Hops Harvest 2013

Much improved over 2012.

Now I need to dry them in preparation for use.

On a screen in a cool dry place with moving air is the preferred method.  The dehumidifier is running in the basement, so I think I can handle this.

You can almost smell them, right?

On the old window screen.
I don't think there was a window in the house for this screen when we moved in 27 years ago.

The screen folded over, capturing the hops.

Drying in progress!

So we're running the dehumidifier to keep the place dry, right?  And where is the air the driest?  Might as well take advantage of the fan blowing the dry exhaust out of the unit.  

This classic messy basement shot is so...so...so me.  Amid the stuff strewn about, I've got the hops at least half-drying in the moving air, balanced on some junk that probably needs to be thrown away.  In front of that is junk of my own creation...old speakers I built a millennium ago, unfinished, of course...but they work.  And overlooking it all is the alarm system I recently reconditioned and don't appear to have applied the schematic sticker the door or buttoned up the unit.  

This is almost a self portrait.