My brother, Ken (of the excellent salsa and remarkable margaritas), grows this in his backyard. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. He grows other things, too, including a wide variety of herbs like coriander (first the herb, then he lets it go to seed and harvests those, brilliant, right?) and pears and crab apples and loads of other fun things. I happened to be at his place the other day to drop off Jessica’s tooth fairy bag. She had left it at Nancy’s lake house (it somehow had more money in it than when she lost it, go figure). Of course I was smart and timed this visit for 6 o’clock when I knew that he’d offer us something to eat and drink.
When we arrived, he was harvesting this from his garden. It grows on a vine and you need to dry it before using it (that’s the drying rack you see below, next to my feet). The first person to correctly guess what it is will receive a package of edibles from yours truly. There is no purchase necessary, feel free to guess more than once, you must be 18 to enter, and please no family members or close friends of ceres and bacchus.
Sunday, 9. September 2007
Hello there, are those hops?
Sunday, 9. September 2007
Hops!
Sunday, 9. September 2007
Heh, it just looks like small green pinecones to me.
Sunday, 9. September 2007
Is that prize already taken? Those must be hops!
Sunday, 9. September 2007
It’s gotta be hops!
Monday, 10. September 2007
I am going to guess brussel sprouts, just to be different.
Tuesday, 11. September 2007
I had no idea what it was but it seems as if your readers have a pretty good idea. What I want to know is what he does with them… I’ll stay tuned.
Thursday, 13. September 2007
DAMMIT. I wanted the prize package! I knew those were hops… Now I have to go pout in the corner.
No, but seriously, you guys are brave to harvest hops. I hate the gooiness of the vines. It skeeves me out. My mom grows them and doesn’t do anything with them because of the stickiness.
Thursday, 13. September 2007
At first glance I thought they were artichokes and I was insanely jealous..What are hops and aren’t they used in beermaking??
Monday, 9. March 2009
Hi! My husband and I are trying to come up with easy to build and practical drying racks for our hops and other herbs. Do you think your brother would mind if you posted pictures of his full drying rack?