That's right...beer is sexy and that makes the stuff beer is made from sexy. But even the power of full-blown beer-geekdom cannot overshadow the fact that (in this case hops) this is still agriculture. If hops were associated with animal feed production then there would be no casual, drive-by gawkers or bold trespassers in our hop yards. When was the last time a car full of guys piled out to get their picture taken in front of a field corn plot?
The fact is that a generic wheat field on a tiny island in Lake Michigan would be otherwise completely overlooked if not for the fact that the crop is a main ingredient in Capital Brewery's Island Wheat beer. There is a path worn in the vegetation up to a small sign indicating that this wheat is utilized by Capital. Why is there a path? Because all of the folks who have their pictures taken in front of an obscure wheat field, that's why.
I am an amateur beer geek so I understand the allure of all things fermented but I am also a farmer, horticulturist, teacher, and business owner. And if it takes beer to cause a new agricultural revolution then I'm all for it...
humm, so your saying i'm going to have to wear earings and mascara every day when we have our hop yard going? :)
ReplyDeleteand just sayin...i'm sure there'll be just as many gawkers for the hops as there are picture takers when the cows start going across the road to use the day pasture.
my fav... last summer 2 guys on crotch rockets get stopped by cows crossin to come home, i can hear them laughing and joking about "only in wisconsin..." and i giggle as they try to avoid running over the cow poo when they can finally pass.
i love farming and i appreciate when people take an interest in what we do. there are always folks stopping at our farm wanting to talk about when they were kids on a farm or people wanting to show their kids that milk dosn't "come" from a store and burgers don't "come" from mCdonald's