IL Shrimp?

It is a windy but beautiful afternoon at home. I’m sitting on the boat dock hoping that my laptop doesn’t run out of juice because I want to tell you about our meal last night. We had IL shrimp, which my wife Betinha and mother-in-law Mary Lee found yesterday. I was on the road all day with my son Joseph looking at IN colleges.

Betinha and Mary Lee went out to Stan Zumbahlen’s farm in neighboring Jasper County. For the past four years, he has raised freshwater shrimp and prawns in two ponds on his dairy farm.

He told Mary Lee that he goes down to Texas every spring, buying 10,000 shrimp that are the size of pencil lead. He keeps them in a nursery tank until the water in the ponds is above 75 degrees in June. He feeds them everyday and each fall drains the ponds to harvest them. He sold them this year for $8/pound and they were good!

Zumbahlen is an example of an innovative farmer who is experimenting with unique niche products that can be raised in rural America. We need more like him who hopefully can develop new businesses out of the ideas.