Homegrown

As a society we are fairly disconnected from the production of our food, the people who grow it, and the land its grown upon. Take a walk through the produce section at the supermarket and count the number of vegetables imported from Latin America. Our current food systems are dependent on other nations despite our own struggling economy. The majority of the food that is produced in the United States is grown with monstrous machines, and gallons upon gallons of pesticides and herbicides. The soil and groundwater are saturated with chemicals, and most of us don't care because we are too distanced from the process. We don't see the destruction of the Amazon, or the desertification in northern Mexico and the Midwest. The solution is to support local organic agriculture and to reconnect with the land and people responsible for producing that which we consume. I wish that drinking home brew contributed to the solution, but the reality is that few home brewers know where their grains and hops come from either. This spring however I was lucky enough to connect with a homesteader--Travis Roderick--who was ecstatic about the idea of producing a home grown beer.
The weekend before last, I traveled to Travis's farm--The Living Roots--in Milbridge, Maine. We worked all day pulling grass, raking rocks, and tilling the land with a cultivator to prep a 50 by 20 foot plot to plant 2-row barley.

Cultivating the plot

The cultivator

Once the land was cleared, we laid out a rich compost of kelp, shells (calcium carbonate), goat manure, and scraps from last year's harvest.

Travis hauling some rich compost

Our beer plot

The land looked amazing when we finished spreading the compost. I kept thinking about the barley growing tall and pouring the first beer next winter. Then the black flies would swarm around my head and remind me of the variables in the growing season ahead; porcupines and crows snacking on the germinating grains; months of rain with no sun in the forecast. But the excitement of the finished product has me feeling pretty optimistic.

Five pounds of 2-row malting barley

Looking good in the sun

The next and final step was the most rewarding--planting the barley. We loaded the grain into a sowing machine and covered the plot leaving around 20-25 seeds every square foot. Assuming we get a 100% yield in the fall, we should end up with over fifty pounds of grain--enough to brew close to 250 beers.

Getting ready to plant the seed

Sowing the grain

Ready to germinate

A successful growing season is the first hurdle, but the real challenge will come in the fall when it is time to malt the grain. I am currently researching the best way to malt at home, but what I've gathered so far is that it will not be easy. Malting barley takes about a week and it consists of steeping the grain to allow it to germinate and produce necessary enzymes, and then kilning it at precise temperatures to preserve the enzymes and dry out the grain. More on this later, but for now I am going to continue day dreaming about this home grown beer.