A Certified Naturally Grown Farm - Saint Marys, Pennsylvania
Hops “Shakeout”
I was wondering when these types of articles would start filtering through. I think it really boils down to what drives each group. For the traditional, large yards out West, typically where that’s all they do and in mass quantities is grow hops, yeah…
Running To Spring
TORN! Not sure there’s any other way to say it. Would I love it if this warm weather continued and we got a huge head start on the hops growing season? Yes! Would I like to see Winter…the season we’re actually supposed to still…
Cabling The Hopyard
I knew it was going to be a challenge today. It rained…HARD…all weekend, so I was curious what the field conditions would be like. Today we’d have not only the tractor in the new hopyard (a tractor that tips the scales at around 10,000lbs.),…
Wet Spring + Heavy Equipment = Not A Good Combination!
Our hops arrived “prematurely”…that is to say, there was a miscommunication between the Farm and our supplier. The date they were delivered (May 19) was the original date we’d discussed with the supplier last month. However I amended that date and said we’d be…
Stretching The Legs
It was quite a weekend. Saturday was my third time running one of the most awesome trail races here on the East coast – the Hyner View Trail Challenge! I ran the 50K flavor along with my very good buddy Jason Lang. I was…
IH674 Is Up and Running!
Our “new” International Harvester (IH) 674 diesel tractor arrived late in the afternoon on Monday, April 11th. It was a cool, rainy day…I know, a shocker for Spring in Pennsylvania. Bill, the driver that picked up the 674 from our good friend George Schettler’s…
Clearing the Past, Preparing the Future
Well this week’s trip was more meeting content then field work… 9:30am: First stop in town to Steve Straub, our Erie Insurance guy regarding tractor and overall farm coverage along with Commonwealth Hops LLC 10am: Drop off/pick up things at the in-laws 10:30am: An…
First trip up for the season!
Checking in on the “old” Hopyard…luckily none of them have started yet as its snowed up here a bit today. Barley survived the Winter so just waiting for those warm temps forecasted for later this week and next! And new Hopyard is ready and…
“It’s alive…ALIVE!”
Sorry for the dramatic title but…we just got word today from Hines Equipment in Altoona, the Case-International Harvester dealer we took the tractor to…that repairs have been completed on the 674!! We will be clearing out room in the barn this coming Monday as ironically…
PASA’s 2016 “Farming for the Future” Conference
Each year, as the doldrums of Winter settle in here in Pennsylvania, folks from around the country gather in Central Pennsylvania for one of the nation’s premiere and long-standing sustainable ag conferences – PASA’s “Farming for the Future” Conference! PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable…
