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Humbled, Excited, and Disappointment

The little hops farm continues to grow and learn! Evey year is different, but some things are the same. Since starting the farm in 2017, we have learned a lot, but I think this year was the best for one reason, or actually two.

I am a competitive person, just ask my wife and kids! I grew up playing lots of sports and always trying to out compete the competition. So, when this grow season started I was really hoping to grow enough hops to sell to both of our local breweries, Rapids Brewing and Klockow Brewing.

We have been brewing a beer with Rapids brewing since 2019, the Hoki Saaz. This year we were able to talk to both Darin Jensen (Rapids Brewing) and Andy Klockow (Klockow Brewing) and both agreed that they wanted to do wet hops beer this year.

We were excited with the anticipation of having two beers with both local breweries! So, we had a goal of trying to meet a certain weight of hops for both breweries, and with the way they have been growing the last couple of years we could do it, or so we thought! Mother nature and farming are always uncertain. Just when we thought we had the growing figured out, we didn’t. The summer was dry, and cool for long periods of time. We have an irrigation system, so watering wasn’t an issue, but the cooler days and nights are something we are unable to control. Our yields were cut this year.

With much less hops than we anticipated we had a tough decision, who to sell the hops too. We felt terrible not being able to supply hops to both of the local breweries. So, we reached out to Darin at Rapids Brewing and since we had been brewing a beer with them for so long, I felt this tie to them and loyalty to allow him first right of refusal. Undenounced to me, Darin and Andy had already been talking about the amount of hops we had produced. I am humbled with how these two brewers work together! I had no idea the partnership, respect that these two have for each other! These two talked about how to try and split the hops, but also both realized there wasn’t enough hops to produce two beers. So, they asked me what we wanted to do.

After talking with Darin, we chose to take a 1-year hiatus with the Hoki Saa Beer at Rapids and hoped for a better grow season next year. We are super excited to be having a beer brewed by Andy at Klockow Brewing that should be ready in the next couple of weeks.

We were disappointed in how our grow year but humbled by these two men. They could be super competitive in our small town, but they choose to be supporters of each other! Nothing but respect for each other in a competitive industry.

We are lucky to have two great breweries in town! I know i choose to support both and look forward to having beers at both.

Be on the lookout for a new beer in the next couple weeks from Klockow Brewing!

Craig and Rachel Pierce

Also, feel free to like and share our Facebook and webpages, and if you feel like supporting our little farm please stop by our e-commerce store for any CR Hops Farm merchandise.

Shop – CR Hops Farm

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2022 The Unexpected Harvest!

What a year and it all started this spring or lack of spring!  Winter lasted so long and the frost stayed in the ground longer than usual.  The hops and gardens didn’t sprout as they usually do.  Everything appeared to be 1-2 weeks behind.  

All year long the hops looked off,  from sprouting late,  to not reaching the top line of the trellis on time.  But time and time again, I was proved wrong!  Around summer solstice hops should be near the top line (18ft tall),  mine were barely 6-8ft tall,  which meant they had another 10ft or so to go!  Yikes,  I never thought they would reach that full potential,  but was proved wrong again!  Then the burr stag came in early august,  and this crazy farmer never thought in his wildest dreams that they would ever be ready for harvest by the 3rd weekend in August! Little back information,  all previous years we have picked that weekend.  Some how this year felt different!  I had made plans to be gone over the weekend,  but for some reason I stayed home and worked on my home made mini hop picker.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguises.  As I worked on the picker Friday night and finished it up, I walked out to look at the hops and was shocked!!!  I had checked them a few days prior and they were not ready for picking, but they were now!!!  I scramble Saturday and by that afternoon my oldest son and I picked one variety!  Then I made a Facebook post and some dear friends sent a message and agreed to help Sunday 8/21,  they helped us pick our largest variety of hops!  I’m so hoppy they chose to help!  My wife and other two kiddos came home later that evening and helped us finish. She then reached out to a few her teacher friends!  They save us on Monday and Tuesday along with some “Glader” help!!  Very thankful for all those that helped this year and sorry to those that expressed wanting to help!  Next year I will know better, Mother Nature always wins and we will be ready to pick the third week of August! Learn something new every year!

BTW:  the home made mini hops picker worked great!  It reduced our picking time and made picking much easier!  Only one small breakdown the last day,  but was up and running again in less that 5 minutes!

My biggest disappointment, there will not be a wet hop beer for the year from us.  My poor planning did not provide Rapids Brewing enough time to be prepared to brew the Hoki Saaz. 😭  The hops we did pick are being dried, hopefully can be used by the local breweries to brew more beers throughout the year with our hops!  All four hops varieties will be getting tested to help in the brewing process.

Big shout out to to our helpers: Brent Holcomb, Barb Glader, Chad Glader, Amanda Glader, Joan Volkers, Brian Linda, Anika Lindula, Anika Lindula, Teresa Langer, Jenny Linnell, Sonia Welk, and the Pierce Farm Crew!

2023 harvest will be better planned out! 

Don’t for get to shop our e-commerce store and help support our little farm! Please like, share, and follow our page!

Thank you!!

Products – CR Hops Farm

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What a year!

To be honest it was a year to remember, and one to forget! It was the warmest summer in YEARS!! Dry as well…..that’s an understatement, and we were busy as ever!

The hops were the best we have had since starting the farm! We had help from many close friends and family…..and gained a few new friends during the days of picking! We were so “HOPPY” for all the help! Yes, it took days! It used to take us less than 6 hours to pick the entire hops yard! This year, it took us just about a week! It has been great to see the hops plants produce so many!! If you ever have a chance to smell fresh hops, you’ll be “hoppy” you did! They are SO fragrant! 🌱🌿

Next year, we are “hopping” to have more fun, and some entertainment while picking!! The hops sure liked the hot weather, and the new irrigation system. It sure made a difference this year! Now to keep it going…..

The down side this year was our veggie gardens. Due to a late frost, dry conditions, and coaching a little league baseball team, these factors didn’t allow for our veggies to flourish like normal. Summer went too fast and the farm “helpers” are heading back to elementary school and preschool. 😜

One more thing……

We ended up picking 161 lbs of hops this year.!!!!! Rapids Brewing Company was SO “hoppy”!!! We were too! 😉 We are looking forward to enjoying the beer, soon! It should be a ready in a week or so! We’ll keep everyone posted!! 🍺🍻

The Hops Farmers

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2020 Season

What a year!  We had such high hopes going into our third year of growing hops.  Not sure what happened to the plants this last spring, but we had lots of winter kill.  I suspect that the wet spring had something to do with it.  Hops love water, but they don’t want to be sitting in it for long periods of time.  Luckily, we are able to take a root cutting (rhizome) and replant those that died, in order to fill in some of the empty spots in the rows.  We are confident that we can get the growing process figured out and be more productive in the near future!

The farm was able to produce enough hops to have another beer brewed, this fall, at Rapids Brewing Co.  The “Hoky” is currently on tap!!  IT is named after my best friend who lost his battle with ALS on April 11, 2020.  He is greatly missed, but we are very happy to have yearly party in his honor!  We are hoping to make the event bigger in the future.  This year,  Rapids Brewing Co. donated $1 for every pint sold, to the ALS Foundation, during the opening weekend of the “Hoky” beer release. 

Our little hops farm continues to learn new tips and tricks every year!  We plan to scale back on our vegetable gardens and put more focus on getting the hops growing bigger and better! We will continue to sell at the Hwy 38 sales every year!  It sure is fun meeting and talking with everyone!

Thank you to everyone that follows our little farm page!  We really do appreciate it and look forward to making the future better one beer at a time!

CR Hops Farm:  Rachel, Craig, Gavin, Micah, and Carson

Please feel free to like and share our page!

**  I also want to say thank you to Ava Peters for spending time with us this summer and helping out around the farm!  This young lady has aspiring dreams to do some farming.  She will change the world in many ways….farming is only a small slice of her abilities!!

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1st Beer!!! 🍺 🍻

It has been a journey since 2016! From a dream/ idea to a reality in 2019. My wife calls me the dreamer, and for good reason! When the idea was brought up to start a Hops Farm it went over much better than most others. In 2017, we established the hops yard, no plants, but the trellis was put up and we broke ground for the arrival of the plants. Fast forward to the spring of 2018, and the arrival of 420 hops plants!! Nearly all the hops plants survived the summer and we were able to harvest a small crop. In 2019, and year two, we anxiously awaited to see how well the hops would produce….

This summer, Rapids Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, MN contacted us and wanted to do a wet hop beer! Their head brewer, Darin Jenson, visited our farm and checked out the hops! I’m not sure who was more excited at that time! It was at that time we agreed to sell our Saaz Hops plants! We picked and delivered them to Rapids Brewing Co., so they could make our first beer! We are so thankful for this opportunity and the future endeavors!

“Hopping” forward, the beer we helped produce will be available for the public today, September 12, 2019 @ 4:30!! The Hoky Saaz wet hop beer will be available at Rapid Brewing Co.

I have to give a big shout out to the Rapids Brewing Company as they let me name the beer! I named it after my best friend, Shane Holcomb! He has been battling ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease for many years! He and I drank many beers together! I love him like a brother!

So, if you find yourself at Rapids Brewing and having a few Hoky’s, you may find yourself doing the Hoky Shuffle!!!

Craig Pierce

CR Hops Farm

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2019 Harvest update

We are in the thick of picking veggies and enjoying all the fresh produce! We have enjoyed selling our produce to all those veggie lovers!

We are “hopping” into our 2nd season of growth with the HOPS plants. We will have a limited number of HOPS this year, but hope to use some of the plants to brew some beer! Already making plans for the next veggie/HOPS season! Thanks to everyone for the support! Hopefully you’ve enjoyed your produce this summer!

Contact us if you are interested in purchasing the following produce: 👍

-cabbage

-kohlrabi

-cucumbers

-pickling cucumbers

-dill

-tomatoes

The Pierce’s

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2018 End of the Year

I would like to thank friends, family, and new acquaintances for the support of our little farm! It sure can be a lot of work but the end produce is so rewarding! We find so much joy in knowing we are selling the best products we can, without any chemicals! We’re not a certified organic farm but we’re about as close as you can get, without the certification. We had the pleasure of talking with old friends and meeting new ones, on our journey!

The next year or two will be very exciting for the farm as the hop production will increase immensely!!! We look forward to having a hops product which we can start to sell to breweries, and to home brewers! If all goes well, (fingers crossed!!) there may need to be a harvest party or two! Overall, it was a great year and we look forward to the growing season again, next spring!

Please like and share our page!

Thank you

Craig and Rachel Pierce

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The Journey

The last year and a half sure has gone fast. We went from and idea and research for 8 months to starting CR Hops Farm in January of 2017! I was finally able to convince the boss one of my ideas was a good one. (Thank you Rachel)

It all started when my wonderful mother in law was telling me about the Wild hops she found growing! From there I figured I could grow hops. The spring of 2017 I got busy getting ready to set up a hops yard. I used ash poles off our property.

We then waited for summer, when I could sink the 22 foot poles in the ground. All the while designing and redesigning the hops yard to use the maximum amount of space to plant the most plants I could in my half acre yard.

I believe I picked the hottest day of the summer in 2017, to put the poles in the ground! I did get great advice from new farmers: do not order plants unless your hops yard is up and ready to go!

The rest of 2017 was spent figuring out where and when to order plants! The spring of 2018 came super fast! The yard needed the cabling system set up, prior to plants showing up in June.

We were able to get all 420 plants in the ground, relatively quickly, with some help from my brother Brice, his wife Kelly and their son Taylor. We were grateful for the help!!

It has been amazing to watch them grow all summer! First year plants didn’t grow as large as the will in year three. To date, less than 10 have died!

The hops farm has finally hit our FIRST goal! Yesterday, the boys and I finished up our first harvest of the hops! It was a very small harvest, but that was expected. In two short years we should be at a full harvest!

The next step in the journey is to sell to breweries or home brewers! …. We’re optimistic and hopeful that part of the journey will happen next year, and the HOPS journey will continue!

Please like and share our Facebook page!!

The Pierce Crew 😄

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All the hard work!

All the hard work is starting to pay off. We have been busy picking peas, beans, and raspberries. They are slowing down a bit now and many more items are nearing harvest time.

The hops plants are growing well for first year plants, they range in a few feet tall to nearing 18 ft. It looks like we will have a small harvest the first year too! Can’t wait!

Please like and share our page!

I would also like to say thank you to my many co-workers that have been purchasing produce from us! We greatly appreciate it! We will do our best to continue to keep producing good quality produce! Much more to come this year!

Thank you Craig and Rachel Pierce