Rough Draft Farmstead, Lawrenceburg KY

At this summer Field Day with a few dozen farmers and ag professionals, Jesse Frost and Hannah Crabtree of Rough Draft Farmstead provided a deep dive into their natural-mulching no-till systems. Using occultation, disturbing the soil as little as possible, planting intensively all-year round, keeping roots in the ground, and diversifying plantings within beds, Hannah and Jesse preserve and conserve the living systems underground, reduce their weeding, and improve the health of their plants and harvest.

With a production footprint of ¾ acre and an “Everbed” system of near-constant production within their beds, the Rough Draft team serves three seasons of CSAs, two farmers markets, a local pay-what-you-can restaurant, and a local community center food distribution program. In recent seasons, they’ve converted their system from one of minimal tillage reliant on hay mulch to their current methods.

“When we’re not tilling, our crops are almost always successful.”

Organic No-Till Market Farming