Cones!!!

I can happily report that we have many cones and they are filling up with nice orange/yellow lupulin.  I don't think it will be a huge harvest, but we should have enough to make a few sales and get things moving in the right direction.  The rows that didn't get trellised will probably not do much this year, but hopefully have established some roots and saved some energy for next year.

We are encouraged that the pest didn't wipe us out and that we have learned how to deal with most of them for next year (famous last words, right?).  The real question is going to be if and how we expand next year.  We now know from experience that we should be building the trellis system in the fall for next spring.  That is, however, a big expense before we even make any money on this years harvest, which will be small.  Things to ponder.

We are also encouraged by a nice mention we received in the local press.  http://thesouthern.com/lifestyles/magazine/article_e1cd0452-937b-11df-b91f-001cc4c002e0.html  This is an article by Shawn Connolly, who is a local beer writer.  It is exciting to watch and be a part of the craft beer renaissance that is happening as we speak.

On the non-hop farm front, we can report that organic tomatoes abound on Windy Hill.  I can also report that we have had very minimal damage from pests on the tomatoes (not so for the kale).  I can get pretty serious about eating tomatoes.  I made a pasta sauce last night that was probably 90% (by weight) Windy Hill Farms product.  Now we just need to figure out how to grow olives and capers to hit 100%.