Jim Passwaters hasn't found a plant that he can't grow - a list that now includes hops.
Passwaters may have been the first man in Delaware to grow hops, the lovely green aromatic bud that makes beer into such a beloved beverage.
The retired fish and wildlife enforcement agent works for the Delmarva Poultry Industry (DPI), has a landscaping business, runs a small nursery, teaches part-time, sells brewing supplies and makes his own beer and wine.
In his spare time, Passwaters has indulged his passion for all things green by growing pineapples, banana trees, blackberries, cherries, aronia, raspberries, beach plums and figs at his small farm north of Millsboro. He tried blueberries, but couldn't keep the local deer from eating all his profits.
He is now growing milkweed, coneflowers, butterfly weed and button bush because of a contract to grow native plants. Monarch butterflies eat only milkweed, so the plants are seen as a way to bolster their numbers.
He grew papayas, but they died after growing so tall that they brushed the top of the greenhouse. He's tried tapping local trees to make his own maple syrup. Next year, he may try growing olives.
"We try new things all the time," he said. "Let's figure out what nobody else is doing."
But the hops he's growing at his farm are attracting a bit more attention - attention he's trying to cultivate along with the hops.
He has tried marketing hops to the local microbreweries that have popped up all across Delmarva recently. That effort has met with some success and he's selling locally grown hops to the Blue Earl Brewery in Smyrna.
But the breweries have not jumped on the bandwagon with much enthusiasm and sales aren't what he would like them to be. Passwaters is selling a large number of the hops plants, but the actual hops sales are still a work in progress.
The breweries buy his specialty fruits like aronia for specialty beers and he's still trying to boost sales. A new meadery being developed on Route 9 near Harbeson and Lewes has already bought 100 pounds of aronia berries.
"It's kind of a glorified hobby," he said. "I'm not making a fortune, but there is money to be made if you are willing to work hard."
Hops are usually a more northern plant, although they have recently begun to show up in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. They tend to thrive here and grow incredibly fast, almost so fast that you can see them reach skyward.
The hops are small green aromatic buds, which grow on vines grown on trellises. For local farmers, the vines growing on trellises look a bit like pole lima beans, except these vines can grow some 22-feet-high.
Passwaters limits his to only 13-feet-high because anything else is just too hard to deal with. They require near constant pruning because they put up numerous shoots which must be pruned back.
Those young shoots can be sautéed in butter and are a delicacy fetching $200 a pound in some places in Europe.
The plants are generally healthy, although they don't like extreme heat and can be prone to Japanese beetle damage.
This is his third season of growing hops. "I had to prove to myself that I could grow them," he said. "I like a challenge."
The hops can be used as is or dried and pelletized, which is favored by most larger breweries.
There may be plenty of other potential uses for hops. They can be added to teas or coffees, used in candles or possibly in soaps and are being considered as an additive to livestock feed. "If I can figure out an air freshener or a candle," he laughed.
Hops are considered a natural antiseptic and were originally added to beer not for flavor, but to keep beer from spoiling. They can also be added to jams, jellies or vinegars.
Passwaters said he received a letter once from an elderly lady asking him to send her one hop. He was puzzled by the request for a single hop, until she told him that her family had used a single hop placed on her gums to help ease toothaches when she was a little girl.
"I sent her a bag," he said.
"I like being outside and being my own boss. I like to watch things grow. I like a challenge, I guess," he said. "Even when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a farmer."
