Yakima Valley
Washingtons Hop Growers Keep Climbing
The craft brewing explosion has given family farms in the Yakima Valley a measure of stability.
Charles Carpenter, a farmers son from New York state, moved to the Yakima Valley in 1868. He started his own farm near Ahtanum, about nine miles southwest of present-day Yakima, and planted his first hop fields. He soon realized the place was particularly well suited to growing hops, which were primarily used as a stabilizing…