16 • October 2015 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


Sudsology #4: A HOPS Story: THE ROOTS OF A MAN AND A PLANT


SANTA, ROSA, CA. ~ This account is about a man, his childhood, one of seven children, his adult years with roots fi rmly planted in our area, literally and fi gu- ratively. Lou Bertolini is currently the corpo- rate secretary/treasurer of Western Farm Center (WFC), a company he and his brother, Law- rence, built out of noth- ing but listening to the needs of Santa Rosa farmers years ago. Both were working at differ- ent companies and started the WFC in a small part of a build- ing still on the property of WFC. The inventory was built up from what customers asked for and the brothers then stocked it. To


FALL GUIDE Sonoma County by Anne Cowden • drannecowden@aol.com


in agriculture growing hops. At this time, hops were a very large and profi table crop in Sonoma County. For those of you unfamiliar


this day, the slogan of the store is: “We have it!” Both brothers were, in the case of Lawrence, and are, in the case of Lou, dedi- cated to our community and have done much to make it fl ourish. Thank you very much.


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Now You Can Buy A Piece Of The Past...That Works!! 16 • October 2015 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


For


Lou the journey to WFC was one of a love for the land.


Born to a farm- ing fam- ily, he and his brother were raised


with this fl ower/herb, hops have been central to beer making since its fi rst use in Germany in the 9th century. Hops that are used in making beer are the female cone portion of the hop fl ower. There are over 80 variet- ies of hops grown today world- wide See http://www.freshops. com/hops/variety_descriptions for a review of hops, the variet- ies and which beers they are used to brew). Hops are grown


on long poles or trellises where


they are trained to cling to strong twine. The


on a 24- acre vegetable truck farm on land stretching from the current Dutton Avenue to the Laguna de Santa Rosa. His family sold produce raised on their land. As a man of the soil, he found work


Lou Bertolini. Photo courtesy of SC Farm Bureau


poles are many feet high.


The cost of growing hops, as with many plants, is wrapped up in how they can most effi ciently and effectively be harvested. Hand harvesting is very time consuming and thus costly in


Weird Facts & Fun Trivia - 4


Carrageenan is obtained from various red seaweeds (marine algae) one of which is the cold water Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus). The major sources of carrageenan are now the two tropical red seaweeds Kappaphycus alverezii and Eucheuma denticulatum, also known as ‘cottoni and spino- sum’ in popular literature.


It is used as a thickening, sta- bilizing or emulsifying agent in dairy products (chocolate milk, ice cream, etc.), repro- cessed meats, dog food, toothpaste, air freshener gels, and a variety of other food and non food products (pud- dings, salad dressings, shoe polish, etc.).


both time, human endurance and wages. In fact, a strike of hops picking farm workers in Sacra- mento lead to the invention of the hops harvesting machine, the Dauenhauser Harvester. Lou worked with Florian


Dauenhauser, the inventor. In 1940 Florian invented a harvest- ing machine that was very effec- tive, although costly. A grower needed to have at least 100 acres in hops to make the $120,000 price tag a justifi able investment. This machine helped to revolu- tionize the harvesting of crops and made the job much more ef- fi cient and effective in Sonoma County and elsewhere. The Dauenhauser Manufac- turing (www.dmfg.com) is still in business, a third-generation technology driving business. In fact, its harvester picks the vast majority of hops worldwide and is the industry standard. Thomas Frazer, the founder’s grandson, runs the business from Santa Rosa, where the fi rst plant was located near Railroad Square. The main service and retail center is located in Toppenish, Washington. You may at this point wonder


why the main company opera- tion is not still in Santa Rosa and


... continued on page 20 When you start treating people like people, they become people. ~Paul Vitale


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