hometown
BLUEMONT, VA
WHEN MOM AND FARMER MAYA WECHSLER HIRES WORKERS for the planting season every year, she first has to convince them there’s actually a farm. The 24 acres in Bluemont, VA, lie barren in the spring, nary a tomato or zucchini in sight. “Getting them to understand that there will be vegetables everywhere is hard,” she says. Soon, though, Maya, 39, and her team are carefully coaching young men and women with learning disabilities, mental illnesses or developmental disorders like autism through the finer points of feeding the goats or picking cucumbers. “Just do your best,” she says encouragingly.
That could be her personal motto. When they founded A Farm Less Ordinary in 2016, Maya (a business exec) and her real estate agent husband, Greg Masucci, 55, knew…