SE Minnesotan just getting started

[Chris Lukenbill]

I'm still in the exciting research phase of my Aquaponics adventure which started 3 or 4 months ago.  I've known about aquaponics for 2 years or so now and have slowly become more and more focused on the importance of fresh local food system.  Really, you only have to drive past the corn mountains at every little small town grain elevator a few times to realize that the commodity food production (most people still call it farming) is a completely broken system.  So now as everything has come together, it's time for me to give this a shot!

I'll be starting with a small setup just to get my feet wet and get a little at home experience.  I still have to figure out where this system will be as I haven't quite closed the sale pitch to my wife on an indoor setup and even with the crazy warm winter we are having, I'm not sure if our small back yard would be able to handle a year round AP setup.  After that initial intro it would be time for me to take my shot at the big leagues.  I have hopes and dreams of creating a small scale commercial operation (as most people probably do) in order to offer some fresh produce options outside of the standard root vegetables here at our local winter farmer's market.  I just want to make sure I have everything in order before I make that run!

During my 9-5 I do application and web development, so any installation I will of course be modifying heavily to automate to the nth degree while also managing an in depth online marketing push.  Hopefully I'll be able to find a combination to make a small commercial setup viable on it's own.

I've been eagerly ingesting as much information from this forum and multiple other sources over the last few months, so I figured it was time for me to say hi!

Hi!

[Chris Schup]

Welcome to the community site. The R+D phase of the adventure is mighty exciting, for sure. Hope you nail that starter system plan soon and start the experiment. Good luck.