To find the farm in Eureka, leave the beaten path behind. Cross a rickety one-lane bridge, then drive down a narrow private road along the Meramec River, gravel popping and grinding under tires, until you see the magnificent barn. Its bones are original, at least a century old, the posts and beams made of rough-hewn cedar logs harvested from the 300-acre farm’s rocky hillsides. Sam Hilmer’s family has tended Claverach Farm (claverachfarm.com) for generations.
The barn’s greenhouse is a recent addition. That’s where Joanna Duley grows seedlings for the fields and micro greens for area restaurants. There are many shoots—pea shoots, radish shoots, sunflower shoots. Radiant heat in the floor warms her toes. In the corner, under a heat lamp, tomato plants stand next to a night-blooming cereus, her “personal plant.”
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The fruits of her labor are served at the farm’s regular dinners, where the distance from field to fork can be measured in inches. “Growing this artisanal produce is so labor-intensive, and it’s a thing people really don’t understand,” she says. “So to be able to grow this beautiful artisanal produce—and keep it here, and prepare it, and serve it, and show it off—is the way to make it sustainable for us.”
