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Large bulbs of garlic hang from the ceiling and sit on tall carts in the barn cellar on the Red Wiggler Community Farm in Clarksburg.

With an estimated 1,000 pounds harvested around the Fourth of July, just about every available inch is covered in garlic cloves, which need to cure at the same temperature as the soil in which they were harvested, or about 70 degrees, for up to four weeks, farm manager Adrienne Alstatt said.

Woody Woodroof, executive director of the nonprofit foundation that runs the farm, calls the harvest "a world class crop of garlic." He plans to enter it in the county fair to prove the point.

Garlic is not heavily grown in Maryland, said Jeremy Criss, the county's agricultural services manager.

Red Wiggler has produced the largest garlic crop in the county, he said.

"I'm not aware of any other person that's producing that amount," Criss said.

Last season the farm harvested about 500 pounds of garlic, Woodroof said. The garlic was graded and the best was used as seed for this year's crop, he said. As a rule of thumb, each head of garlic can be separated into at least five cloves for seeds, Woodroof said.

"Garlic is a good crop to grow. It's beneficial … [and] helps heal your soil," Alstatt said.

Growing garlic is also something the developmentally disabled adults who work on the farm can do well and can work on from October, when they separate the cloves for seeds, until August, when they clean the cloves to ready them for market.

They may have gone a little overboard in planting one acre of garlic, but "our job is to plant what they can be good at," Woodroof said.

The harvesting needs to be done within a short period of time in early July, Alstatt said.

"Some of us would fork, some of us would clean it up and put it in the basket. We'd take turns," said grower David Ruch, 43, of Gaithersburg.

Ruch, like many of the 14 growers, has not missed a day of work this year.

"I love working here," he said. "It's better than any other job I had. I love working outside. If somebody put me in an office I couldn't do it."

All produce is grown organically on the 12-acre farm. Red Wiggler is in the process of obtaining its organic certification, mostly so it can label the seed garlic it sells as organic, which will increase the price up to $18 a pound, Woodroof said.

"Garlic is a crop you can grow at home very easily," he said. "We want people to plant it."

While being inclusive of the growers is one of the foundation's goals, another is educating the community at large about farming.

Except for a weekly farm stand in Leisure World in Aspen Hill, Red Wiggler produce is sold only by subscription to customers who must drive to the farm to pick it up.

"Our goal is to educate," Woodroof said. "We can't do it if they don't come to the farm" where customers will learn about the growers and the outdoors.

Red Wiggler was the first community supported agricultural farm in the county and is the largest, Criss said. Its 120 annual subscriptions sell out soon after they open up in December, Woodroof said.

It is on the forefront of the "buy local" movement, Criss said.

"More and more people are wanting to develop relationships with the producers of the food they buy," he said.

Another goal of the farm is to show people that they can grow food in their own backyards.

"There are not enough farmers growing vegetables to meet local demand," said Woodroof, who sits on the County Executive's green economy task force.

The task force is trying to promote local food production, Criss said.

Consulting and offering technical assistance to other farmers are part of the farm's mission, Woodroof said. It has also offered assistance to some of the group homes where the growers live so they can plant their own vegetables at home.

Red Wiggler Community Farm is selling its produce 9 to 11:30 a.m. every Thursday through Sept. 3 in Leisure World. The farm stand can be found near the interfaith chapel. For information on how to buy garlic seeds from the farm, visit RedWiggler.org.