Rob McHugh blushes when you mention his brush with fame.After all, it isn’t often a farmer is the guest of honor at an autograph party.But when he arrived at the Feb. 28 grand opening of Whole Foods Market, a crowd of people was already standing outside the doors of the Birmingham supermarket, which has staked its reputation as a purveyor of organic and “locally grown” produce.To drive home its point, Whole Foods had invited its local growers and vendors to the opening where they were treated like celebrities.”I got there at 8:30, and there were already probably 1,000 people waiting to go in. Television news crews were there and everything,” recalled Rob who, along with his wife Angie and sons Nick (11), Ridge (4) and Cove (10 months), was recognized as the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Outstanding Young Farm Family in the Greenhouse, Nursery & Sod Division.”This guy from the store sees me, and he comes and gets me and takes me right through this crowd of people, and into the store. We get in there, and he hands me a Sharpie pen. I said, ‘What’s this for?'”He said, ‘It’s to sign autographs with.’ I said, ‘What?!’ He said, ‘Just go stand by your picture and you’ll be OK.’ I look up and there’s a big picture of me on the wall — the first picture in the produce section. I stood there, but thankfully nobody came and wanted me to sign an autograph.”Just as Rob was baffled by the attention, Angie was initially puzzled by life on the farm.”When we first moved here, I was scared to death to be here by myself at night,” said Angie, a self-described city girl from Oxford who now teaches physical education at Ashville Elementary School. “One night when Rob wasn’t at home, my father-in-law’s cows got out, and you could hear them out there rustling around in the woods behind the house. I was convinced somebody was out there. So I called my father-in-law and his brother, and they both came to the house with guns! When they saw what it was, I was so embarrassed. The only animals I’d ever owned were a dog and a cat.”Today, she’s not only adjusted to the farming lifestyle, but says she enjoys planting, bedding and selling flowers to the public from the family’s 11,000 square feet of greenhouses. Likewise, sons Nick and Ridge and 13-year-old nephew Colby Kelley lend a hand in the field, although Rob believes Ridge enjoys picking tomatoes because he enjoys throwing the rotten ones. Dave, a family friend, is the McHughs’ lone employee.It’s a family effort, but it’s Rob’s picture that still graces Whole Foods’ produce section just as it does the market’s Web site. But that’s OK because the partnership has been the most rewarding farming he’s ever known.”Their store policy is to buy organic, locally grown stuff first if they can find it because they’re a health food store,” said Rob. “But if they can’t find it organically, then they can buy conventionally grown locally. They just start circling, getting out further until they get what they need.”So far, Whole Foods is finding plenty of things it needs at the McHughs’ Gulf Creek Farm greenhouses near Steele in St. Clair County — things like organic cherry tomatoes, squash, watermelons, cantaloupes, okra, basil, oregano, peppermint, parsley, cilantro, chives, tarragon, as well as hydrangeas, bedding plants and hanging baskets.”Next year, instead of having a variety of stuff, I’ll probably only grow tomatoes and eggplants,” said Rob, adding that he would meet with Whole Foods’ head produce and floral buyers before making his planting decisions. “Maybe that’s all we’ll grow, but we’ll have about 60 acres instead of six acres.”He has already struck a deal with Whole Foods to grow cherry tomatoes year-around in the greenhouses, and may grow some heirloom varieties as well. “I may have to find me some bees,” he said, referring to the pollination method sometimes used in organic greenhouses.Of course, as any farmer knows, plans don’t always turn out the way you hope.Take, for example, this season when everything was looking so promising after his first meeting with Whole Foods’ buyers. Despite a “pretty thorough inspection” by Quality Certification Services, Rob received organic certification for one vegetable greenhouse and his fields on Chandler Mountain.”Everything was looking good. Their buyers had come out and looked at everything, and agreed to buy it,” said Rob. “For the first time since we’d been in operation, we actually knew the stuff was going to be sold.”No longer having to rely solely on drive-up customers for their sales, the family shipped their first load of plants to Whole Foods on May 22; the second load on May 27. Then, it happened — the well providing water to the McHughs’ five greenhouses went bone dry, killing $11,000 of plants destined for Whole Foods.”It would’ve been the best year that we’ve had by far, and it may still be,” said Rob, noting that while conventional cherry tomatoes fetch $8 box, their organic counterparts bring $22 a box.Oddly enough, Rob never even considered going the organic route “until some things happened.” Some awful things.”I had hurt my neck or something and went to a chiropractor and he noticed this place between my thumb and finger where muscle was gone, and he said I needed to see a doctor about that,” said Rob. “I went to neurologist … he opened the door, and before he got to me, he told me I had ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease.”The doctor ordered an MRI and nerve conduction study, and reiterated his earlier diagnosis. “He came back and said, ‘You’ve got ALS … and there’s not anything anybody can do about it. Once you start losing muscle, you won’t ever get it back … when you start going down, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.'”That was four years ago, and Rob not only has regained some of his muscle, but now questions the accuracy of the diagnosis. During his quest for answers, he discovered certain herbs might help his condition. As a result, he began growing herbs.”Everything I’ve done, I’ve prayed on it first,” said Rob. “Three years ago, I went to buy some marigolds and came back with the greenhouses instead. We still owe the money on them, but everything that’s happened with my health has happened for a reason it seems. If whatever happened hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have thought of getting into the organic business, but now it’s going to pay off big.”