The Hop Grower’s Handbook: The Essential Guide for Sustainable, Small-Scale Production for Home and Market

The Hop Grower’s Handbook: The Essential Guide for Sustainable, Small-Scale Production for Home and Market
by Laura Ten Eyck and Dietrich Gehring
Chelsea Green Publishing
September 2015, $34.95

When we first meet Laura Ten Eyck, she and her husband, Dietrich Gehring, are contending with the Japanese beetles that have consumed their hop yard overnight. Their pest-management manual offers no help; like most hops-growing guides, it’s intended for farmers in the Northwest, the dry, beetle-free, hops-growing utopia. Northeastern farmers face humidity, heavy rainfall, and the resulting fungus. Despite the modest renaissance of hops production in eastern states, no step-by-step guide had emerged until The Hop Grower’s Handbook. The authors relay their experience and research, cutting through jargon with photos and diagrams. From planting, maintaining and harvesting, to packaging and selling, they write with a goal: to create a culture of local hops production in the Northeast. Japanese beetles be damned. ■