Humulus lupulus

[hondo]

"Then something remarkable and unexpected happened: English hops became precious, interesting."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/cou...f-England.html

[Wittenden]

"Then something remarkable and unexpected happened: English hops became precious, interesting."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/cou...f-England.html

Good stuff:Makes me proud to be Kentish... Shep's used to have a slogan on their pump clips:"Malt and hops only." Says it all, really.
I can just about remember hand picking: friends of my parents grew hops in Smarden:when they could no longer get pickers, they used to fetch the hops on trailers to a neighbour who had a machine. Subsequently, I remember eating baked potatoes cooked in the neighbour's coke fire that dried the hops.