A producer with purpose in a place with purpose
A producer with purpose in a place with purpose
It is with great pleasure that Montgomery Countryside Alliance announces the 2026 Royce Hanson- Agricultural Reserve Champion Award recipient: Nia Nyamweya of Beauty Blooms Farm. We first met Nia through her participation in MCA’ s Land Link program. Paired in 2022 with small acreage in Barnesville, Nia grew African heritage heirloom crops, vegetables, and flowers. In her first year alone she supplied over 1000 pounds of produce to Montgomery County’ s Farm-to-Food-Bank program. She has since expanded production to 10 acres on occupied Piscataway territory in Patuxent River State Park and additionally has acquired her own land in
Montgomery County that she is endeavoring to farm. The majority of her farm’ s harvest supports local residents experiencing food insecurity. Nia is giving voice to the challenges to the diverse next generation producers. Her work helped establish the Leaders in Environmentally Engaged Farming( LEEF) Program within the Chesapeake Bay Legacy Act.
Nia shares:“ I believe all people have a right to delicious, nutritious and culturally important food that’ s affordable and grown locally.”
LAND LINK Montgomery
Farmers seeking land
A program of Montgomery Countryside Alliance helping farmers and farmland find each other...
Land Link has matched 36 new and expanding farmers with long-term leases. Here are a few of the farmers who are still seeking land through the program.
n Local farmer and food activist with more than 12 years farming experience, seeking 1-5 acres on 2 to 5-year lease, for table crops and flowers. Seeking a minimum of one half acre, maximum of 5 acres. I am a hard worker with full exposure to the hardships of farming, unpredictability of weather, and back-breaking nature of agricultural work.
n I am a farmer with 10 + years of commercial farming experience. I currently run a Certified Organic Vegetable farm in the Ag Reserve, Barrow Hill Farm. I am looking for acreage to purchase or lease for a destination farmers market in the Ag Reserve. The vision is to have a place in the Ag Reserve for MoCo farmers and producers to sell their products to the public. In turn the public can support these producers, get the products they need, and experience the beauty of the Ag Reserve.
Bethesda Beat profiled“ The Faces of Land Link” at: bit. ly / BBLandLink Mocolandlink. org