November 21, 2008
- Yakima, Washington 29
"Dirty Jobs" Star In Town
By Steve Wellman
Almost anybody would recognize Mike Rowe. The TV star hosts hit shows like "The Deadliest Catch" and "Dirty Jobs".
Rowe says, "We're in a different town each week, we meet real people, we do real work, and we generally have a good time." This week, Rowe's dirty job was here in Yakima, working the hops harvest. "We wanted to do a different beer story from the one we did a few years ago which was brewing, so we wanted to do hops," said Rowe. So Mike rolled up his sleeves and found out first-hand what lots of local workers already know. Harvesting hops ain't for sissies. Rowe grins. "I basically spent the day bringing in the hops and it was hot and it was dirty." Loftus Ranch manager Kyle Jacobs says Rowe put in a good solid day: "He sat on the trucks and weaved on the trucks and he drove the top cutter." Rowe spent part of the day around dangerous machinery, stripping the vines. "It's dragged up to the top of the thing and dried and fired and separated and hauled over there…" Steve Wellman says, "There's no doubt this is plenty dirty work loading the hops onto the chains here in the processing barn, but the really dirty stuff is out there in the fields." The dirtiest job may be the weaver. He's the guy who pulls the vines down into the trucks. Mike took his turn here, too. And he says hops harvesting is one of his most memorable dirty jobs. "Harvesting hops rates pretty high," he says. "I haven't seen any agriculture that looks like this the way they bring it in, prepare it, strip it, hang it, and ship it." Local people who worked with him say Mike Rowe and "Dirty Jobs" might be back in Yakima. "He was a real gracious host," HopUnion owner Ralph Olson tells Action News. "I think he's going to want to come back again because we've got some other dirty jobs in the spring for him. |
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