MPT’s Maryland Farm & Harvest Returns for Season Eight on Nov. 10

Episode visits sites in Carroll, Cecil, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Wicomico counties

“Big Bill” Jeanes monitors the GPS in his tractor at Dividing Farm in Cecil County. Photo Credit: Maryland Public Television

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest returns for its eighth season on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. with new half-hour episodes. The season premiere features farms and locations in Carroll, Cecil, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Wicomico counties as part of a “Farm Machines” themed episode.

Maryland Farm & Harvest takes viewers on a journey across the state, telling stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow Maryland agriculture – the state’s number one commercial industry. The season eight trailer can be viewed online here. 

This season Maryland Farm & Harvest adds two new regular segments. One segment is called “The Way it Works” and offers a look at the mechanical side of agriculture. The “Facebook Photo Challenge” segment features photos submitted online by Maryland farmers on a variety of interesting topics.

Series host Joanne Clendining, who recently earned her second Emmy® award from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her work on Maryland Farm & Harvest, returns for season eight. She is joined by Al Spoler who handles duties for each episode’s The Local Buy segment. 

Segments featured on the season premiere include:

• Award-Winning Hay Farmer (Carroll County). Maryland Farm & Harvest’s newest season starts with a trip to Glenn’s Hay & Straw in Sykesville to visit farmer Glenn Rash. At 89 years old, Glenn has decades of experience growing and baling hay, along with a wall filled with awards from the county fair and Maryland State Fair to prove it. Over the course of several days, he shows viewers how patience, the right machinery, and a little luck with the weather forecast help produce the perfect load of hay bales.
  
• Precision Ag: Computers in the Field (Cecil County). Father-son duo, “Big Bill” and “Little Bill” Jeanes of Dividing Farm in Earleville, are planting soybeans and they have some extra help from a system known as “Precision Ag.” By connecting their farm equipment to computers and GPS, they can program how much fertilizer and seed they want to place in each part of their field. The system automatically adjusts and even steers the tractor. Precision Ag technology helps make farming more efficient by saving both time and money.
  
• The Local Buy: Turning Wheat to Flour (Talbot, Queen Anne’s, and Wicomico counties). For more than 300 years, the Old Wye Grist Mill on the border of Talbot and Queen Anne’s counties has been grinding local grain into flour and cornmeal. The Local Buy host Al Spoler explores the old mill and the equipment that powered the industrial revolution in America. With a donation of wheat from farmer Aaron Cooper of Cutfresh Organics in Eden, Old Wye Mill volunteer Joshua Fradel shows how to make flour the old-fashioned way. Al then shares a tasty recipe for whole wheat muffins that is available for viewers at mpt.org/programs/farm/recipes/.

Nearly 10 million viewers have tuned in to Maryland Farm & Harvest since its 2013 debut. The series has taken MPT viewers to more than 360 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first seven seasons, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C. 

New episodes of Maryland Farm & Harvest air on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and are live-streamed on MPT’s website. The newest episode will be re-broadcasted on MPT-HD Thursdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 6 a.m. and on MPT2/Create® on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

All past episodes can be viewed at MPT’s website. Specific segments can be found on Maryland Farm & Harvest’s YouTube channel. 

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, Maryland Agricultural Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO), MidAtlantic Farm Credit, Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Assistance Fund (MAERDAF), Maryland Soybean Board, Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts, Wegmans Food Markets, Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association, Seafood Marketing Advisory Commission, Maryland Farm Bureau, and The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

Other support comes from the Mar-Del Watermelon Association, Eddie Mercer Agri-Services, Inc., and the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation (MAEF).

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Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept