Plant Watching Again: Here Come the Hops

Lookie!

Those, my friends, are the beginnings of this years hops vines! Wheeee!!!!! I think they look sort of alien, or maybe like something that should grow under water. Our hops vine produced an amazing amount of hops last year–unfortunately we failed to harvest many of them before it was too late. This year I will keep a much closer eye on the vine, because the hops we DID manage to harvest were wonderful. SO intensely fragrant. Of course the day I brought them in to dry we were all sleepy . . .

Hopefully we’ll get enough this year to satisfy hubster’s brewing needs and my crazy herbalist wannabe needs. Actually I mostly use them in my goddesses, but wouldn’t mind making some dream pillows as gifts this year, and maybe storing some hops for tea. I rarely have trouble sleeping but it might be a nice option, since Valerian is kind of strong for me. I like to use Valerian on the Fourth of July though, when the fireworks our neighbors set off make me incredibly edgy. Puts me right to sleep, in spite of all the bangs and blasts. I’m glad I’m not one of the people who Valerian has the opposite affect on–it’s nice to have such an easy remedy for those times when I’m exhausted and sleep just isn’t happening.

This won’t be one of those nights though. I’m cold and tired, and I have a Harry Potter DVD. I’ll be out in minutes.

Happy Plant Watching!