Plent y
spring sowing Season • 2025
DEPARTMENTS
14 Wild Thing Going to Bat for Bats!
by genevieve wall
18 From the Ground Up A Season of Creativity Dawns in the Ag Reserve by jeff sypeck
21 Poetry Corner
22 An Eye for Beauty Winter’ s Fleeting Grace by wib middleton
32 Rustic Roads & Waterways Journey through Time and Nature
by sarah rogers
36 Treasures of the Reserve Sustaining Our Water by abby mann
39 Young Entrepreneurs Nourishing Community
an interview with gabriela taylor
41 Recipe Box
49 Community Supported Agriculture by kristina bostick
FEATURES
4 Saving the Planet in Our Backyard The beneficial role that home gardeners can play by jason gedeik
11 Starry Nights How we can reclaim the dark night sky by melane kinney hoffmann
25 Turning Food Waste into a Solution for Hunger
The transformative impact of food pantries
by valeria carrasquillo
28 Talking Trash Montgomery County’ s plans to overhaul waste management are laudable— with one big exception
by steven findlay and lauren greenberger
42 Breathing New Life into the Solomon Simpson Plantation A tale of saving and stewarding a historic property by tom rojas, marie rojas and wib middleton publisher i managing editor & design Jane Perini publisher i staff writer & photography Wib Middleton
PLENTY, Spring Sowing Issue 2025. Plenty is published three times a year by Thunder Mountain Publishing LLC. It is distributed free of charge in many Montgomery County, MD locations as well as locations in Frederick. © 2025 by Thunder Mountain Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. • www. plenty-agmag. com • 301.527.2295