CHICAGO — If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, Derek Drake would have never discovered his purpose. Furloughed from his job at Northwestern University in 2020, he asked himself: “What’s the right next move?”
That move was taking his 25-year working experience in hospitality and restaurants and starting a farming business.
That motto is ever present on a small dry erase board on the interior wall of a 320-square-foot hydroponic farm in a trailer container in Mokena, Illinois. The farm sits in view of a picturesque lake with catfish and bluegill, and in between Drake’s home and the chicken coop that houses weeks-old birds named after characters from the “Golden Girls” TV series and Disney chipmunk characters, Chip and Dale.
