Our Goal for this Blog

Over the years we have received and continue to receive numerous phone calls and emails asking many different farm related questions. Our thought is that we would try out a blog to keep people up to date on what we are doing here on Puterbaugh Farms and at Hops Direct.

We will just jump right into where we are at in the growing season with a very brief look at what it took to get the hops to the stage they are in now. If interest is actually shown and people are looking for more information we will continue through the winter and pick up the beginning next spring, which will allow everyone to get a feel for what a full crop year looks like from a hop grower's perspective and all of the many challenges involved. We hope you enjoy.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

We hit water!

We started drilling a well late last week and have successfully hit water. It's always nice when things turn out like you hope. We also just received a new piece of machinery for our pellet mill we have here on the farm to pelletize our hops before we send them out to brewers. The piece we a little heavier than expected which made unloading it a fun problem to solve. In the end we had to use two forklifts, one of each side of the truck, then we had the truck drive out from under it while the forklifts remained in place. Now we have to figure out how to install it, considering this piece will be housed about 15 feet off the floor. Tomorrow we will be getting out the tape measures to solve this dilemma.

The well drilling equipment at work near the picking machine.
Pellet mill upon arrival, weight approximately 7,500lbs., width 8', weight distribution - very uneven and on one small pallet. This all adds up to make a very interesting morning of trying to move the mill.

Lots of future cones are in development in this hop yard.

3 comments:

tracysrocket said...

Big piece of machinery for sure. Whenever you do the pelletizing, I'd like for you to explain how it is done, and what this machinery does to makes the pellets.

TD

Hopsdirect said...

Sure thing. When we fire up the pellet mill after or during harvest I'll be sure to get some photos and explain the process.

Tyler

Unknown said...

I'm curious to know how much one of those pelletizers would cost. There are a growing number of small hop farms popping up in the British Columbia area and a local pelletizer would be a real asset to have!
Keep up the great work on your blog!