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Article: Farmers take chance on odd crop -- hops
- Article from:
- Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
- Article date:
- September 27, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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OXFORD - It's an odd sight to stumble across while passing
through the usual rows of corn and beans found down a country road
in Iowa.
About 40 poles, each standing 20 feet tall and webbed together by
twine and vines snaking up from the soil, line a field just north of
Kent Park in rural Johnson County.
It's enough to bring traffic, or what counts as traffic out here,
to a halt.
"When we first set up the poles, we'd see people stopping and
looking and saying, 'What is going on?'" said Seth Somerville, who
with his parents, Kevin and Mary Somerville, own a small farm called
Green Castle Organics.
Seth Somerville and his family planted the poles along with about
500 rootstalks last year with ...