A Certified Naturally Grown Farm - Saint Marys, Pennsylvania
A Fresh Start: 2025 Hop Season in Full Swing
2025 hop season at Hoffman Appalachian Farm is off to a good start: flame weeding is completed, coir is hung, and training is in progress.
2024…Here We Go!
We’ve been waiting all Winter to dive back into the hop hills, and if Punxsutawney Phil is correct, shouldn’t be much longer now. A recent walk of the fields, checking for the emergence of shoots, although turning up negative, did once again inspire your…
Hop Farm | version 2.0
“Forward, always forward, everywhere forward“ Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.Founder & Archabbot, Saint Vincent Archabbey | Latrobe, Pennsylvania1809 – 1887 It’s that time of year – harvest is behind us, hops are put to bed for the Winter, and there’s no work left to do in…
“A Little Off The Top…Er, Bottom…Please!”
Returning to the Farm after a week away, I just never know quite what to expect. Weeds out of control? Something break? Japanese beetles show up weeks early? “Expect the worst, it can only get better” is pretty much the motto we follow. I…
2021 Season – “It’s Done”
Apologies upfront. I’d stepped away from the weekly blog in late Spring as we began in earnest on our Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) solar pump/irrigation grant project. Although we’d been awarded the grant back in 2019, with the pandemic running its course through…
And The Hits Just Keep Onnnnnn Comin’
Like most hop yards, we plan days, or most often weeks in advance for specific activities to take place on the Farm. Many of which revolve around the Solstice, June 21st. That’s the day hops need to be to the top of the wire…
“If I could just get started in those fields…that’d be great!”
Well up for the weekend for a couple of reasons…one was simply to see where the fields are at. As you can see, there’s still a foot of snow on our fields. Over in Montoursville, the snow is all but gone, but a different…
Drip, Drip, Drop
Another “fun-filled” day weeding in the small yard. In addition, needed to find out what was causing the pressure issue with the drip irrigation/fertigation setup we’d put in place the other weekend. Brother Mike rightly determined we weren’t getting the amount of pressure out…
Fertigate The Night Away
Probably not quite the hit that Van Halen’s “Dance The Night Away” was, unless you’re a fellow hop Farmer, but I’ll take it 😉 This past weekend’s list of activities included a project we’ve wanted to add almost since day 1…fertigation! That is, adding…
Father’s Day
We celebrated Father’s Day in our house on Saturday, June 20…a day ahead as it worked better for everyone’s schedules here. Had a great breakfast with Jenn and the kids, AND got a new travel mug to replace the one I crushed a few…
