US (IL): Donated greenhouse to help sustainability farm grow

Danville Area Community College's sustainability farm will be able to expand its vegetable and herb growing season, thanks to a local company.

Greenhouse Megastore donated a 20-by-24-foot tunnel greenhouse to the college for the farm. The structure is valued at $2,000.

Dave Langlois, Greenhouse Megastore's manager of special products, said the high tunnel greenhouse is one of the company's new products. The steel-framed structure, which is covered with a polyethylene film, is affordable and quick and easy to install, yet durable in all kinds of weather.

"Growers can get ahead of the market or continue to grow and sell when the season would be over," he said.

Normally, the company tests new products at its site at 70 Eastgate Drive, Langlois said. But when company President David George heard about the sustainability farm at a local Rotary meeting and wanted to help out, officials decided to install it there.

"Our aim is to be a community partner," said Langlois, who assembled the structure with the help of Krabbe, other instructors and a dozen or so DACC and College Express students on Wednesday.

Read more at The News-Gazette (Noelle McGee)