September, 2022
Unbeknownst to me, unplanned by me, this 2022 camping trip to the Yakima Valley coincided with the very center, the heart, the core of the hop harvesting season in the Yakima Valley. I saw trucks full of hops EVERYWHERE, going all manner of which-way directions. The hop fields are owned by many different people and organizations … hops from each field will be taken to their own kiln for processing. A field in the south might take their harvest to a kiln in the north. Or a field in the west might take their hops to the south. Or a field in the south might take their hops to a kiln in the east. Etc.
The other day, the woman in the American Hop Museum told me where there might be some real live hop harvesting going on hereabouts. It wasn’t on a main road … it was on a side road … not a known tourist road. But she knew her stuff. She was born and raised here. She told me she was half local native “Indian” and half Hispanic. She knew everyone in town. Her daughter was in the local high school band and was a singer known very well locally. The woman told me about the history of this area that isn’t on any website I can find. She told me about her parents, and their parents, and lots of stories about lots of people here. I wish I’d recorded what she told me … but, in truth, in the end, I’m glad I didn’t record it. What we talked about was between the two of us … her life and my life. When I left that Hop Museum, we gave each other a big hug and said “I love you” to each other. I wish more human beings could connect like that.
The next morning, I took her advice and headed down that back road she had told me about, all while looking for some real live hop harvesting. I almost drove into a ditch pulling over!!! She was right on!! Here they are!
In the video below, in under the hop vines, there’s a yellow truck with a big box bed in the back. Right behind that truck (inches behind!) is a separate tractor/machine that cuts the hops off of the top wires/ropes so that the hop vines drop down into the box of the truck. Because the driver of the truck can’t see a dang thing (she/he is driving through solid hop plants), there’s always someone walking off to the side that signals the driver of the truck … speed up, slow down, stop, etc. [Note: sorry about the cars and trucks whizzing past where I was parked on the opposite side of the road. I really truly was almost in the ditch.] I was amazed how many hop vines fit into one of those trucks! Every once in a while, they lowered that cutting apparatus in order to pack the vines into the truck a bit tighter. And then at the end, the blue cutting machine packed the truck one last time and then moved backwards to let the truck move forward. And then, at the very end of the video, the blue cutting tractor/device moved around to another row of hops in order to cut hops into another truck, an empty truck, truck #23, that was already parked inside the rows of hops. And off they went on another row.
How impressive. I learned a lot from watching this process and these people. And, from past experience, when I learn a lot about something, I’ve learned that there’s likely a lot more to learn. So I stayed and watched and learned more.
The fellow on top of the truck in the photo below had just had his truck loaded with hops harvested from this field. He was packing the hops down into the truck even harder to keep them from blowing out as he drove out onto roads on his way to a processing kiln.
Just as he was finishing, another truck (#16) pulled in … empty … ready to be refilled.
And here’s that truck (#16) in the photo below getting ready to line up with the harvesting machine.
Photo below, truck #16 lined up … and harvesting begins for that truck.
The hop fields are huge; they go on as far as the eye can see. The video below shows one field of hops yet to be harvested … then another field that has been harvested, but in behind that field there is yet another field that has not been harvested. And these fields are a TINY portion of the total acreage of hop fields hereabouts.
And then … as one of the loaded hop trucks pulled out onto the road, I swung my big white truck around and pulled out onto the road too, and followed this one hop truck to see where it went.
I followed that truck for at least 20 minutes, as it turned onto other roads, and wound around a few hills, and passed by more hop fields and corn fields and orchards. Eventually, the truck pulled into CLS Farms, a hop processing plant north of Toppenish and east of Yakima. Moxee … now there’s an interesting name for a town. 🙂
The photo below shows a truck that is being loaded with the residual leaves, stems, and vines that will be taken back to the fields to feed the ground for next year’s crop.
But in the photo below, you can see that a truck has just arrived with a fresh harvest of hop vines.
The vines are manually attached to the moving apparatus above the box/bed of the truck. That apparatus takes the vines to a machine that separates the flowers from the rest of the vine … the flowers are taken to the kiln for heating/drying, then cooling, then more processing, and eventually baling to be shipped to brewers all over the world.
I couldn’t get inside the buildings to see all those processes, but there are a number of videos online about the processes. Here’s one video taken down in Oregon State … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L-xy_fYRvw.
And then, when I’d seen all I could see at this processing plant, I headed back out on the road, back towards my campsite and back towards Towhee the Trailer.
But as I drove out that road, here came a whole line of trucks filled with hop vines. Coming in for processing.
A little further down the road was this lovely home. Couldn’t resist taking a photo.
With it’s wonderful old wooden barn.
Finally, back in the campground and back at my campsite, I jumped out of the truck and laid out some hop vines and flowers on the picnic table at my campsite. No, I hadn’t taken any of the vines from the processing plant. I had simply stopped by the side of the road and picked them up out of the ditch where they’d blown off of passing hop trucks.
These plants smelled good, a little sweet. And they were soft to the touch. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)
A fun and fascinating day.
One thing I didn’t mention was that pretty much every driver of every hop truck waved to me. And I waved back. Even when I wasn’t taking photos or videos, they were so courteous and friendly. Just really nice people.
As much as I’ve learned, I bet there’s lots more to the science and art of growing hops, harvesting them, processing them, and using them to enhance beer and other beverages. But I sure learned a lot on this trip. Here’s to beer! 🙂