St. Mary's College is lovely. The area the beautiful, but you are correct, we are quite rural. The nearest mall is about 45 minutes up the road in Waldorf or 1 to 1.5hours (depending where you live) in Annapolis. We are a peninsula - so there's lots of water and water activities (and seafood). During the summer the college offers a summer concert series on the lawn (free) which brings out lots of the community. Lots of farmland, but we do have stores
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. I'm a consultant with Mother of Eden and can tell you that there's a good number of cloth diapering families down here - some working and some with moms at home. I'm also active in our local MOMS Club and there's a few moms that nurse their toddlers. We have a health food store (small) in Leonardtown and several grocery stores carry some organic produce and other products as well. There's a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's up in Annapolis. The area has it's farmers, "local folk" (err.. that includes me too), a lot of transient folks who get stationed at the Pax River Naval facility, and a lot of engineers and other workers who moved here to support the base. It's a growing little suburb and a fairly well-educated area with the job opportunities. The cost of living is *high*.. mostly because of the constant demand for new housing by the new folks moving in. School quality varies throughout the county - just like anywhere else. Public and private schools (mostly catholic and one christian) as well and one or two montessori. The weather is generally mild. The water shields us from most of the worst stuff. We get all 4 seasons. Summers are hot and very humid/sticky, winters are cold with snow in Jan/Feb/Mar timeframe (not very much of that). Most people here either love or hate the area - there's not much a middle ground. The people that don't care for the area tend to move up north and commute down for work. Their general complaint is being too far from the city - most of those people are also single, looking for someone, or accustomed to being in a busy place. A visit will tell you all you need to know - it's really a very pretty area. Healthcare is frustrating here at times. We have a good hospital for maternity, the DC Children's Hospital for specialists, etc. There's a birth center in Calvert County and I'm currently traveling to Alexandria, VA for prenatal care in preps for their midwives driving south for my homebirth. Most doctors visits involve a lot of waiting. Regarding crunchy folks - I think you'll find them if you look. The area really can be what you make of it.
Hope some of that helps! Feel free to email me with any other questions. I live about 10 minutes north of the college.
