in that time of year when we need to get it to string the coir for the new season. Due to extremely wet conditions last Fall, we couldn’t safely g
All in all, it was a productive day. Weather held off and looks like next time I’m up, I’ll be able to get at least the small yard crowned, restrung and ready to go.
Pitter, Patter…Pitter, Patter
The sound of our tractor…a classic IH674 diesel…starting up and running at any time of year, but particularly after waking from a long Winter’s sleep, is a “pitter, patter” to my heart!
Getting a late start this year as Winter actually ALMOST showed up, I’m already a bit nervous as I’m behind…again. So much to do before the first hop shoots start poking up through the soil. So many projects were left undone at the end of last season due to a very wet Summer and Autumn. Surprisingly – and I’m taking this as a good sign for this season – on this day, there were no areas of the larger hopyard that had standing water. We’ve been having issues with both standing water and a high water table in the large yard and have a plan in place, just don’t have the financial resources and time at present to implement those plans.
Unwrapping the tractor after it’s been sitting all through Winter is a slightly terrifying thing for me. As I’ve noted a number of times in the blog here, I did not grow up on a Farm, outside of small garden tractors and lawn mowers, I was not around larger Farm equipment until later in life. As a result, I’ve been intimidated about being the primary caretaker for equipment I feel like I understand maybe 40% of its’ inner workings.
We pull the battery every year to keep in warm and dry in the basement at the house. So every year, I trudge up through the snow with this 20lb beast of a battery to remount it in the engine compartment. I make sure the fuel is topped off, reopen the fuel lines, check the oil and transmission fluid levels…adjust the intake and throttle, turn the key and…PRAY!
Welcome Elk County Conservation District!
On Tuesday, August 14th we welcomed approximately 30 citizens from the Saint Marys area community as guests of the Elk County Conservation District (ECCD). The ECCD put together a day-long “2018 Agriculture Bus Tour”, beginning at our Farm and ending at Straub Brewery.
From ECCD’s Facebook page…
“The District had a farm tour to showcase the beer brewing cycle, as it relates to local agriculture. Hops are grown locally in Elk County, used to brew Straub’s beer, then the spent brewers grain, still rich in nutrients, are fed to beef cattle. Thank you to everyone who spoke, attended, and helped make this possible. It was a great, fun-filled, educational day for all.”
2018 Elk County Conservation District (ECCD) Hops Tour from Joshua Brock on Vimeo.
The tour began at the barn where we discussed the history of hops in the US, specifically the Mid Atlantic and the Northeast. We demo’ed how coir was strung and hops were trained, the operation of our incredible oast as well as a small demonstration of the current hops harvester.
We then walked the group up to the smaller, original hopyard for a first-hand look at the Cascade and Nugget hops which will soon be harvested. The group had a variety of great questions and were quite surprised at the size of a commercial hops trellis system.
Guests then loaded onto the school bus and traveled up the nearby “Keystone Camp Road” for a walk through the larger hopyard. We continued the discussion and Q&A there. It was an incredible morning and we are honored to have welcome so many wonderful guests to the Farm. Please come back again soon!
And…They’re Off!
Getting up to the Farm once a week, honestly sometimes just barely cuts it trying to keep up especially in the Spring. One week it’s “Well I can’t get to it today, I’m outta time…it’ll be ok to leave until next week” becomes on the next visit “*(*&$)&*#$@!!!! Are you kidding me?!!!”
This Spring, we seemed pretty much on track even given the very wet conditions we’d been handed. It was time to string and we couldn’t wait much longer. And so on Sunday, June 3rd we’d asked a few buddies if they’d be able to lend a hand with the process. And as always, they volunteered their time and effort, also being away from home and family, to help. Â My long-time buddy Jason Lang made the trek out from town, and my App House and climbing buddy Brenton Mitchell hauled himself all the way up from State College where my wife and I live. And true to form, my brother Devin yet again offered his help as well.
Well if we ever want to know what it was like working in a hopyard in the Pacific Northwest…Sunday was that day! It rained non-stop from the early morning through the end of stringing coir in the middle of the afternoon!
And so this most recent week, we turned our attention to the original, smaller yard which for a number of reasons, we attend to last. The hops decided to just keep on growing, the bines climbing whatever they could find…weeds, poles, each other…until we got in there to string and “train” them. Good times, good times!
With Dad driving the tractor and me up in the platform, we were able to string the coir from the top trellis cables. It was then time to place the “W” clips and secure the coir into the ground so we could begin training. After an exhaustive 20 minute search in the barn, we still could not find them. We even tried the classic “I looked there 4 times…but this 5th time…hell ya, they’ll be there!” to no avail. I then realized that last week in the rush to get out of the rain at the end of the day, I’d handed off some equipment to Brenton to take while I put away the tractor and platform. After a quick text message exchange, I realized we had to find a Plan B…
Plan B was taking some of the aluminum nails Dad uses for the tape lines on the Hardtru court…seemed to do the trick!
So with my brother Mike’s help, him just coming off very little sleep just getting home following a long flight, we got the small yard trained. It needs weeded heavily, however getting these little fellas started was the priority. Soon with the beds weeded, the non-trained bines cut down and then shortly after, the bottom foot or so of the bines trimmed up on the bottom 2 feet, life will be good!
