Tenbury Wells, Worcester. Varieties Grown: Progress, Goldings

The Adams' family farm has been growing hops since 1922. Originally, Thomas Adams (my Grandad) was the first in the family to begin producing hops; he did so at the Church House Farm in Rochford. In 1926, he moved to Lower House Farm Rochford, where the growth of hops had already begun. My Dad then continued the farming that my Grandad had created and expanded the farm so that growth had tripled. After Dad, my Brother Phillip continued farming at just 20 years old. Sadly, he passed away and so I took over in 2001. Presently, we are growing Progress and Golding hops.

Selling, Faversham, East Kent. Varieties Grown: East Kent Goldings, Challenger, Fuggles

I farm some 200 hectares of land in the parishes of both Boughton and Selling located between Faversham and Canterbury in Kent. Our soils vary from Chalky loam with flints through to Sandy loam, with some Thanet Beds and a little Brick earth. Cropping includes hops, blackcurrants, pears, cherries, wheat, oats, oil seed rape and beans.

The farm has been in the family for many generations. I am just about to start my tenth year managing the farm. Growing hops is a key enterprise within the business. Traditionally, growing East Kent Goldings and more recently, we have replanted varieties we used to grow. Fuggles were planted in 2002 and Challenger were added in 2009. This has helped extend our harvest window and has ensured all of our hop growing systems are running at full capacity.

I employ three very knowledgeable full time staff who have all worked for this family run business for over 30 years. Our valuable staff members assist with the day to day operations and a casual workforce of between 10 and 20 people are employed for hop training and harvest.

Our business moves forward concentrating on the importance of the environment, our people and our quality products.

Biddenden, Ashford. Varieties Grown: Admiral, Goldings, Target, UK Chinook

My grandfather bought this farm in 1918, and for a while grew a small acreage of hops.

In the depression years of the 1930’s, he did not have any and during the second world war, a large section of the farm was requisitioned by the government to build an air field which was occupied by the American air force.

There was a considerable amount of damage done to the land and property. By the end of the war the land was given back and by this time my father started to take over and wanted to grow hops again in the very late 1940’s early 1950’s. The main variety he grew was Fuggles, growing them successfully for a number of years, until the late 1970’s when they were struck down with verticillium wilt.

For the next 10 years or so, different varieties were grown with varying degrees of success, until the late 1980’s when everything was grubbed. At this time, I started to take an interest and planted the existing acreage with Target, which I still have today. Since then I have doubled the acreage which includes Admiral, Goldings and UK Chinnock and built a new drying system and with the vibrant interest in UK varieties, I intend to increase plantings further.

I am the seventh generation in my family to have grown hops, although not continuously or on the same farm. It may appear to some people that I grow hops for historical family connections but this is not the case. My grandfather said to my father when he started growing hops, “you are in for a lot of work and aggravation” and he certainly was not wrong. I have a young and enthusiastic team working with me, including the next generation and they are showing interest in what I do.