Photo Credit: Maryland Public Television’s (MPT’s) Maryland Farm & Harvest
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its ninth season, featured farms and locations in Carroll and Talbot counties during a new episode that aired at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7. Viewers can watch on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream.
The weekly series takes viewers on a journey across the Free State, telling interesting stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow agriculture in Maryland, the number one commercial industry in the state.
Joanne Clendining, who has earned two Emmy® awards from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for her work on Maryland Farm & Harvest, returns as host. She is joined by Al Spoler, who handles duties for each episode’s The Local Buy segment.
With introductions filmed at Hoober, Inc., a farm equipment dealer in New Windsor (Carroll County), the December 7 episode featured the following segments:
- Plein Air Easton Farm Painting Contest (Talbot County). Since the early 2000s, artists have gathered for the annual Plein Air Easton painting competition. Celebrating its seventeenth year, the competition enables artists to showcase the beauty of Maryland farms through outdoor landscape painting. Organizers Jessica Bells of The Avalon Foundation and Shannon Dill of the University of Maryland Extension explain how the event promotes a better understanding and appreciation of local agriculture. Participating artists David Csont and Mary Veiga discuss their love of the outdoors and the chance to paint the unique scenery of Maryland farms. Once the competition ends, the artwork is displayed at a farm-to-table dinner at Triple Creek Winery in Cordova. Here, farmer Alex Spies of the winery expresses appreciation for the talented painters and watches as they create art in real-time. Afterward, there’s a visit to the Academy Art Museum in Easton, where some of the competition artwork is on display.
- Falcon Ridge Farm (Carroll County). At Falcon Ridge Farm in Westminster, Stanton Gill and Nancy MacBride specialize in growing a little bit of, well, everything! Their 105-acre orchard features a wide variety of unusual fruits not commonly seen in Maryland, such as apricots, currants, Asian pears, quince, and hearty kiwis, to name a few. Stanton gives viewers a tour of the farm’s many trees and explains unconventional growing methods successfully developed by the farm. Then, Stanton and Nancy take their weekly trip to the Olney Farmers & Artists Market in Montgomery Countywhere happy customers rush to buy the farm’s wide variety of fruit.
- The Way it Works: Tractor Fuels. Segment host Joe Ligo tops off the tank as he explains how most modern tractors still rely on diesel fuel while at the same time innovative companies are creating battery-powered electric tractors for the farms of the future.
- Tractor Test Drive with MotorWeek (Carroll County) Maryland Farm & Harvest teams up with MPT sister series MotorWeek for a tractor test drive. MotorWeek reporter Greg Carloss is used to driving the latest and greatest cars, trucks, and SUVs, but even Greg was impressed when he got behind the wheel of a new Case IH Magnum 280 at Hoober Inc. in New Windsor. Priced around $200,000, this machine costs nearly as much as a Bentley, but it’s no plaything. Modern tractors are meant to be workhorses. With the help of Store Manager Brian Gott and Precision Ag Specialist Tyler Rahmer, Greg learns about cutting-edge features on these vehicles used to increase productivity. This includes an assortment of electronic controls and even GPS-guided self-driving technology.
Maryland Farm & Harvest airs on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream. Encore broadcasts are available on MPT-HD Thursdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 6 a.m. Each episode also airs on MPT2/Create® on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
More than 10 million viewers have tuned in to Maryland Farm & Harvest since its fall 2013 debut. The series has traveled to nearly 400 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first eight seasons, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C.
Past episodes can be viewed on MPT’s website, while episode segments are available on the series’ YouTube channel. Engage with the show on Maryland Farm & Harvest’s Facebook and Twitter.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture is MPT’s co-production partner for Maryland Farm & Harvest. Major funding is provided by the Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board.
Additional funding is provided by Maryland’s Best, Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO), a grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, MidAtlantic Farm Credit, Cornell Douglas Foundation, Maryland Soybean Board, Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts, Wegmans Food Markets, Maryland Nursery, Landscape, and Greenhouse Association (MNLGA), the Maryland Seafood Marketing Fund, Maryland Farm Bureau, and The Campbell Foundation.
Other support comes from Mar-Del Watermelon Association and Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation (MAEF).
