This region, like many other places in Germany, is also very well-known for its beer. (As it happens, I don't drink, which I happen to like that way, but which many people consider something of a crying shame). And one of the main ingredients needed for that good German beer are hops.
While I had conversation with the driver (who had very limited English, so this was entirely in German), he explained to me that this area that we were driving through was one of the most important places in the country -- or even the world -- for the hops crops. Currently we're right at the tail end of the hops season, so they'll all dry out soon and return next spring around May.
We passed field after field after field after field of hops. And then some more. And then some corn fields, followed immediately by more hops fields.
You certainly don't really see this in the States, so I was kind of fascinated... And the plants grow very tall. I continuously felt the urge inside to run through these "hops forests" or play Hide-and-Seek or something. Kind of the feeling I might get going through a quietly shady bamboo forest grown really high overhead. Anyway, there's hops for you! That's where your beer starts out.
2 comments:
Did it smell weird? I remember going to the Coors factory in Colorado (I know, no comparison) and thinking hops had a very distinct smell, and that I kind of liked it.
Well, the windows were up, so there was no smell going on :) . But that's an interesting point. Another reason I'd want to run through those fields.
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