Entire Farmers Market Ramp Supply Traced to One Man's Neighbor's Yard

An investigation by the Montgomery County Department of Agriculture has revealed that the entire ramp supply at the Bethesda Farmers Market -- sold by four separate vendors under labels including 'Wild Appalachian Ramps,' 'Mountain-Foraged Allium,' and 'Heritage Woodland Leeks' -- was harvested from a single residential backyard belonging to retired accountant Gerald Lawn. Lawn, 67, discovered the scheme when he noticed his robust patch of wild ramps, which he had been nurturing for eight years, had been 'completely stripped overnight for the third weekend in a row.' 'I installed a camera,' Lawn told reporters. 'At 5 a.m. on Saturday, a man in head-to-toe camo crawled under my fence, harvested my entire ramp bed in eleven minutes, and left through the same gap. He had a headlamp and pruning shears. This was not casual.' The man was identified as Craig Verdant, a self-described 'professional wild foods purveyor' who sold the ramps at the market for $18 per bunch under the brand 'Verdant's Wilderness Harvest.' When confronted, Verdant argued that the ramps were technically wild. 'They grew without being planted,' he said. 'The fact that they grew in someone's yard is a technicality. Wild is a state of mind.' The three other ramp vendors at the market were found to be purchasing their supply wholesale from Verdant, meaning the entire market's ramp economy was dependent on one man's neighbor's yard. Lawn has installed a taller fence and is considering pressing charges. He has also raised the possibility of selling his own ramps at the market, noting that '$18 a bunch is frankly outrageous and I could undercut every vendor there by growing them in my own yard, which I already was.' Verdant's vendor license has been suspended. He has pivoted to selling 'wild-foraged dandelion greens,' which neighbors report coincides with the disappearance of dandelions from lawns throughout the neighborhood.