Three Creeks Farm
Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Missouri, thrives as a diversified 15-acre operation with a focus on sustainable practices and market-driven production. Four acres are dedicated to a market garden, growing annual and perennial crops on once-overgrown horse pasture. Farmers like Emily Wright and Paul Weber manage produce and flowers, supplying local restaurants, grocery stores, and the Missouri Flower Exchange.
Emily Wright explains the importance and use of the woods bordering Three Creeks Farm, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024 in Ashland, Mo.
Grace O’Neil cleans plastic baskets in the wash and pack that will be later used to hold vegetable produce picked, washed and packed through the work day at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. This is O’Neil’s second day working at Three Creeks as she recently came from working on a farm in Vermont.
Bil Carda cuts, inspects and collects lettuce at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. The farmers are experimenting with three lettuce varieties on land that used to be overgrown horse pasture now boasting annual and perennial plants growing both in the open and under cover and shade.
Grace O’Neil drops lettuce into a plastic basket that will soon go to the wash and pack for further inspection, cleaning, then packing to order for restaurants and grocery stores at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Of the 15-acres of land rich river bottom soil, four are dedicated to a market garden design.
Paul Weber looks over a packing list for the day for produce going to restaurants and grocery stores from Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Floods during the first year of the farm necessitated contouring fields and reinforcing a berm along the forest edge to prevent future interruptions to the farm to market process.
Emily Wright gently uncovers Dahlia flowers protected with light-weight nylon bags that keep bugs away from the flower heads at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Wright sells flowers through Missouri Flower Exchange.
Emily Wright steps out of a garden tunnel and places freshly cut and bundled flowers in a bucket with water at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Wright once saw flowers as a waste on a farm but eventually realized the attraction for helpful bugs and insects and, bottom line, people buy them.
Emily Wright picks flowers growing safely in a garden tunnel at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Wright saves the tunnels for high value crops such as these flowers, tomatoes and peppers, which are watered through drip irrigation and micro overhead sprinklers.
Emily Wright fulfills flower orders by wrapping them in her signature paper so they can be identified at Missouri Flower Exchange when they leave at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. The farm was able to double its sale of flowers in the second year.
Emily Wright fulfills flower orders by wrapping them in her signature paper so they can be identified at Missouri Flower Exchange when they leave at Three Creeks Farm in Ashland, Mo., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. The farm was able to double its sale of flowers in the second year.