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!