How D.C.’s Oldest Hardware Store Ended Up Housing Two Cutting-Edge Urban Farms

You can now buy a bucket of paint and a carton of beet greens at D.C.’s oldest hardware store.

By Laura Hayes
Washington City Paper
Sept 4, 2019

Excerpt:

Finding a permanent home to grow her microgreens business has been a near all-consuming pursuit for Ackley over the past three years. Little Wild Things has bounced around growing flavor- and nutrient-packed baby greens and shoots everywhere from The Pub & The People’s basement to a pair of vacant wholesaler buildings that hug Union Market. One after the next asked Little Wild Things to move out when it came time to develop the spaces. At one point she thought her greens would land in Ivy City, but Ackley ended up walking away from the deal.

“Thank god I found this place,” she says while showing City Paper the new Little Wild Things headquarters. She moved in early this summer. “We systematically went through every property available in the entire beltway and there were only five properties that met our requirements.”

All they needed was between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet and the ability to heat and cool the space. Throughout this process, Little Wild Things didn’t let business slip save for one incident where one of the Union Market-area spaces got too warm, preventing plants from producing. It meant they couldn’t fulfill orders at two of their biggest clients: Chaia and Jaleo.

Read the complete article here.