Northern Girl Hops BY ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
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f there’s one food and beverage trend that’s been more pervasive than any other over the last decade, it’s the drive to eat and drink local. We want local meat, local vegetables, local grains and, more than anything, local beer and spirits. But while most local beer drinkers can recognize a brewery label from Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, or some of the other Alberta communities that boast breweries, we don’t often ask where the ingredients come from. But that doesn’t mean that hyperlocalists aren’t interested in brewing uniquely Albertan beers. We certainly have
14 Culinaire | October 2020
plenty of grain in these parts, but Alberta has never been a hotbed for hops. There are a few more commercial Canadian hops growers in Ontario and British Columbia, but the American Pacific Northwest is the biggest North American go-to when it comes to hop suppliers. The women behind Northern Girls Hops want to change that — and they want to do it their own way. Sisters Catherine Smith and Karin Smith Fargey began production of their Northern Girls Hops in 2012. Their hop yard is on their mixed-use Windhover Farm, west of Edmonton, which also includes a cider
orchard. The land was once owned by the sisters’ grandparents, and the pair reacquired it about 15 years ago, “It’s really important to us to honour the landscape and its heritage,” Karin says. “There’s tremendous heritage held in that land and we’ve always wanted to uphold that. That really is the value that sits in small family farms across Alberta. We’re trying to maintain that connection with the land, and the connection to family and community. While being innovative as well.” As Alberta’s first commercial hop yard, Northern Girls made some noise
