Our Crooked Lines Grow A Straight Up Pumpkin Beer

We planted the first of our spring field crops this week at Rogue Farms, an acre of Dream Pumpkins that we grow for Pumpkin Patch Ale.

First step, we laid out the patch with orange flags.

Next, we marked out the rows with a push planter.

If things had gone according to plan, this would have been the end of it. The way a push planter is supposed to work, we pour a bunch of seeds into the hopper and as we push the planter through the field it slices the furrows, drops the seeds and covers them up with dirt.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, it was drizzling that day. The wet seeds gummed up everything so we had to go to plan B.

Plan B: The Jab Planter

A jab planter is about as simple as it gets. Jab it into the ground, an inch deep for pumpkins seeds.

Take a few seeds and drop them down the tube and into the dirt.

Repeat that 2,398 times and you’re done.

Afterwards, someone commented that the rows of seeds were kind of “wiggly.” That’s what happens when you plant your own pumpkins by hand instead with a machine. We could buy pumpkins from someone else who planted their seeds in tidy, straight lines. But that’s not how we do things at Rogue Farms.

We’d much rather plant, pick, clean, chop, chunk and roast all of our Dream Pumpkins by hand so that Brewmaster John Maier has the freshest, sweetest pumpkins possible to brew Pumpkin Patch Ale.

Coming up soon, our cucumbers and jalapeños. Join us this spring at Rogue Farms for the season of planting beers, spirits, ciders and sodas.

Originally published at roguefarms.com on May 6, 2016.