Wisconsin hops featured on MN Public Radio

On Septemeber 27, 2011, Matt Sweeny of Simple Earth Hops was interviewed by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl who is a Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly. This interview was used as content in an article "Dining with Dara: Hops to make locavores happy" and broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio's "All Things Considered" on September 29. This well written article by Dara also includes an interview with Todd Haug, brewer at Surly Brewing Company of Brooklyn Center, MN. Here is a short clip from the Sept., 29 article from MNPR:

"I'm pushing for this whole industry to be different," Sweeny told me. He wants local producers to sell to local brewers, build relationships, and see themselves as partners to brewers, who in general are artisans or craftspeople and whop don't see themselves as run-of-the-mill widget makers.

Home grown episode on Discover Wisconsin

Simple Earth Hops is featured on an episode of Discover Wisconsin which aired the weekend of April 24th. This "Home Grown – Opportunity Wisconsin" episode features Iowa County, WI locals:

• Lake Louie Brewing in Arena at the 9:45 mark
• Simple Earth Hops in Dodgeville at the 13.28 mark
• Innovation Kitchen in Mineral point at the 14:45 mark

Wisconsin maybe known as America’s Dairyland but there are many individual farmers across the state who grow or raise other products that are vital to the state’s agri-economy. Southwest Wisconsin is particularly known for its organic farms especially in the Kickapoo Valley region. There’s the farmer who raises beef cattle who supplies local restaurants so they can serve some of the tastiest burgers around. Or the local hops grower who sells his produce to local micro-breweries for that homegrown flavor. And there are the apple orchards that have been picking locally grown apples for decades and selling them all over the Midwest. We salute the farmers who grow local-sell local to keep the economy fresh and growing.

Source permalink: http://kididdel.com/Channels/ChannelView/tabid/66/Default.aspx?rid=8Wt34U0qtTf1vDIGtZxvbQ%3d%3d

Building the hop trellis

This weekend we built the 1/4 acre hop trellis in the rain.

There are so may team member volunteers and others to thank including Bryan Nelson, Aran Madden, Scot Hansen, Mike Karnatz, Andy Anderson, Matt Girman, all of the Kerr family, Gene from the extension office, my lovely wife Renea Sweeny, my sister Beckie Sweeny and bro Darryl, Bob Matts, Barb Kalicki, Roger Reynolds and all of the crew from the black locust hauling mission.

Here are some pictures which were taken by Barb Kalicki... thanks Barb!



Here are some pictures taken by the Simple Earth Hops Resident Photographer, my sister, Beckie Sweeny.

Simple Earth Hops - Trellis Setup

Locally harvested black locust hop trellis poles

One of the greatest assets to living near the Wisconsin River - besides canoeing, camping, and swimming - is easy access to black locust trees. The sandy banks (read: exactly the kind of soil which black locust trees thrive in) of the Wisconsin River are completely covered in black locust forests.

Here are a few pictures of cutting the trees in preparation to move them from the woods and load them onto the trailer.

It's super exciting to cut the black locust poles ourselves for use on the Simple Earth Hops trellis!