TRUEVINE -- For a self-proclaimed "simple ol' country boy," Johnny Angell did pretty well for himself.

In an attempt to diversify the products grown on his approximately 1,000-acre farm, the Franklin County tobacco farmer built two ponds for raising Malaysian freshwater shrimp last spring.

In October, he harvested and sold the fruits of his labor. Over the course of two Saturdays, he attracted more than 400 customers and sold a little more than 1,100 pounds of prawns.

"We had folks waiting five or six hours for shrimp," Angell said. "They hung out all day and watched us drain the pond, like it was a circus."

Though he fell short of his goal of producing 2,000 pounds of shrimp, Angell is happy with his first year dabbling in aquaculture. He's considering building two more ponds this winter.

In fact, Angell's experiment has garnered interest from all over Virginia, said Brian Nerrie, an aquaculture specialist and professor at Virginia State University in Petersburg. Nerrie worked with Angell on the shrimp project, and he's since received inquiries from across the state, he said.

"Anytime someone does something the first time, any positive outcome is real good," Nerrie said. "The major thing that has resulted is just the interest level by other tobacco farmers to look at, if not freshwater shrimp, then other types of alternative crops."

Angell has already provided a model for others. Nerrie said Angell's harvesting technique and pond design -- particularly his use of catch basins to collect the shrimp during drain-down -- likely will be emulated by others.

One man from Pittsylvania County is even considering opening a facility that will grow freshwater shrimp from their larval stage to mosquito size. He'll then sell them to farmers like Angell, who grow them to eating size.

Angell said he hopes a regional shrimp hatchery does in fact open. This year he ordered his shrimp from Ohio, but said he'd much rather pick them up in his truck.

One of the main challenges for shrimp farmers will be to market their goods, Nerrie said. Angell seemed to have little problem with drawing crowds, despite little promotion and a Virginia Tech football game scheduled the day of his second harvest. However, he's got some ideas to improve sales next year.

One is to grow a field of "cut-your-own" broccoli to occupy customers while they wait for shrimp. Angell said he may also hold a sale on a Friday preceding a Virginia Tech home game. That way, he said, folks could buy the shrimp and cook them while tailgating the next day.

Aside from marketing, Angell said he wants to focus on two other improvements next year. One is water filtering.

"We used a 300-micron screen over the irrigation pump," Angell said. "An ol' country boy like me didn't even know what a micron was. We didn't pump fish into the pond, but we pumped fish eggs and harvested about a bathtub full of brim and crappies."

Angell said he'll also use a noise device or net around the pond perimeters to discourage herons from hanging around.

"Every time I went to the ponds, there was a heron or two standing there, and I don't think they were there for a suntan," Angell said. "I don't mind them eating the brim and small frogs, but I don't know about $7-a-pound shrimp."

Along with the shrimp, Angell tried another new crop this year: burley tobacco. Before this year, he'd only grown flue-cured tobacco, as dictated by the now-defunct quota system that guaranteed tobacco farmers could sell what they grew.

This year, the first without quotas, Angell built a barn exclusively for curing burley tobacco.

The idea behind Angell's diversification is to allow him and his wife, Sharon, to continue living a rural, close-to-the-land lifestyle that's become more difficult to maintain as the United States continues to shift toward an increasingly service-based economy.

"The whole thing is what's going to happen to this farm," Angell said. "Not just today, but 50 and 100 years from now."