英国啤酒花种植业的衰败

英语自学网

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        曾经欣欣向荣的啤酒花种植业现今规模骤减。
        Hints:
Herefordshire
Food Programme
Bluffer's Guide
Golding, Fuggles, Pilgrim, Target, Boadicea
Kent
主持：fuzinxia
校对：13blue
翻译&注释：vincit
答疑：betty0925
口语点评：柯奇坦
        口语节目地址：http://bulo.hujiang.com/menu/2120/item/847932/
30 years ago you'd have found me out in these fields, yards in hop speak, helping with the harvest amidst these knotty Herefordshire hills. I remember working in the yards was really fun - split shifts, tractors with lights at night and when we weren't working, we'd be in the pub.
Then recently I was driving past this very farm out of the blue and it was a bit of surprise to find the hop yard I remembered was now a vineyard, producing a very dry white wine. The owners I knew had gone. The land had been split up and the fields with their beautiful high posts and wires and hops had gone. Now I've never made an edition of the Food Programme before and I don't claim to be an expert in any way at all. But this made me genuinely curious to find out what had happened to the great British hop.
I believe there are 60 hop farmers left in the country.
Just 60.
I believe so, yes.
In 1872 there were 72,000 acres of hops grown and now last year the figures were two and a half thousand acres.
First up, a very quick Bluffer's Guide to the history of the hop. They originated in China, come from the same family as cannabis, though I don't recommend smoking a hop, and they've been used in British brewing for around 500 years. Today there're 20 British varieties, Golding, Fuggles, Pilgrim, Target, Boadicea. If curious about the rest, feel free to look them up. Germany has a 40% share of the world market, Britain just over 1%. And while Herefordshire is now a bigger growing centre than Kent, it's all relative, I guess.要是30年前，你就能看到我在赫里福郡满是荆棘的山间野地，确切地说是庄园，帮忙收割啤酒花了。我记得在啤酒花庄园里工作是件挺有趣的事情——倒班，晚上开着头灯的拖拉机，放工后我们就会去小酒馆。
近日我不经意间开车经过这片农场，惊讶地发现旧时的那片啤酒花庄园已经变成了葡萄园，生产一种很干的（即不甜的）白葡萄酒。我认识的那位农场主已经不在了。土地被分开，田里那些高高的爬蔓架、拉枝绳、啤酒花都不在了。我以前从未做过《美食栏目》，也自认不是什么专家，但这次经历勾起了我的好奇心，一心想知道这个风光的英国啤酒花到底怎么了。
英国现在仅剩60位啤酒花庄主了。
只有60位了啊。
我估摸着差不多就这样了。
1872年，英国曾有72000英亩啤酒花庄园，而到去年，这一数字已经降到了2500英亩。
接下来是一个简短的啤酒花历史小科普。啤酒花原产于中国，与大麻同属，不过我不会推荐你们去抽啤酒花。啤酒花被用于英国酿酒业已有大约500年的历史了。如今英国啤酒花有20多种：Golding，Fuggles，Pilgrim，Target，Boadicea 等等。如果你想知道剩余几种，大可以自己去查找。德国啤酒花拥有40%的全球市场份额，而英国只有1%多一点。尽管现今的赫里福郡啤酒花种植中心的规模已经比肯特还要大了，但我认为，这只是相对而言的。