Our Story

Red Plate Farm is embarking on its first growing season in 2026, on a two acre plot of leased land in Frederick County, Maryland! I have been dreaming up this project for quite some time and I am eager to get it started! I officially started my farming journey on a vegetable farm in Southern Maryland in 2020. While navigating the pandemic and my last semesters of college I found so much clarity in working on the farm. Immediately, I knew this was exactly how I wanted to spend my life. After graduating college with a degree in environmental science, I anticipated spending the next few years traveling to different farms, learning everything I could about sustainable agriculture. I ended up living and working at Moutoux Orchard, a full-diet CSA in Loudoun County, Virginia. My grand plans to travel and work on lots of farms slowly fizzled out as I fell in love with the food and farming community of Virginia. I ended up staying for the next five years, milking cows, raising pigs, honing my tractor and building skills- and of course weeding and harvesting endless amounts of vegetables. It has truly been a special time working for the Moutoux’s. During the summer of 2025 I felt like the time was right to make the leap into my own endeavor.

As I have been envisioning what this new chapter might look like, I was drawn closer back home to Maryland. After lots of thinking and some looking for land, MK and Andrew, of Open Book Farm, had a place for us and Red Plate Farm to live! Hooray! They are inspiring farmers and I can’t wait to learn and grow alongside them.

Red Plate Farm is rooted in tradition and shared meals. The original “red plate” was gifted to my parents at their wedding. They quickly created ceremony around it, it was sacred in my house growing up. If you did something special, aced an important test, won at a big sporting event, or got a 4-H award, you got to eat off of the red plate that night at dinner. My three siblings and I all coveted it. Eating off the red plate meant you were being celebrated. Now as I think of what I want this farm to represent, it’s exactly that: the joy of a family dinner and a return to tradition. And good food makes every meal a celebration.

Erin Hyman, Owner