On 2006-09-21, Donna in Idaho > wrote:
> Shaking isn't something that you could do at home very easily. When the hop
> trucks arrive at the picker, the hop vines are attached to chains with hooks
> that pull the hop vines up out of the trucks. The vines are shaken
> violently enough that the hop cones fall off.

Not exactly. You are correct about pulling the vines off the trucks.
They are attached to moving chains that pulled them up and off the
trucks to again hang full length as they did on the trellises and move them
for about 50 ft toward the bud removal machine. The buds do not fall off
by shaking. In fact, that 50 foot distance is so workers can move
among the now hopelessly entangled vines and untangle them before they
reach the hop bud stripping machines. It's the worst job on a hops
farm and the one new workers usually get. Any exposed skin is raw
within an hour and bloody by the end of the day.

> Now the hops are grown on high trellises and a worker in a crow's nest cuts
> the vines and strings at the top. Another worker cuts the vines and string
> at ground level and the hops drop into trucks....

Absolutely correct, but in reverse order. The bottoms are cut first,
then the top. In the three summers I worked at the hopyards, I went
from the worst job, untangler, to the top job, literally, the crows
nest. Laziest job other than truck driver.

> There - that's probably more than you ever wanted to know about harvesting
> hops!

I remember when my highschool buddies and myself first approached the
processing sheds looking for a job. The smell was so strong and
pungent, I almost vomited on the spot. It was as bad as a full blast of
skunk. Now, all these years later, I can't get enough of it. There
is no beer that's too hoppy.

nb