This family-owned hop farm in New South Wales, Australia, launched in 2016 with a focus on regenerative, sustainable, organic, and biodiverse land practices.
Despite two years of drought in the lead-up to this year, Ryefield had managed to sustain crops, build relationships with local brewers, install new processing facilities, and prepare for growth with an investment of $1 million Australian dollars ($747,000) that would take it from two acres to 10. After four years of struggle, 2020 was planned as a year of growth. Instead, Ryefield lost almost 100% of its crop to the recent bushfires.
Now, in readiness for 2021, the drought has broken and the team have received donations from the industry, both financially and in the form of hop rhizomes, to help get back up and running. Their social media is again full of pictures of lush green grass and rain-filled fields. And despite the horrors of 2020, it’s hard to not take a bit of hope from this little hop that managed to find a way through the drought, intense heat, and bushfire smoke to sprout back to life for another crack at it all.
Words,Luke Robertson