US (IL): Four brothers turn aquaponics dream into reality
Maybe you’d call it a vision. Or an ambitious goal. A plan for the future.
Demarkius Medley, Kelvin Medley, Durell Butler and Samuel Medley want to grow fruits and vegetables and herbs. And they want to do it through the use of aquaponics.
The dream already is a small-scale reality. The Medleys and Butler — all brothers — have an aquaponic farm in a rented space on Fifth Street. It has four grow troughs dedicated to a variety of lettuce and herbs, cucumbers, and a few other vegetables.
The dream moved one step closer to large-scale reality last week, when the brothers closed on a four-acre tract of land at 1383 Monmouth Blvd. It cost $49,000 — an investment in a plan, vision and goal.
“It feels great to finally move forward with the aquaponics on the kind of scale we’ve imagined since we started this,” Demarkius said. “Our first goal is to flesh out our permits and how the land is zoned — that hasn’t been an easy process so far.”
“Then our goal is to put two large greenhouses on the property, complete with the ability to clean and package the produce.”
Read more at The Register-Mail (Tom Loewy)