Gail Taylor, ‘The People’s Farmer,’ feeds her community with Three Part Harmony Farm and helped pass legislation to benefit urban farmers in D.C.

With her background in advocacy, welcoming smile, air of refinement, and down-for-doing-business demeanor, it would be easy to assume that when Gail Taylor visits Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., every Wednesday, she’s going to meet congressional staffers for high-stakes legislative deal making.

But instead of heading into the halls of Congress in a power suit, Taylor drives into the parking lot of a condo complex near the U.S. Capitol, where she pitches a tent, sets up tables, and unpacks heaps of vegetables. On a recent day, they included orange and purple carrots, dark green cucumbers, heads of green cabbage, green beans, and a milk crate of hardneck garlic. This mid-summer week, she also has baskets of blueberries, red gooseberries, yellow plums, heirloom tomatoes, Presidio rice, and bags of hand-milled flour.