On a farm in Northern Southland, hundreds of sheep are feasting on leaves from New Zealand's southernmost crop of commercial hops.
James McNamee has transformed his family's traditional sheep farming into the two-tier operation Garston Hops.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
James McNamee's family has run sheep at Garston for 145 years.
In 2016, the first trial plot of hops was planted on their land.
"We were looking for something else I suppose, something that suits our farm and our land," James says.
Now, 45,000 hop plants share 15 hectares of farmland with hundreds of sheep.
Within the next three years, the hop gardens will cover 40 hectares.
"We've got the hop plants happily growing high and the sheep are at the bottom making good work of keeping the weeds and grass down."
The sheep enjoy eating the hop leaves, as well, and according to James, it has a calming effect on them.
Luckily though, the plant's valuable cones are not on the baa menu as they're too bitter.
James McNamee, Lyn McNamee and Blaž Jelen Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
The farm's hop manager Blaž Jelen is a fifth-generation hop grower who hails from Slovenia.
This will be his first harvest at Garston Hops.
"We have five varieties growing here, so Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, Rakau, Cascade and Riwaka ... We will harvest them separately and on different days."
New Zealand hops are really sought after by breweries in Europe, Jelen says, and some of the most expensive you can buy.
"For good craft beer, you need good-aroma hops and aroma hops here are known as some of the best ... they have some really unique aromas."
Jelen squeezes open a hop cone and its yellow powder stains his fingers. This is what's needed to make a good brew, he says.
"That's the lupulin, which is high with alpha and beta acids, along with essential oils. That brings citrus, mango and some tropical fruit flavours to the beer."
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
James' brother Terrance McNamee and his wife Lyn run the sheep and grow crops on the farm's remaining 330 or so hectares.
They have switched from breeding old-school Romney sheep to Snowlines, Lyn says.
"Nobody wants Romneys anymore. The wool's a bit coarse and they were getting quite hard to lamb, whereas Snowlines come out of Central Otago and are a much more easy-care sheep."
Terrance and Lyn say they've supported James' hop venture from day one and dug the early trial plots for him.
"In the early days James was away a lot and we dug the holes, trained them up, looked after and worried about them," Lyn says.
The couple has now taken a step back from hops to focus on the farm side of things, but Lyn still has a very important job – harvest chef.
"We feed all our staff morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea and that involves cooking for 20 people for a good three weeks."
What a way to start the harvest at Garston Hops! Photo: Supplied
It's a community effort too. James says, as most people who work on the harvest are from the Garston area.
At a recent Garston Hops open day, he encouraged his fellow Southland farmers to get into growing hops.
"Other farmers are also looking to see what else different they can do with the climate here and the state of the meat and wool market, so yeah, the more we get the more we can grow together!"
James believes the province can develop its own distinctive hop flavour profile.
"We want Southland hops to be known for having a different taste that people look for," he says.
Photo: Supplied
Photo: Supplied
Photo: Supplied
Photo: Supplied
Photo: Supplied
