THE HOP GARDENS OF NELSON

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 901, 9 November 1956, Page 7

THE HOP GARDENS OF NELSON

" KENT, sir-everybody knows Kentapples, cherries, hops, and women," so says one of Dickens’s characters. Substitute Nelson for Kent and you describe, near enough, at any rate, the sunny province in the hop-picking season. From 2YA on Tuesday, Novem-

ber 13, at 10.0 p.m., listeners will hear the story of hop-growing in Nelson in a documentary programme, From Bine to Barrel, written for the NZBS by Bruce Broadhead. This programme starts with a historical picture of the importance of hopping to

English brew, and traces the gradual spread of hop-growing throughout the world, Hope are grown in many countries, and in New Zealand there is a branch of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research devoted solely to research into breeding and cultural problems.

A hop-garden. is a demonstration. of preponderance in the female of ‘the species-for there are both male and female plants and (at least in New Zealand) about eighty females to a single male. The female (Californian) species grown in this country reaches a height of sixteen feet in about six weeks. And how many feet of hop-bine would a fast worker pick in 34 years? One old lady whom Bruce Broadhead discovered might have given the answer if she had kept figures of yield and bushels picked, because for that period of time she has been picking hops at the same place in Nelson and is stillat 88-a first-class worker. But labour in hop-picking is a major problem, for though highly efficient machines . are available to do this work, their cost is prohibitive for the small grower. The Government, however, subsidises fares for the willing and hop-picking for many people is still a first-class working holiday. Heard in From Bine to Barrel are people who deal with all aspects of the hop industry: growers, pickers, distributors and brewers. Even the humble home brewer gets a mention in a reference to packeted hops for domestic use. From Bine to Barrel is but one of Bruce Broadhead’s documentaries about Nelson to be heard in the coming week. Two other rural programmes designed for city listeners are The Valley, to be heard from 4YA, Tuesday, November 13, at 10.30 p.m., and from 3YA on Friday, November 16, at 8.0 p.m.; and Forbidden Fruit, from 1YA on Friday, November 16, at 10.0 p.m. The Valley is a programme about the Tadmore Valley, which is the largest raspberrygrowing area in Nelson, and possibly in New Zealand. Forbidden Fruit, as its name suggests, is about the apple orchards of Nelson. ;