Now watch us grow!

A chance meeting at the 2018 Hythe Festival ; a story of success in Deal; imagination sparked; 60 people in and around Hythe start a shared journey. On a Saturday in June 2018, a chance conversation with a keen supporter of  “Deal With IT”, shared the story of the Deal Hop Farm, which has been growing hops in the community for 3 years now. Hops growing successfully in Deal; surely it could also happen in Hythe. We were ignorant, but very enthusiastic, and so began a dialogue with a new friend, Steven Wakeford, who generously shared his experience and tips from the Deal early years.  A small but energetic project group started to plan…and first we agreed a name: “HYTHE HOPS”

November 2018; Hythe Cricket Club Longroom booked; could we sell the idea to others; would anybody turn out? To our surprise and great pleasure, an enthusiastic audience of more than 30 listened to and questioned Steven Wakeford and Jim Dempster (brewer from Range Ales) explain some pertinent facts.  A fire was truly lit.

More planning over the Christmas period, to finalise the practicalities – what would it cost, how would we organise ourselves; and a kick-off meeting  set up for February to seal the deal.

In preparation, and to help explain away some of the mysteries of the hop plant, great work was done by Sue to pull together a “growing guide”.  We started to use some new jargon…twiddling; hop string and hop pegs…and no doubt more to come.

To drum up further interest,  David put in loads of time and effort to rally interest in the business community – pubs, clubs, local cafes.  Andrew made sure we received some media publicity, and and we all tried to persuade our friends and neighbours they would like to join…

Our “kick off” meeting was a business and social event – more than 40 people attended (very pleasing!) and  we left feeling that a journey was really about to begin, as we were now committed to buying and planting hops.

In March David and Philippa made several visits to Bekesbourne to buy the dwarfing Prima Donna hops for our group – over 100 hops in all. These rhizomes were distributed rapidly and planted up by in pots, allotments, and gardens in Hythe, Saltwood mainly but also in, Acrise, Ashford, Burmarsh, Folkestone and Lympne and Newington (and elsewhere I may have temporarily forgotten.) Since then more visits have taken place and we now have 70 members with 132 hop plants in the ground.

To celebrate the successful stage of our journey, Philippa organised a night at the Red Lion in Hythe – more than 30 enjoyed the opportunity to talk about hops (and lots besides)…

We continue to talk to Hopfuzz and Range Ales, our local friends with brewing skills – we will work closely with them later in the year.

Meanwhile, as the weather warms up, the hops are shooting and speed of growth will rocket; let’s hope for a good season!

For more about the project and photos follow this Link.

Cheers!