About this project

It's very exciting to share this opportunity for you to become a part of the Simple Earth Hops project.

Donor rewards: if you don't see something you like, please send me a message to get your own custom reward.

• Kickstarter gives people like you the chance to participate in our project by providing different levels of financial backing.
• This gives us an outlet to ask for your help in funding our free community events and aid in the farming costs involved with sustaining our education based hopyard.
• We must reach our $11,000 goal by the deadline to receive this Kickstarter funding - it's all or nothing!

• Watch our movie and check out our rewards
• Sign into Kickstarter (simply requires an email and password)
• Sign into Amazon
  
• Click the "BACK THIS PROJECT" button and enter your pledge amount (your card will get charged when we reach our $11,000 goal)
• Select which reward you want
• Go to the bottom of the screen and click "CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP" to finish the process.

We will succeed when you back this project and promote it to your contacts via your social networks. Please share it on Facebook, Twitter and mention this project in conversations you have!

A local business started by Matt Sweeny and his family which promotes a healthy environment, provides community development and is centered around brewing good. Simple Earth Hops is a family run commercial hopyard with the motto "Slower.  Smaller. Local." 

Simple Earth Hops brings the community together by organizing free farm events to spread education about growing hops as a sustainable farming option and to demonstrate how to duplicate and build on what we have established at the hopyard and with the brewing community.

Simple Earth Hops is the recipient of a 2009 USDA-SARE grant which helped cover the cost of establishing our hopyard trellis in 2010 and helped pay back some of the costs from last year’s free community outreach events. As we look forward into the 2011 and 2012 growing seasons, we still need a lot of support for upcoming outreach event costs and for some sustainable growing expenses. This is why we are asking for help with our project on Kickstarter. 

By helping us out here on Kickstarter, you can be a part of our project by furthering our mission of demonstrating local hop production for Midwest brewers while we teach the community how to grow in a sustainable fashion.

Hops are an agricultural crop necessary in the beer making process, but not available as a local farm product to brewers in the Midwest.

Backing this project will help fund our next outreach event and will help provide funding for hop growing costs at my family's small scale commercial hopyard -- located at a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in Dodgeville, WI.

The goal of using Kickstarter for this project is to bring funding: (1)for some operating costs at our 1/4 acre demonstration hopyard and; (2)to cover the cost of hosting our next farm outreach event where we use education to demonstrate to potential and current farmers about sustainable farming methods and to share with others in the community the economic opportunity presented by growing hops as a high demand local crop for small Midwest brewers.

The next farm outreach event, titled "Brewing Up a Community", will be held this autumn at the farm for over 150 event attendees who will get hands-on experience harvesting hops while learning sustainable farming and while enjoying local craft beer and live music on the farm -- we have already began booking bluegrass bands, launched free ticket registration and begun securing commercial beer donations for this end-of-season community event.  

There are a plethora of expenses associated with hosting hopyard demonstration events and maintaining a profitable hopyard.  Here are some expenses we plan to take care of through your help here on Kickstarter:

• CB radio rentals to aid in communicating with event organizers to ensure a well-run event.
• Sheriff's parking fee to help orderly parking.
• Meals for event volunteers
  
• 8x8 Castle Moonwalk rental for entertainment for children at our free events
  
• Generator rental for bands
  
• Ice to keep beer cold
• 20x40 tent rental for hop picking and keeping us dry at the events
  
• Port-a-Potty rentals
  
• Chipper/Shredder to make own wood and paper mulch for our lasagna style gardening hop rows in the hopyard
  
• Shovel to dig rhizomes and weeds
• Pitch forks for digging rhizomes and moving straw mulch
• Wheel barrow for moving dirt and plants in hopyard
• Advertising on beer websites to help sell our conscientiously grown hops
  
• Straw to mulch entire hopyard
  
• Twine to string the hopyard in the spring
• Irrigation upgrades
  
• Work gloves for event volunteers picking hops
• Hopyard and event labor
  
• Vacuum sealer and bags for packaging hops
  
• Online store for hop and rhizomes sales
  
• Boxes for shipping hops
• Shipping tape for boxes
• Harvest trimmer to cut down the hops from the trellis at our harvest events
  
• Ladder stabilizer to aid in cutting down plants
  

Please take a minute to review the rewards we have to offer to say thanks for your Kickstarter pledge...

• Simple Earth Hops website
• Facebook Page -- Please 'Like' us and share our Kickstarter project with your Facebook friends
• Community Event Example
  
• Our 2010 Movie: Year 1 in the hopyard