The Traverse City Brewfest was a great event. Plus, I actually networked. I had they brewer from New Holland Brewery ask me to, "give [him] a call as soon as [I] have a harvest." That made me very happy. What also made me happy was that my friend and fellow organic grower, Brian tells me that all the brewers at the 'fest (and there were many) are all expecting organic hops at around $20/pound. WOW!! that would float my boat, since next year I'm expecting 1/2 a harvest since its my first year and only getting around 2000 lbs. If I get the expected 5000 lbs a couple of years later, Dela's going to college!! I must also say that the Brewfest came at just the right time. I was in need of some happy thoughts about this endevor. I always get a little down when I write $7 K checks, but the trellis poles will be here in about a month!!!

First business convention today. Traverse City Brewfest. I get to meet with the brewers from this part of the country and talk about the T.C. hops scene. Hopefully I can convince them that local organic are beautiful words. After buying 150 cedar poles yesterday I am now committed to this industry and find myself quite nervous about the whole endeavor. I think I'd feel alot better if I just had a name for what I'm doing.

Well as most of you know, I decided on growing hops on my farm. There are many reasons for this: due to a hop shortage prices for hops are quite high, I've always been fascinated by the plant since in can grow up to a foot a day, its kinda a low maintenance crop meaning I can leave it alone for a couple weeks, and of course hops flavors beer so business research means drinking beer. All of these are sound reasons to grow hops, but now the choice of conventional farming or organic farming comes to play. Being who I am I chose organic, since the modern agricultural mainstream is not so slowly destroying the environment. (Don't read anything by Michael Pollan if you want to keep a sound trust in conventional agriculture)

So the first step to growing hops is building a trellis. Being a plant that can grow a foot each day, you need about 18 foot trellises. Just saying it and visualizing it is a big difference. Here is a photo of a good hops trellis.

Being organic those poles can't leach any chemicals into the soil and therefore must be untreated. Sounds easy enough, but I've spent over a month searching for cedar poles at 22' long. At long last I've found them in New Jersey. Today I buy them... yikes. This is a big step since this is the point of no return. If I buy the poles and decide not to farm hops, I then have 150 22' poles which I spent far too much money on to use as firewood. So today is the moment of truth. I'm going to turn by back fields into massive trellises. I better enjoy pickin' rocks, because after today there is no going back... I'm a farmer.

I guess an explanation of the rock pile is in order. When visiting the in-laws on their land I often enjoy walking around the land just to enjoy the solitude. Occasionally you'd come across a big pile of rocks. To a city boy this brings to mind a resent construction project, but in the country piles form simply from farmers picking rocks out of their fields and always throwing them in the same convenient spots. It speaks of history and steady work of others before you. A place where roots go down. So when I saw myself throwing a rock into a pile, a new pile, it made me think of a small root going into fresh soil. Will Adeline's grandkids climb on large piles of rocks and wonder how they got there? Will we still be on this land or even in this town.

There are so many romantic ideas in farming.

I picked up a rock as I walked in the fields today. As if it were nothing. I realized that I was already veering my path to swing by my small rock pile that has been growing since I moved here. It all got me thinkin': maybe this could happen after all. Let me back up for those of you who need background.

I'm a city boy. Lived in Chicago area, Washington, D.C., Columbus and Cleveland, but I married this country girl. A girl who thought that it was downright incredible that a few weekends back I went to my first county fair. I knew that this marriage was a good fit because I've always dreamed of living in the country, running a small farm. More on that some other time. Well now we've moved back to the country, and I have this as my backyard.

The economy as it is, this electrician, researcher, high school teacher couldn't find a job. And there it was. That little voice that has always been going on in the back of my head screamed, "I WILL NO LONGER BE IGNORED!!!" Do I start a farm? Can I start a farm? These are the musings of a city boy with a lot of education but little knowledge jumping into farming. A farm that he just can't think of a name for.