Hop garden blog: Pins turn to burrs overnight!

It's amazing how quickly things can change in the hop garden, Matthew, our hop garden manager tells us: I've been spending a lot of time in the hop garden recently as we approach harvest time, but even I was taken aback by the speed at which the little pins (the start of the hop cone) turned into burrs (the next step on the way to a hop cone) this year. After waiting and inspecting the hop plants and then waiting some more, overnight last night, within mere hours, the small pins had erupted into spiky burrs! The Fuggles and Pioneer burrs are spectacular, particularly the Pioneer burrs against the red stalk. However, the Cascade and Farnham White aren't far behind. There's always something going on in the hop garden but often it's these little signs of progress that make my job so satisfying.