This just in, sort of. St. Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry wandered over to the city-owned third of the Hamm’s Brewery a couple of weeks ago and snapped some shots of Urban Organics, an aquaponic tilapia and produce farm that has set up shop there. They had just gotten in their first order of fish, which they plan to grow in the same water that cycles through their veggies.
That’s a creative use for an old beer factory, no? Here’s more:
Submitted by Saint Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry, Ward 7
Tilapia at Urban Organics
On August 15, there was big excitement on the East Side as Urban Organics received its first shipment of 4,000 young tilapia fish at the rehabilitated stock house building on the former Hamm’s Brewery campus at Payne and Minnehaha.
You can read the rest for yourself on the city’s Spotlight on St. Paul blog, which was updated Friday, Sept. 6, with cool photos: http://www.spotlightsaintpaul.com/2013/09/we-have-fish-ward-7-welcomes-its-newest.html
In June, Flat Earth Brewing confirmed to the Pioneer Press its intention of also moving into the Hamm’s Brewery next to Urban Organics, in this article here.
Since then, both Flat Earth Brewing and Mill City Distillery have received city grant funding through the STAR program, which takes part of the proceeds from the city’s half-cent sales tax and distributes it to worthy neighborhood projects. Awards were announced in July.
More on Mill City Distillery (or Mill City Distilling) on their Facebook page, here. Looks like Flat Earth and Mill City plan to be neighbors…