Rosy Buck Farm

“Rosy Buck Farm offers responsibly grown produce through local farmers’ markets, as well as flexible CSA share options.”

Rosy Buck Farm is the brainchild of Holly Evans and Randy Buck. We met in 2009 when we were the only two interns on a farm on Orcas Island, off the coast of Washington. Since then we have traveled the world, volunteering on dozens of different farms to learn as much as we could about sustainable farming. We have slaughtered quail in Tennessee, gathered stinging nettles in France, inoculated sheep in New Zealand, and harvested Brussels sprouts in Vermont. Now we are excited to be starting our fourth season on our own farm!

Currently we are getting our hands dirty in Missouri, growing a modest farm for farm shares and farmers’ markets in the St. Louis area.

What sets us apart as a farm are our growing practices. We are beyond organic, which is to say we don’t use any commercial sprays, even organic ones. We are focused on building up the soil and encouraging the intricate ecosystem that is the soil web. We are fossil-fuel-free (though we still have to drive to market); we use elbow grease and hand tools for everything. We are also no-till, using heavy mulches to both encourage biodiversity in the soil and to keep the weeds down. The more we feed the soil the more it feeds us! No-till practices also return carbon in the atmosphere to the soil and keep it there through cover crops and mulches. If all the farmers and ranchers in the world used no-till practices, the carbon in the atmosphere would be reduced to an acceptable level in 5 years. Climate change would essentially be solved. Of course that won’t happen, but any little acre that can be part of the solution rather than the problem is vital! We encourage you to stop by Rosy Buck Farm to meet your farmers, check out the fields, and get to know where your food comes from.

Earthworms podcast:

Check out this great interview with Holly of Rosy Buck Farm on Earthworms, a KDHX podcast!

Farm Size

2 acres

Products

• Heirloom veggies
• Asparagus
• Herbs
• Pears

Conservation Practices

• Crop rotation
• Nutrient Management Plan
• No till
• Riparian herbaceous cover
• Soil testing
• Integrated Pest Management
• Pollinator Habitat

Additional Practices

• Kinsey method of using minerals to balance soil fertility
• Hand dug ditches that collect rain water and divert it into a concentric network of smaller ditches inside the crop circles
• Organic seeds