As you leave the two-lane highway to enter the graveled road that leads to the 12-acre Red Wiggler farm, an eastern towhee darts across your path and the wilderness opens on your left.
Then the large red barn comes into view.
To your right lies the heartbeat of the farm, the multipurpose building where the fresh vegetables are stacked and washed. On the second floor of the building, the six-person staff works in an open-plan office space that overlooks the cultivated USDA-certified organic vegetables, herbs and flowers that thrive in this corner of Montgomery County, Maryland.
Beyond the multipurpose building, the farm’s executive director and founder Woody Woodroof maintains a solar-operated house.
Red Wiggler is an example of community-supported agriculture or CSA—a farm supported by people in the local community who buy prepaid shares in the farm’s harvest and then receive a portion of that harvest throughout the growing season.
But Red Wiggler is much more.