Sip Northwest, Winter 2015
Carpenter Ranches Tom Carpenter says he started growing hops when he was 12 years old selling them by the pound to his father Hes been growing the crop ever since Carpenter continues a family tradition that began with his great great grandfather who grew hops in Constable New York His son Charles Carpenter followed the Gold Rush to California Charles then made his living hauling supplies for miners before settling in Washingtons Yakima Valley He came through the Yakima Valley in about 1865 and thought it would be a good place to grow hops Carpenter says of his great grandfather He had a pretty good grub saved to start growing hops in Ahtanum in 1868 That more or less evolved from the fact that his family grew hops in New York I suppose Charles Carpenter is credited as the rst to grow hops in the Ahtanum area and possibly the rst in the entire Yakima Valley now prime territory for the crop SIPNORTHWEST COM Left Brad Tom and Craig Carpenter on Carpenter Road in their Chinook hop fi eld Below the Carpenter family gathers inside their production facility Things were very di erent back then compared to today Carpenter handmade a hop guild for drying the crop which was then hauled via horse and wagon before the railroad was laid to the Columbia River where it could then be transported to breweries in Portland and beyond Whatever potential he saw in Yakima proved to be prescient as the regions farms today represent around 75 percent of the total U S hop acreage and 77 percent of the countrys total hop crop Today sixth generation Carpenter Ranches span more than 1000 acres of hops on land the family has owned and farmed continuously since the mid 1930s Tom Carpenter estimates The familys in uence doesnt stop at its hop acreage the eldest brother of the Carpenter clan Steve is CEO of Yakima Chief the leading industry provider of hop products that the Carpenter family helped to found more than 130 years ago in the Yakima Valley LEFT PHOTOS COURTESY OF CARPENTER RANCHES RIGHT PHOTOS COURTESY OF BALE BREAKER B T LOFTUS RANCHES
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