MPT Series Maryland Farm & Harvest Visits Anne Arundel, Carroll, Frederick, and Kent Counties During January 28 Episode

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its seventh season, will feature farms and locations in Anne Arundel, Carroll, Frederick, and Kent counties during an episode airing on Tuesday, January 28 at 7 p.m.

Maryland Farm & Harvest takes viewers on journeys across the state, telling stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow Maryland’s number one commercial industry – agriculture. MPT’s production team filmed episode segments at more than four dozen farms in preparation for its seventh season.

The episode opens with introductions at Baugher’s Orchard & Farm in Westminster in Carroll County. Other segments featured on this week’s episode include:

• Solar-Powered Poultry (Kent County): Pumping the water and circulating the air necessary to maintain a modern poultry house requires a lot of electricity. At Rusty Rooster Farm in Worton, farmer Jeff Pettitt is installing solar panels to offset his farm’s high energy bills. It’s a step that many poultry farmers are taking to reduce ongoing costs and environmental impact, bringing steady business to Sunrise Solar. The Chestertown-based solar company has done many agricultural installations throughout the region to help farmers reduce their electricity costs while also helping the environment.
• Making Corn Maze (Frederick County): For visitors to the fall festival at Winterbrook Farms in Thurmont, there is nothing quite like getting lost in Maryland’s largest corn maze. With many twists, turns, and dead ends, the corn maze had five miles of trails in 2019 and as many as nine miles in previous years. Beyond planting corn, designing a maze, and cutting the trails, many people do not realize how much work goes into making a corn maze. Viewers meet farmers Taylor and Brandon Huffman and follow along during their months-long maze creation process to see how it all comes together.
• The Local Buy: Peppers (Anne Arundel County): It may be cold and wet outside, but segment host Al Spoler is turning up the heat at Holiday Memories Farm in West River. Rain or shine, there is always something for first-generation farmer Gary Palmer to tend to on his 22.5-acre farm in Anne Arundel County. During this segment, he and his son-in-law Zeke Pearson harvest a variety of peppers in their hoop houses – which keep the peppers and their pickers dry despite the rain outside. Viewers see how the peppers can be used to make a sweet pepper jelly, the recipe for which will be available at mpt.org/farm.

Maryland Farm & Harvest airs on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and is rebroadcast on Thursdays at 11:30 p.m. and Sundays at 6 a.m. Each show also airs on MPT2 on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Previous episodes of the series can be viewed for free on the MPT app and online at MPT’s website.

Viewers can join in on the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using the hashtag #MDFarmHarvest.

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; the Maryland Agricultural Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation; MidAtlantic Farm Credit; the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program; the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation; the Rural Maryland Council; and the Maryland Soybean Board. Other support comes from: the Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts; Wegmans Food Markets; the Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association; the Maryland Seafood Marketing Fund; the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service; the Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc.; the Maryland Farm Bureau; The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment; Mar-Del Watermelon Association; Eddie Mercer Agri-Services, Inc.; and Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission.

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Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept