She’s a farmer and physician.
Rosalie Truong, owner of Grand Army Farm, was born in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968. By 1975, her physician parents decided to depart from the communist regime in Saigon and immigrate to France.
After seven years in France, her mother and father were concerned that a newly installed socialist government might shift toward communism, and they sent Rosalie and her 18- and 21-year-old brothers to California to become US citizens.
Since then, she earned a medical degree and became an obstetric anesthesiologist at St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis County. She also farms and makes vibrantly colored craft wools.
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Q | Do you remember Vietnam?
A | I was seven years old when we moved to France. I still have fond memories of the people, the markets, the beaches, and the food. We were lucky to be able to leave Vietnam when we did.
Q | Why did you start farming?
A | I had a desire to own a farm from a very young age. In 2008, at age 40, I purchased 88 acres in Labadie and started raising Angora rabbits, eventually adding fiber goats. I began to dye their wool and make knitting yarn balls and wool clothing like hats and scarves. Angora wool dyes to vibrant shades, retains its shape, sheds dirt, and imparts a sheen onto finished articles. I dye the socks, gloves, and silk scarves that I sell. Later, I added chickens, ducks, geese, quails, and sheep. That launched my career into supplying eggs and meats to restaurants and the public.
Q | How can you be a doctor and farmer at the same time?
A | I work as an obstetric anesthesiologist three weekends a month and work at least 100 hours at the farm every week. I used to manage the farm by myself, but it has grown to where I need assistance. I was walking seven miles a day just to feed the animals and collect a hundreddozen eggs a week. In the beginning, a few high school students helped out, but now it’s expanded to include six employees, delivery people, and a farm manager who lives in the 1930-era white frame house on the property.
Q | Is it difficult to balance being a doctor and a farmer?
A | Yes, especially when I come to the farm very tired after a rough hospital shift. The farm can be both physically and intellectually challenging on a completely different level. Not only do I need to ensure the animals are healthy and well cared for, but I also manage the people working at the farm. With my love of animals, I prefer being at the farm.
Q | What is your passion?
A | I want to make people healthy by providing unprocessed food, such as eggs and meats. We specialize in producing fresh, wholesome meat and eggs for the public and local chefs. Refrigeration was not common in Vietnam, so each day was spent acquiring fresh food and preparing for the evening meal. My whole culture centers around fresh-food preparation. I process the animals myself and shear the sheep and rabbits myself too. Also, I am on a mission to raise awareness for the German Angora rabbit that is in critical danger of extinction. There are fewer than 100 in the United States, and it is a magnificent fiber animal.
Q | What else do you do?
A | | If you want to rent my goats to graze to clear a field, purchase some nutrient-rich goat manure, camp next to my five-acre lake, or take a farm tour, call me. Also, we occasionally offer shearing lessons and fiber and dye workshops. I like my days to be full. When I die, I want to know I have lived a productive life.
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This article was originally published in the July/August 2025 edition of Missouri Life magazine.
Image credit: MICHAEL KILFOY OF XRX STUDIOS
