M F L Fry & Son
The rickety steel frame tucked into a corner of Greg Fry’s hop shed is barely recognisable, but this network of steel bars and four spindly legs is...
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Wai-iti Hops
On the eve of the very first harvest at Will Prouting’s new farm, Wai-iti Hops, all his equipment was either brand new or borrowed from other hop f...
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Long Gully Hops
The first time Andrew Fry planted his own hop gardens, his lifelong passion for “growing things” grew as rapidly as the healthiest of hop bines, we...
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Rod Fry Ltd
Rod Fry was barely 15 years old when he decided to skip school to become a tobacco farmer.
“I’d show up at school on Fridays though, because that w...
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Thorn Hops
Two weeks before the hop harvest of 1965, a freakishly powerful wind blasted through the usually tranquil Motueka Valley, where the Thorn family ha...
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Totara Terrace
When Peter Lines is not in the thick of the annual hop harvest or harvesting juicing grapes from his 40-year-old vineyard, he is perpetually “potte...
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The Pines
Andy Drummond’s fondest childhood memory is of a warm December night when he stretched out beside his Dad on the back of the farm truck, parked amo...
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Kotare Hops
Noel Moleta admits he barely gave a thought to the swathes of lush, green hop gardens surrounding the Tapawera property he’d bought to farm sheep a...
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Matthewson Hops
The day Scott Matthewson’s 1950s Bruff hop-picking machine arrived on his Tadmor Valley farm, it was a dismantled jumble of Meccano-like parts cont...
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Glenrae Hops
When Wilson Matthewson decided to rip out the entire 10 hectares of berries growing on his Glenrae Road farm, he was the last member of the Matthew...
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Northwood Hops
When half-a-century had ticked over since Robert Inglis first started growing hops, he’d not long celebrated one of his own significant birthdays -...
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Kono Hops
Training young hops to wend their way skyward is not a comfortable job when you’re a 6’4” tall lad.
Fresh out of high school in 2011, Dylan Morri...
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New Hoplands
Colin Oldham wasn’t particularly surprised when America’s Budweiser Beer magnate managed to find his relatively small hop farm, tucked away in a p...
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MacHops
When Brent McGlashen was just a primary school boy, every day after school during the hop harvest, he would race his three siblings home – the qui...
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Waimea West Hops
The very first time Willy Macdonald noticed numerous little hop burrs forming on the bines, he jumped onto his farm-bike and raced back to the far...
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Kentishman Hops
The night before harvesting begins in Guy Coddington’s hop gardens, master brewer Tracy Banner is feeling as excited as a child anticipating Chris...
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Holmdale Farm
It’s unlikely a beer-brewing kit will ever make the list of the 10 most romantic gifts a bride could present to her groom. However, a kegerator wa...
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Hinetai Hops
As a boy, Dean Palmer could never resist running after the trucks as they headed off from the neighbouring hop farm, tightly packed with freshly-c...
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