Medford mail tribune., September 22, 1963, Image 9

The Grants Pass Area Hop harvest
F.ari;
By PRISCILLA AVER ILL
Mail Tribune Correspondent
GRANTS PASS It's a warm September evening during
hop harvest, and Grants Pass hop grower Roy Lathrop is
looking over his domain.
"Look at that," he says, "Isn't that pretty? Isn't that
a pretty sight?"
He's pointing not at the beautiful mountains in the dis
tance, nor even at endless fields of hops. His "pretty sight"
is a bulging bale of dried hops which two harvest workers
are sheathing in burlap.
"Lovely," because to a hop grower there could indeed be
no prettier sight than another 200-pound bundle of his year's
work emerging from the baler ready for market.
Bustle During the Night
The hour is 10 p.m., but at the Sunnybrook Hopyard, op
erated by Roy and his son, Charles, along the Rogue west of
Grants Pass, machinery is clattering, trucks are running back
and forth between fields and picker, and the whole operation
has all the bustle of midday.
There's no 5 o'clock whistle when the hops are ready for
harvest you get them in fast or stand to lose part of the
year's work.
A little farther down the Rogue, a similar scene is being
enacted at the Christie hopyards, operated by Floyd Christie
and his son, Roland.
Both Christie and Lathrop have been growing hops in the
valley most of their lives. During harvest time, each runs two
10-hour shifts a day, seven days a week, and between them
they harvest, dry and bale the valley's entire 625-acre hop
crop in three weeks.
Used To Be .More Hop Glowers
There used to he a lot more hop growers in the valley.
As late as 20 years ago, Christie says, there were 15 or 16
growers with about 1.500 acres of hops. At one time almost the
entire valley was in hops. There also used to be quite a few
along the Applegate, but the last of these stopped about five
years ago. Pickers pot scarce, wages went up, and mechaniza
tion represented quite a sizeable investment.
Now only four growers remain Lathrop, Christie, Melvin
King and Don Cook. Of these, only Christie and Lathrop have
their own "hophouses," with mechanized pickers, kilns, cool
ing and baling rooms. Lathrop, with one of the largest harvest
ing operations in the state, also picks for King and Cook.
Watching the frantic pace of the current hop harvest,
which wound up last week end, one would never suspect
that this year's is regarded as a "light" crop, because of the
summer's unusually cool growing weather.
The pungent smell of hops permeates everything hops
are everywhere; underfoot, in the air, in one's clothes and in
one's hair.
Trucks Are Kept Busy
Ten trucks are kept busy running vines, with hops intact,
from the fields to the mechanical "picker." a huge clattering
complex of machinery housed in a shed half a block long. Here
the vines are strung on hooks which move them to a long
series of revolving drums which comb off the hops with wire
fingers.
The stripped vines go on to a shredder to be chopped for
fertilizer, while the hops go into a kiln where they are dried
in 140 degree heat for about 12 hours. Alter a period in a
cooling room, they are compressed into 200-pound burlap
covered bales.
The kilns are fired by huge forced-air diesel furnaces
which blow 45,000 cubic feet of hot air per minute. Hops
are spread to a depth of about three feet on a screened
floor above.
Recognizing the dramatic possibilities in this annual race
with time, the "Route 66" television show staged one of their
weekly episodes at the Lathrop yards about three years ago,
weaving their story around the harvest operation complete,
of course, with a few good chases, fight and truck wreck
thrown in.
Harvesting More Efficient
Mechanical harvesting, which began after World War H, is
undoubtedly more efficient; but there are many hereabouts
who miss "the old days," when up to 5,000 hand pickers found
work in the many hop fields at the peak of harvest.
There were hops in here as early as the 1880's. Nowadays
Uiey are strung on overhead wires, but previously each hill
of hops grew up a separate pole, which was then lowered
into cross-sticks for picking. Picking was a family job, ac
cording to Mrs. Christie, who reminisced that her family used
to ford the Rogue each year traveling from Selma to pick
at the Hanzan hopfield, which is now part of the Christie
holdings.
Each family made several hundred dollars during harvest,
Hops were grown in the Grants Pass area as early as the IffiiO's. This photo was taken in 1905
at the Hanzan hopfield, which is now a part of the Floyd Christie holdings. The persons in the pic
ture are members of the family of Mrs. Christie, the former Viola Craig. She was only four years
old at the time and did not accompany her brothers and sisters on this outing. In those days tha
hops were grown on poles instead of being strung on wire. Each pole was lowered onto a set of
crossbars (as pictured above) for picking.
v.
4
Scenes hkc tins aie topical of the 6.3 acres of hop fields along the Rogue river west of Grants Pass just before harvest time. Row upon row upon row may be
seen. The vines grow up each year from the crown and are strung on strands of wire. This scene is at the Christie hopvards, operated by Floyd Christie and his son
Roland. Christie is one of four hops growers who remain in the Grants Pass area. As late as 20 years ago, there were 15 or 16 growers with i 500 acres of hops
Features
Medford
Sports
Tribune
SECTION B
MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1063 PAGliS 1 In 10
Dorothy Menascn of Grants I'nss separates the strings of hops
as they move from tne inii-K lo imp picKing macnine, composed
of w hp. "fingers" on revolving picker drums which pluck out lh
hops as the vines move over them. Alter this process the hops
emerge on a belt which conveys them to the drier kilns, and lh
vines go to a chopper which converts them Into fertilizer.
and it was regarded as a "vacation" outing. Everyone camp
ed in lenls right at the hopfield, and gathered around bon
fires at night. The harvest then took about six weeks with
hand pickers.
Great Bonn In Students
Hop harvest used lo he a great boon to students earning
money for school, too. It still is, but with the demise of hand
picking, workers now number under 200 instead of several
thousand.
Though some hops are used in medicines and dyes, most
are used by brewers to flavor beer and for a certain preserv
ing quality. Different brewers have their own formulas and
demand different hops. The English Cluster, grown along the
Rogue, is considered a premium hop and is most in demand.
Most growers, including all four local ones, sell to broker
age lirms rather than directly to brewers. At end of harvest,
brokers will send men to probe the bales and take samples,
which in turn are shown lo brewers. Some bales may be
marked at the sile with brand names or with indication of
where they ai P to go.
Some are marked "For Export," "For London." Because
of efficient production methods, American grown hops shire
1055 have found increasing favor in foreign brewing centers.
Hops grown in Oregon, California, Washington and Idaho, the
only states which produce them commercially, arc now ex
ported all over the world. Much of the hops grown locally
are marked (or export to England, Japan or South America.
Virtually Weightless
Since a dried hop is virtually weightless, it seems to take
millions of them to make up a 200-pound baie. They are costly
lo raise, must be "trained" to grow in the right direction,
use tons of fertilizer, must be picked at prime, must be right
color, cannot be over-dried or under-dried, and will mold if
exposed to dampness or rain. Like grapes, they come up
from the crown each year, but some years may winter kill.
Other years may see a frantic race to get the hops all in
before it rams, and parts of a crop have been lost because
of rains. This year, however, the weatherman smiled on the
hopgrowcrs, with three weeks of ideal picking weather.
The crop may have been "short," but it is holding well
and is of excellent quality; and growers are looking with sat
isfaction on the results of their year's labor.
H ft ie-5
9" Vi,. 4
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Iff-4 Ml U-v 1 k Iti.
- " 3
M. E. Diighmnn. left, and Rill Krenek, bolh of Grants Pass, "sew up" a 200-pound bale of dried
hops at the Hoy 1,,-ilhrop hopyards during the height of the harvest this year. Individual dried hops
weigh little, so it lakes a great many of them ton make a bale.
h'ri:.' ' - S-i P 1 - I tix Klod Christie in.sp.K-ts some of his hops on Ihe vine lo see ,1 AiM'mr1 . , H. 4LI, . ' ; j
Vn,:j t it Lalnrop hopvards at harvest lime shows the Inirks Ocfl renlert brmcing the hop vines in from the fields.
Four .fjefcj ;tr operated at time throughout both 15-hour shifts (20 hours a dayl during Ihe three-week harvest season. Most of
th hop ir id by hreweri a flavor beer and lor a certain preserving quality. The four Grants Ta.ss growers sell lo brokerag
finni rather than direct to brewers, however.
Charles Kllintl of M.-ilin unloads vines from a truck and slrings Ihem onto hos5 which tianv
port Ihem In Ihe picking machine in this s.ene at Ihe Roy I.alhrop hopyards. Alter the picking
machine separates Ihe hops Irom the vines, the hops arc dried in 140 degree h at for 12 hours.
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