Oral history of manual hop picking

This project, which ran from October 2008 to June 2009, was an initiative of the Poperinge Hop Museum. Fifty former hop pickers and hop farmers from the two big Flemish hop-growing regions, the Aalst-Asse region and the wide area around Poperinge, were interviewed in a scientific way. More than 40 hours of testimonies about a special piece of agricultural history were recorded and preserved for posterity. After all, until the early 1960s, hops were picked entirely by hand. Thousands of Flemings were at work in the hop fields during the first weeks of September, making picking a social event par excellence.

The testimonies were compiled, cross-checked with other sources and processed into the book ‘Kort, rap en zonder blad. Hop-picking between 1880 and 1960’.