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  • From: venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Hops production in Germany, small diversified local farms networked as production coops
  • Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:27:39 -0400

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I was just reading about hops production and the move to make it a small scale local farming option in the US, ass opposed to large scale production in the US Pacific Northwest. The model is the German one; they are the second largest producer of hops in the world and it is all grown on lots of small local farms, 10 to 20 acres in size each.

I think this system of large volume production distributed across many small local farms is a wonderful idea and worth trying across the entire US for production of all food, fiber, forage, feed and other economic crops. Is this the future for American agriculture with higher quality, fresher, more nutritious ("nutrient dense") foods providing a reliable supply for local customers who do their shopping at farmers markets (as most of the rest of the world does), buying groups, csa's, direst sales and local independent grocers.

The article was in the Independent, a weekly newspaper in Durham NC.

Is there a future for North Carolina hops farming?
by Lisa Sorg
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/is-there-a-future-for-north-carolina-hops-farming/Content?oid=3100964

"Hops grow best in the cool climes of the northern latitudes, where they take root in black loam and bask in summer daylight that can last as long as 16 hours: England, Germany, the Pacific Northwest. In other words, not Central North Carolina, with its unforgiving clay, hot and humid summers, warm winters and, because we are farther south, shorter day length during the prime growing season."

"The state's farmers would be wise to learn from Germany, Lewis says. The second-largest hops producer in the world, Germany has an average farm size of only 10 to 20 acres, far smaller than the vast tracts in the Pacific Northwest. Germany also uses smaller equipment, more suitable for the scale of North Carolina farms."

"North Carolina's focus on locally grown crops is reminscent of a time in the United Kingdom when an intimate relationship between growers and brewers existed. "The brewer would visit the field and check on the hops, a true locavore philosophy," Lewis says. "This brings a sense of community and gets us back to the old way of doing things.""



  • [permaculture] Hops production in Germany, small diversified local farms networked as production coops, venaurafarm, 07/23/2012

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