Salt Creek Shrimp Company
A New Kind of Family Farm
A new business in Nashville has joined the popular Farm to Table movement, offering shrimp so fresh they might still be alive by the time you get them home. Roger Kelso and Brenda Young opened the doors of Salt Creek Shrimp Company on February 5, 2016 and sold out of their first batch of shrimp in less than two hours.
The idea started about a year ago, when Kelso made the decision to open a business in his hometown of Nashville. Kelso, who has always been intrigued by aquaculture, agriculture, and locally owned businesses, settled on shrimp farming after a great deal of research.
“ I learned that shrimp is the number one seafood in the country. Ninety percent of our shrimp comes from Asia, which means it is far from fresh,” he said.“ With the Farm to Table movement soaring in popularity, I thought this was a great time to offer high quality, fresh, locally raised shrimp.”
Brown County’ s tourism industry also made the decision a no-brainer.
“ More than 2.5 million cars drive by our doors every year,” he said.“ The market is
46 Our Brown County March / April 2016
~ story and photos by Paige Langenderfer
Roger Kelso, Heather Deckard, and Brenda Young.
definitely here, and in the tri-state, for fresh shrimp. We have already gotten excellent responses from Bloomington, Indianapolis, and Columbus.”
Salt Creek Shrimp Company, located in Gnaw Bone near Brown County Winery and Bear Wallow Distillery, started with a handful of shrimp in a tank in Kelso’ s garage.
“ I wanted to make sure I could do this and that it was something I would enjoy,” Kelso said.
Young said those first shrimp hold a special place in their hearts.
“ They all have names. Frank the Tank is our favorite,” she said.“ Those guys are pets. They will never be eaten.” Expanding the operation from a single tank in his garage to tanks large enough to hold 30,000 shrimp was no simple task.
Kelso said his background as an environmental engineer has proved beneficial. He has worked around water and water systems since he was 17. The past five years he’ s been traveling to the Middle East to design infrastructure systems, recently designing a filtration system for a large dolphin habitat in Egypt.
“ He designed everything in this operation,” Young said.“ It’ s been really interesting watching him build this.”