Sip Northwest, Winter 2015
I n the early 1930s Oregon was the countrys leading hop producing state a fact owed in part to the Crosby family Blake Crosby is a fth generation hop farmer and the managing director of Crosby Hop Farm in the Willamette Valley He traces his farming roots to his paternal great great grandfather Charles Crosby who journeyed west on the Oregon Trail in 1855 at the age of 18 Charles Crosby tried his luck rst in Californias gold elds before returning to settle in Linn County Oregon There he purchased 160 acres of farmland His son Albert bought an additional 160 acres near Woodburn in 1900 where he started the familys hop growing tradition What compelled hop growing was money back then Blake Crosby says Hops were one of the few crops that you could make a pretty decent return on and didnt require a lot of acreage being a relatively high value crop per acre A lot of the farm pioneer families took advantage of that Because hops were originally farmed by hand the crop didnt require much in the way of capital to get started It was very accessible very easy to get into where as today its quite the opposite Crosby says He also has hop farming on his mothers side too her family owns 350 acre Horseshoe Lake Farm about 10 miles from Crosby Hop Farm The Crosby family still farms that original acreage though theyve since expanded to 300 acres of hops and a hop brokerage business Crosby started working in the family business at around 10 years old By age 12 he was working regularly on the farm In between hanging out with friends and playing baseball I was driving tractors cultivating irrigation fertilizing he says I learned the business from the ground up literally SIPNORTHWEST COM Crosby Hop Farm The Crosby family from left to right Mary Brian Blake and Kevin stands outside of their hop baling facility PHOTOS COURTESY OF CROSBY HOP FARM AND HEATHER SORENSEN
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