Something New To Grow

My husband and I enjoy growing all kinds of things.  Our motto is 'if others can grow it, so can we'!  My son asked us if we would grow some hops for him, as he is into artisan beer brewing.   We discovered that hops can be used for other things besides beer, namely sleep pillows for insomnia and teas for indigestion, diarrhea, and also for folks with Crohn's disease.  Since we have the room to grow things, and have never tried to grow hops, we thought this would be a fun venture for us.  There is apparently quite a market for hops these days.  Hops require special support as they can grow to 25 feet tall!  We don't know much about them, but we have read enough to get started, and this will certainly be a learning experience.   I am anxious to try out the sleep pillow thing, as I often find myself having difficulty falling asleep.    The hops pillows are not something you sleep on, instead they are small pillows that are filled with dry hops and crushed each night to emit a scent that is supposed to help make a person feel a bit drowsy.   Sort of like aroma therapy.  We shall see.   I am skeptical about that, but I see that hops pillows are sold by many vendors in eBay.  Hops are also used in scented soaps and apparently you can eat them, too, in various recipes.  Maybe the soap thing would be more to my liking!
     Anyway, here is what we have done so far:
We bought 10 rhizomes from a garden supply place in Washington state and they grew like crazy in my big bay window in the living room.

The hops plants ready to put out in the field

Yesterday Harold used the tractor loader to sink a 20 foot tall post in the pasture.  He put a large chain around the top and from that we strung lines down to posts in the ground for the plants to grow on.   Hops grow up the rope and wrap themselves around the twine in a clockwise direction.   We have 10 lines strung to the top of this pole.  Harold is planting one of the hops plants.  The twine is a special rough textured rope especially designed for hops growers. 

A close up of Harold planting one of the hops plants

After planting one of the vines, we began to wrap the vine in a clockwise direction to get the plant started on the special twine.

Harold made 2 ft tall stakes out of scrap iron and welded a washer to the top.  These stakes will make a strong support for the vines as they grow up the 25 foot twine.

You can see several vines already planted in this photo.  We can pump water from our lake if need be to water the plants, if hand watering isn't enough.

It will certainly be fun to watch these vines grow!  Harvesting will be a new venture too!  If we get enough of the hops, my son can have plenty for his brewing purposes, and I will be anxious to try out the sleep pillows and hops soap making.  I have heard that hops are quite fragrant.  We have honey and beeswax also for making soap.   Who knows?   That might be my next new hobby! (As if I need something else to keep me busy!)