Hop Head Farms - WKTV Journal

The holidays are supposed to be joyous, but for those who are having trouble making ends meet, the season can be enormously stressful.

If you’re unsure you’ll be able to make your next house payment or if you think you’ll have trouble making future payments, know that you are not alone and that the City of Wyoming is here to help you.

Step one: Contact your lender immediately to see if you can work something out. You may be surprised. True story: During the height of the Great Recession, I was unemployed and having a very hard time with my budget. I asked my bank for help, and they refinanced my mortgage at a much lower interest rate and extended the loan to 40 years. While I can’t promise your lender will do the same, it’s worth looking into. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Step two: Contact the City of Wyoming here for a list of resources that can help.

Here are some of the resources that are available to you:

Home Repair Services offers foreclosure prevention help. They have well-trained foreclosure counselors who can give you valuable information concerning your situation. A foreclosure intake pack can be downloaded here.

Home Repair Services of Kent County
1100 South Division Avenue
Grand Rapids, MI 49507
616.241.2601

Foreclosure Response
This nonprofit group connects Kent County residents with various community resources to help with immediate foreclosure questions as well as information on foreclosure prevention. Their website has easy-to-understand information about foreclosure in Michigan.

Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF)
The Inner City Christian Federation is a nonprofit corporation that believes decent housing is a basic human need and an important building block for families and communities. ICCF provides high-quality, affordable housing and services for those who would not otherwise have this opportunity. For information specific to foreclosure counseling, refer to Housing Resources/Programs.

Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA)
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) received money from the federal government in 2010 to develop programs to assist Michigan homeowners with preventing foreclosure. MSHDA developed a website where applications can be taken right online. MSHDA’s program, Step Forward, has three different ways it can assist:

Unemployment Subsidy
If you are receiving unemployment, then MSHDA may be able to pay half of your mortgage payment, up to $750, for one year.

Rescue Fund
If you are delinquent and just need your mortgage brought current so you can resume normal payments, then MSHDA may be able to assist with up to $10,000 towards the delinquency.

Principal Curtailment
If your lender is willing to contribute money to pay down your principal balance so they can do a modification to lower your payment, then MSHDA may be able to match that amount dollar for dollar up to $10,000.

There are more rules and restrictions on these programs than stated above. To get more information, feel free to contact a counselor at Home Repair Services at 616.241.2601 to set up an appointment or go directly to the Step Forward Michigan website to apply.

The Federal Housing Administration also provides many ideas about how to avoid foreclosure, available FHA loans, alternate ways to dispose of your house and other housing issues.

Hop Head Farms, breweries to showcase flavor, aroma of the Michigan hops

Late August and early September mark the end of summer and the peak of the hop harvest season.

Of the four main ingredients in craft beer, none of them boast the rabid following of the humulus lupulus, or hops. West Michigan Beer Tours, in collaboration with JW Marriott Grand Rapids, Hop Head Farms, of Hickory Corners, Walldorff Brewpub & Bistro, of Hastings, and Founders Brewing Co., of Grand Rapids, will offer a unique immersion into the exciting season with our Hop Harvest Beer Tour.

Registration for the Hop Harvest Beer Tour will be held from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Six.One.Six restaurant inside the JW Marriott Grand Rapids. The bus will depart at noon for Hop Head Farms, a 30-acre farm in Hickory Corners outside of Kalamazoo that is growing and providing hops for breweries all over the country, as well as internationally. Several Michigan breweries will provide samples of their beer using hops from Hop Head Farms to be tasted as part of the unique tour of the hop fields and processing equipment.

“This is a rare opportunity to get a look into what happens to bring our hops to harvest. We do not offer public tours during harvest because of the sheer busyness of the time. We have only a few short weeks to get all of the hops down, picked and dried at their peak maturity. Our facility is the only of it’s kind in the United States, German engineered and chosen to handle our hops to result in the best end product,” Hop Head Farms co-founder Bonnie Steinman said.

After Hop Head Farms, the bus, with Bonnie Steinman on board to answer questions about hops, heads to the Walldorff Brewpub & Bistro in Hastings where brewer Brett Hammond frequently uses Hop Head Farms hops, including in Walldorff’s Harvest Ale. We’ll deliver fresh hops to Hammond. Guests will receive samples or a pint, as well as a tour of the production space.

The trip also visits Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, a frequent collaborator with Hop Head Farms, before returning to the JW Marriott Grand Rapids at approximately 6:30 p.m.

Beer City USA Hotel Packages are also available at the JW Marriott. For more information, contact Brian Behler at brian.behler@jwgr.com or by phone at 616-242-1462.

Tickets for the tour are on sale now. They are $69 for the standard ticket, which includes samples or a pint at Hop Head Farms, Founders and Walldorff, or $85 for premium tickets, which includes everything from the standard ticket as well as a beer at the JW Marriott during registration, a logo’d pint glass from Hop Head Farms and a West Michigan Beer Tours T-shirt.

For more information, go to www.westmichiganbeertours.com/tour.