A Grand Traverse County farm is switching from cherry crops to hops, which is used to make beer.
GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mich. (WZZM) -- While many of Michigan's big industries have stumbled over the last several years agriculture has shown steady growth. Perhaps one reason is farmers are used to change and dealing with adversity like the weather.
But like manufactures, farmers, too, have had to diversify. An example of that is growing on the Old Mission Peninsula north of Traverse City.
Farmers Nikki and Steve Sobkowski are relying less on cherries, and more on hops -- a key ingredient in making beer. The hops crop was grown widely on the peninsula 50 years ago, but a disease in the plant brought that practice to an end.
The Sobkowski's have 20 acres of hops in production and grow even more on the Leelanau Peninsula. At a manufacturing facility the Sobkowskis turn the plant into pellets, which brewers prefer.
A brewer already using the Old Mission hops is Mike Hall, master brewer at the North Peak Brewery. Hall and his staff created the "Furry" and the "Wanderer." Hall says the locally grown and processed hops is fresher and has a superb aroma. Now he'll be making fewer orders for hops grown in the Pacific Northwest.
The plant is grown on an elaborate trellis system. At harvest time the hops plant will have grown 15 to 20 feet into the air.
With the price of cherries always in flux, and massive amounts of the crop in cold storage, the Sobkowskis have made hops a permanent part of their farm's crop portfolio.