Thought I would start a thread about our new passion... What started as wanting to plant 5 or 6 hop plants at our new house back in early 2013 turned into a mini hop farm of 30 hills, which grew to 60, then 120 hills on our friends property even before the first hill was planted. After having gone through the process of setting up the trellis, and growing the hops, we decided to make a side business out of it at the end of 2013. From there, we formed Clark Hollow Hops (hopefully I can use our name on the boards
let me know mods!). We purchased 5 acres and decided to grow
.
What came out of that decision was A LOT of hard work working 12-16 hour days on the weekends since March, and putting in 3-4 hours after our paying jobs during the week. We designed, set up, and planted our own hop farm. We also installed a well and power, to set up an automated irrigation system so we can be at our day jobs and not worry so much about the hop farm. Well, as of this past weekend, we now have over 2100 hills (over 1000 cascade, over 650 centennial, and over 200 each of Newport and Perle) on two of those five acres. One truly doesnt understand the amount of work (and finances) needed to do this until it is actually done which will actually never come!
The best part out of this passion, is that there are two families involved in this business, all with a unique talent to push this venture further! What once started as a general occasional friendship, has turned into a second family for all of us. No matter what dilemma we encountered, we always found a way to laugh about it, which actually helped us focus and solve the issue. While we take this business extremely seriously, We set one very specific ground rule before the company was formed .family first, friendship second, hop farm third. Little did we know that item #1 and #2 would actually be the same.
Would I do it again? Yes (we are already talking expansion) but not because of the business but because I would work twice as many hours and days on a project like this to keep the family that this has created!
Oh and a quick photo of 2/3rds of our newest 2 acre plot!
What came out of that decision was A LOT of hard work working 12-16 hour days on the weekends since March, and putting in 3-4 hours after our paying jobs during the week. We designed, set up, and planted our own hop farm. We also installed a well and power, to set up an automated irrigation system so we can be at our day jobs and not worry so much about the hop farm. Well, as of this past weekend, we now have over 2100 hills (over 1000 cascade, over 650 centennial, and over 200 each of Newport and Perle) on two of those five acres. One truly doesnt understand the amount of work (and finances) needed to do this until it is actually done which will actually never come!
The best part out of this passion, is that there are two families involved in this business, all with a unique talent to push this venture further! What once started as a general occasional friendship, has turned into a second family for all of us. No matter what dilemma we encountered, we always found a way to laugh about it, which actually helped us focus and solve the issue. While we take this business extremely seriously, We set one very specific ground rule before the company was formed .family first, friendship second, hop farm third. Little did we know that item #1 and #2 would actually be the same.
Would I do it again? Yes (we are already talking expansion) but not because of the business but because I would work twice as many hours and days on a project like this to keep the family that this has created!
Oh and a quick photo of 2/3rds of our newest 2 acre plot!
