BY CHUCK MARTIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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A Kentucky shrimp.
(Patrick Reddy photo)
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The way the mist rises above the water in the hot, morning sunshine, the way the breeze carries the barest scent of the shore -- just for a second, you think you're on the Carolina coast or the Gulf of Mexico. Not even close.
This is Ryland Heights, Kentucky -- about 20 minutes south of downtown Cincinnati -- home to the Bluegrass Shrimp Co.
At the bottom of a hill above the Licking River, electric-powered paddle wheels churn the water of four small ponds. Nearby, inside a barn full of bubbling shallow tanks, is company owner Stephen Price -- the fast-talking, cigarette-flicking "Bubba Gump" of Kentucky's budding shrimp industry.
"Here's how you get their heads off," explains Mr. Price, who sports spiked salt-and-pepper hair and bushy mustache.
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Stephen Price walks a dock above one of his shrimp ponds.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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With a small net, he snares a skittering, blue-translucent shrimp from one of the tanks. He grabs the squirming shrimp with one hand and (crustacean-lovers, avert your eyes) unflinchingly twists the beady-eyed creature's head off with the other.
Just like that.
Mr. Price holds out the decapitated shrimp's body, which looks like it came out of the grocery seafood case.
Shrimp doesn't come any fresher.
Growing like a weed
In 1993, Mr. Price was one of the first in Kentucky to venture into shrimp farming. He won't be the last.
"There are about six of us in Kentucky raising shrimp commercially, " says Mr. Price, president of the state's aquaculture association, who also raises largemouth bass, yellow perch, catfish and blue gill. "I expect there will be 20 by next year."
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Stephen Price, right, and his father, Richard Price, survey a shrimp pond at their Ryland Heights farm.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Even though his shrimp is not price-competitive with ocean shrimp, he has sold it to several Kentucky restaurants and grocery stores.
Mr. Price and other aquaculturists have been encouraged and supported by Kentucky's Agriculture Department and Kentucky State University. The state legislature has pledged nearly $700,000 to help Kentucky farmers learn to raise shrimp and fish as possible alternatives to tobacco and other traditional crops.
In just a few years, scientists and farmers like Mr. Price have discovered there's something about the Kentucky climate and conditions that make the region nearly ideal for growing the shrimp, which are actually freshwater prawn native to southeast Asia and close kin of the common tiger shrimp.
"In warmer climates, the shrimp reach sexual maturity so fast they don't gain much size," Mr. Price says. "Here, it gets cold enough for them to get bigger."
James Tidwell, professor of aquaculture at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, supports his theory.
"It's true," says Mr. Tidwell. "Shrimp raised here grow . . . larger than in warmer climates."
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HARVEST NEARING
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Stephen Price will begin harvesting his shrimp in Ryland Heights in mid or late September. He will sell the freshly harvested shrimp (uncleaned) to individuals by appointment. Cost is about $9 per pound. Mr. Price also welcomes tours of his farm by appointment. Information: 356-8662.
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When harvested, many of Mr. Price's shrimp weigh up to one-quarter pound each. They can grow to lobster-size, about 2 pounds.
Mr. Tidwell also says the famous limestone water of the region -- which produces champion thoroughbred horses and fine bourbon whisky -- helps grow larger, healthier shrimp.
"Normally, the one nutrient missing in freshwater environments is phosphorus," Mr. Tidwell says. "But our soils (and water) have a lot of phosphorus."
There's at least one other startling reason why the shrimp thrive in the Bluegrass State: They eat feed made from spent mash, a mostly corn by-product of bourbon production.
Actually, the "mash food" came before the shrimp, says Mr. Tidwell, who conducted research eight years ago for a distillery industry group. The research was aimed at considering the mash by-product as a food source for catfish and crawfish. Mr. Tidwell had farmed freshwater shrimp while a student at Mississippi State, so he tried feeding the mash food to shrimp at an experimental pond in Frankfort.
"Lo and behold, we grew some huge shrimp," Mr. Tidwell says. As it turned out, the mash by-product fills the protein requirements of the shrimp almost perfectly.
Mr. Price swears you can taste a little bourbon in his shrimp. But his father, Richard, says his son is joshing.
"Boy, if you could taste it, you sure could get more money for them," he laughs.
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RELATED
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Some doubt freshwater shrimp |
Sensible, not crazy
A former carpenter and farmer, the tall, thin Richard Price spends Monday through Friday working at the shrimp farm.
"I thought Steve was crazy when he first told me he was going to raise shrimp," the elder Mr. Price says. "Now I know he's not."
Bluegrass Shrimp Co. is a family business. Stephen Price's oldest son, Richard; his daughter, Jennifer, and his son-in-law, Terry Metcalf, work his other shrimp farm in Campbell County. His 18-year-old son, Lucas; 15-year-old son, Kyle, and wife, Deborah, help out at the home base in Ryland Heights.
Daily, they feed the shrimp and monitor water quality. Otherwise, the shrimp pretty much fend for themselves.
After male shrimp fertilize eggs -- attached to the females -- in a freshwater tank, the females and the microscopic eggs are moved to a brine tank, where the larvae hatch and grow for about a month. The young shrimp are moved to another tank to acclimate to fresh water before being netted and deposited in a pond. They'll lead a blissful life in the one of the 5-foot-deep ponds for another three months until harvest.
To harvest the shrimp, Mr. Price and his family drain the ponds and walk in with hip boots and gloves to snatch the clatteringcreatures into baskets.
"We tried it the first year from boats using nets," Mr. Price says. "It wasn't easy."
The shrimp can't survive in water below 50 degrees, so Mr. Price begins dropping shrimp into ponds in March and harvests his last batch in September.
"During the winter, we will continue running the hatchery and nursery," Mr. Price says.
The entrepreneur is talking to shrimp farmers in Florida and other warmer climes about buying larvae during his off-season.
Business matters
Although he claims his role in Bluegrass Shrimp is only "public relations," Mr. Price invested $125,000 to enter the shrimp farming business. He lost much of that to the flood waters of the Licking River in 1997, which destroyed most of his shrimp stock and equipment.
For Mr. Price, it was a shrimp-size bump in the road. The eldest of three brothers growing up in a "very poor family," he worked hard, dividing his early years between Covington and his grandmother's farm in Robertson County.
"We baled hay and did all kinds of farm chores," Mr. Price says, squinting in the sunshine.
That's where he developed his rigorous work ethic (he's up at 7:30 a.m., every morning tending to the shrimp) which he has passed on to his sons and daughter.
Out of high school, he skipped college to work as a state electrical inspector. Later, he moved to sales at General Electric in Cincinnati and worked his way up to vice president for another electrical contractor. Mr. Price started his own company, Bluegrass Electrical Consultants in Burlington, in 1976 and has won major contracts with the Kentucky Department of Transportation and the Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport. He also raises horses and hay.
Mr. Price didn't jump into the shrimp business for the money. Although he is convinced aquaculture will pay off in the future, he started farming shrimp to help Kentucky farmers diversify. As a member of the Governor's Commission on Family Farms, he also hopes it will help keep rural families working together -- as it has his own.
"The only way to get farmers into something like this is for them to see someone succeed in it," he says.
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MORE INFORMATION
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If you are interested in learning more about aquaculture, write or call the Kentucky Aquaculture Association: 4954 Paris Pike, Lexington, Ky., 40511. (502) 564-9103. |
They may see that success at Bluegrass Shrimp sooner rather than later. Mr. Price's operation will make a profit for the first time this year. He expects to harvest nearly a ton of shrimp. Next month, a Toronto-based grocery chain will buy thousands of live shrimp, hauling them back to Canada.
He's planning to build a shrimp-processing plant and dreams of a futuristic aquaponics facility where fish and shrimp produce organic fertilizer for hydroponically grown vegetables.
Considering what Stephen Price has accomplished, these no longer sound like crazy dreams.
"We're past the point when people look at us funny," he says.
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