OnTap Magazine

I t is a year, almost to the day, since I first met urban hop farmer Khaya Maloney. Looking back, it kind of sounded like one of those rendezvous your mom warned you about. I had “met” Khaya on Twitter and slid into his DMs to arrange a visit to his rooftop hop garden. “Set your GPS to Constitution Hill parking garage,” he had typed. “When you get there, the security guard will point out where I am.” It’s not a part of Johannesburg I am particularly familiar or comfortable with but at least there was a security guard, I had thought. On arrival at the car park I was less comforted by the presence of said guard. I got the distinct impression that I had woken him from a light slumber. And who could blame him? Mine seemed to be the only vehicle in the entire car park and as my footsteps echoed in the near- darkness, scenes from old episodes of 24 rattled around my head. The dark doorway I was directed to by the now once again snoozing security guard had me wondering who might be waiting on the other side. Someone masquerading as a downtown farmer to lure people to this deserted corner of the city? Jack Bauer himself, ready to tell me in his pained voice that “we don’t have a lot of time”? There was no-one. Just a scaffolding staircase that did little to lower my pulse rate. I emerged onto the car park rooftop and instantly relaxed as my eyes focused first on the two tent-like greenhouses and then on the smiling face of Khaya Maloney – Johannesburg’s first hop farmer. SMALL SCREEN INSPIRATION It all began one Sunday night in 2017. Khaya was rounding off his weekend with an episode of Carte Blanche when a piece on rooftop gardening in New York caught his attention. Having become disillusioned by his chosen career in civil engineering, he started looking into agri-entrepreneurship, despite having no farming background at all. “I saw this report on hydroponic gardens, where the produce was being sold to local restaurants. It just made so much sense to me,” says Khaya and after some research he decided to try his hand at growing hops. “I had looked into the local craft beer industry and realised that South African brewers lacked choice when it came to hops,” says Khaya. “Either they import hops at great expense or they have to buy from SAB. I was inspired by the idea of hydroponic farming on an inner city rooftop and thought well, why not grow hops – how difficult could it be?” He laughs at the memory, for he now knows what a delicate and fickle plant the hop is. CLIMATE CONTROL Months of research began, as Khaya worked out how to cultivate hops in the middle of a city, got to grips with hydroponic farming and also worked on finding the funding to get the whole thing off the ground. Eventually he secured a scholarship to learn the ins and out of agriculture and set up a pilot programme at Mad Giant Brewery in Newtown. “At first it was a small scale experiment to see if hops could grow in Johannesburg,” he says. “After a year or two of my crops dying and coming back to life I learnt a lot about hop-growing. The biggest lesson was how demanding they are – you can’t go away on holiday for a few days and expect them to still be alive when you get back!” And it wasn’t just a matter of learning about hops. He also needed to master the art and science of hydroponics. “Hydroponic farming allows you to completelycontroltheclimateconditions,” Khaya explains. “I use fans when it gets too hot, I can trick them into thinking it’s night time or I can lengthen the day with lights when needed. There really are a lot of pros to the process – it’s sustainable, it’s low-emission and it’s water-wise.” Hops are usually only harvested once a year – in South Africa, the season is late February to early March – but by manipulating climatic conditions, Khaya is able to complete a harvest every three months. “What you lack in hectares, you make up for with the extra harvests,” Khaya says. By 2020, Khaya had got to grips with hydroponics, graduated from hop- growing 101, found enough funding to get started and eventually secured a rooftop spot thanks to local organization Wouldn’t It Be Cool (WIBC). WIBC operates the Urban Agriculture Initiative (UAI), which had a goal to start 100 farms on 100 Jo’burg rooftops. Now all he needed was some hops. Why not grow hops – how difficult could it be? What you lack in hectares, you make up for with the extra harvests The spoils of Khaya's first harvest The prettiest rooftop in downtown Jozi? ontapmag.co.za | Autumn 2022 | 29