BYRON — Tucked away off a dirt road about a mile south of the village of Byron are nearly a dozen 23-foot spruce poles, all with leafy green vines crawling up the attached ropes.

From a distance, they look a little like giant pole beans from Jack and the Beanstalk. But once up close, they definitely aren’t. Instead, owners Annette and Frank Austin are growing a crop that once grew nearly everywhere in Byron during Prohibition in the 1920s — hops.

“Everyone used to talk about this area as Hop City,” said Annie, who lives in Springvale as well as at the couple’s camp just beyond the hop garden and adjacent to the Swift River.

Annie has always loved plants and growing things.

Ever since she received a degree in plant science from the University of New Hampshire, she has been growing vegetables and flowers.

This passion, whetted by attendance at a New Hampshire conference on growing hops a couple of years ago, prompted her and Frank to try their hands at it.

The conference was trying to encourage growers to plant hops because of the upsurge in microbreweries, Annie said.

Frank is quick to point out that Annie is the plant specialist. He just helps out with building and hopefully, marketing the product. Other family members have also helped out with building the supports for the hops crop.

This is year two for the hops “plantation” and the Austins expect to sell their first crop to an organic microbrewery in the Portland area. Hops are believed to produce the largest crop in year three.

“If the hops grew well years ago, they should grow well, now,” she said.

Hops provide flavor to beer, and each variety provides a slightly different flavor.

Found among the 11 acres the couple owns in Byron are wild hops. In addition to Cascades, which is the hops variety preferred by commercial growers and breweries, are a few of the wild hops growing up the poles and ropes.

Frank named that variety “Billy Byron.”

Altogether, Annie is growing six varieties of hops. When they are ready to harvest later this summer a crop of small, feathery, cone-shaped “fruits” will be gathered. Once dried, the hops are sold by the ounce. Besides selling to the Peaks Organic Brewery, Frank and Annie hope to sell some to home-brewers.

The couple comes to their camp nearly every weekend from spring through fall.

On a four-wheeler, she checks out the old Christmas tree section of the camp’s land, prunes where necessary, and has planted a new crop of spruce for future tree sales in the southern part of the state.

Annie has sold vegetables and perennials at Annette’s Gardens in the Springvale area, and also sells Christmas wreaths, which she creates, and Christmas trees, all harvested from the camp location.

She also raises rabbits for meat, and uses the rabbit manure to feed the hops and other plants.

Growing hops is a whole new enterprise.

“I don’t even like to drink beer,” she said. “But I like to grow things. We’re still learning. This is just the beginning.”