Ditto Foods: Where a pair of hydroponic farmers persevered through 25 rejections before being able to start their own urban farm and invest in the place they call home cover art

Ditto Foods: Where a pair of hydroponic farmers persevered through 25 rejections before being able to start their own urban farm and invest in the place they call home

Ditto Foods: Where a pair of hydroponic farmers persevered through 25 rejections before being able to start their own urban farm and invest in the place they call home

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 Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:00): Thanks for joining us. I think you're going to find this first episode of 2023 as fascinating as I did. It's about a pair of farmers named Derek and Brad, who grow about three acres worth of produce in just 320 square feet. They're using hydroponics to, as Derek put it, replicate Mother Nature at its finest. And for an old dirt farmer like me, it was really fun to talk with them about the science behind this technology. But in between all of the talk about soil science and chemistry and light spectrums, I hope you don't miss the story of endurance and entrepreneurship, perseverance, and above all, the meaningfulness of investing in the place you call home. Enjoy. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:45): Welcome to More Than a Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than a Mile, and thank you for buying local food. That's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. All right, well, I'm really excited. My guests today are Derek Drake and Brad Schiever of Ditto Foods. Really excited to have you guys. Thanks for joining. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (01:32): Thanks for having us. Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (01:33): Yes, thank you. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:33): You know, some people farm just because they have to, some people get to choose to farm because they want to. And a few people farm because they want to change the world or their corner of the world. And I've been looking forward to this conversation because that describes, I think both you and I, Derek. But our farms look very different. . Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (01:56): Oh yeah. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:58): So how big's your farm? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (01:59): It is a 40 foot shipping container, so 320 square feet. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:04): And where is it sitting right now? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:06): It's in our driveway in the back of our house Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:10): In the south suburb of Chicago. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:12): In the south suburbs of Chicago. Yes. On our property. So we take up a very small footprint. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:17): How many cows can you get in that shipping container? I'm just kidding. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:20): Oh, probably about five. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:25): Ok Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:25): They won't be able to move around, but Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:27): Not a whole lot of grazing inside there, Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:29): . Ok. No, Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:30): This is a fascinating journey. I want to start from the beginning. So 2020, Covid happens. You are senior staff at Kellogg, Northwestern University mm-hmm. . And that comes to an end with a furlough related to Covid. Tell me what happens from there. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:47): Well, I've always been one of those folks that goes to, all right, what's the next right move for me. In grad school, I've created a business plan for a food truck concept. And it was kind of marrying food truck meets tiny home. And after the furlough, I was like, okay, I want to see if I can do something with this. And started down this long rabbit hole of looking for developers, manufacturers of food trucks and tiny homes and seeing what we can do. And went to Brad and said, all right, I'd like to go down this route. And so I started the search and found this company out of Boston called Freight Farms that manufactures these shipping container farms, and went to Brad and said, I think I wanna be a farmer. I think this is the next right move. And he thought I was crazy. And we started the journey. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:52): And today you're a farmer, Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (03:54): And today I'm a farmer in a shipping container. Yes. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:57): Take that Brad New Speaker (03:59): . Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (04:00): Right, Right? It was interesting. It was interesting to say the least for Derek to say, we're gonna grow three acres of farm and three acres of crops in 320 square feet. It took a lot of, a lot of convincing and a lot of research and understanding of what exactly that meant to be a farmer, especially without soil. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:21): Well, I, I want to dive into that for sure. Because I'm a farmer with soil and a lot of it. And and this whole concept is fascinating to me....

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