MPT series Maryland Farm & Harvest visits Carroll, Garrett, and Montgomery Counties During December 5 Episode

ANNAPOLIS, MD (December 1, 2023) – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its 11th season,  will feature farms and locations in Carroll, Garrett, and Montgomery counties during an episode premiering on Tuesday, December 5. A preview of the episode can be found on the series’ webpage at mpt.org/farm.

Maryland Farm & Harvest airs on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream. Following their broadcast premiere, episodes are also available to view using MPT’s online video player and the PBS App. Encore broadcasts air on MPT-HD on Thursdays at 11 p.m. and on Sundays at 6 a.m. Episodes also air on MPT2/Create® on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

The popular weekly series takes viewers on a journey across the Free State, telling engaging and enlightening stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow agriculture in Maryland, the state’s number one commercial industry. 

With introductions filmed at Deep Run Farms in Westminster (Carroll County), the December 5 episode features the following segments:

• Fiddler’s Green (Carroll County). Fiddler’s Green Farm in Taneytown has been in the Batten family since 1946, when Ben Batten’s grandfather bought it as an escape from the toils of World War II. Though he grew up on the farm, Ben never farmed a day in his life – that is, until he and his wife Brynn pivoted from corporate life to farm life in 2018. Today, Fiddler’s Green is a successful, certified organic farm growing CBD and heritage grains. For the Battens, being neo-farmers means being unburdened by the traditional rules of farming, so every day is an opportunity to experiment, explore, and make a mistake or two.

• Livestock Auction (Garrett County). Friend’s Stockyard in Accident is one of the last remaining livestock auctions serving Maryland farmers. The Friend family has been running weekly auctions since the 1960s, and today’s managers – brothers Joe and John Friend – join USDA market reporter Scott Rhodes to give viewers a better understanding of how livestock auctions support family farmers. One such farmer is Mike Diehl, who lets viewers follow along as he prepares his cattle for auction, working to attract the best prices possible.

• The Local Buy: Nubian Goat Milk Soap (Montgomery County). Al gets himself all in a lather when he visits East Rivendell Farm in Damascus, where the goats are bred to make goat milk soap. Al tries his hand at milking the farm’s Nubian goats, prized for their milk, and joins farmer/owner Nancy Fraley in the kitchen to mix up a batch of her specialty soap. 

Nearly 16 million viewers have watched Maryland Farm & Harvest on MPT since its debut in 2013. The series has traveled to nearly 450 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first 10 seasons, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C. 

Past episodes can be viewed at video.mpt.tv/show/maryland-farm-harvest/, while episode segments are available on the series’ YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/MarylandFarmHarvest/featured. Engage with the show on social media @MarylandFarmHarvest on Facebook and @mdfarmtv on Instagram. 

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; a grant from the Rural Maryland Council Agriculture Education and Rural Development Fund; MARBIDCO; a grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Program; Farm Credit; Maryland Soybean Board; Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts; Wegmans Food Markets; Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association; Maryland Farm Bureau; The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment; and a contribution made by the Citizens of Baltimore County. Other support comes from the Mar-Del Watermelon Association and Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation. 

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