MPT’s Maryland Farm & Harvest Set for Season Six Premiere on November 13

Weekly Public Television Series Features People, Places, and Technology That Contribute to Maryland’s Largest Industry

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest premieres for its sixth season on Tuesday, November 13 with the first of 13 new half-hour episodes airing on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD. A one-minute preview of the upcoming season can be viewed here.

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 industry: agriculture. During the past year, MPT’s production team has filmed episode segments at more than four dozen farms in preparation for the new season. The season’s first episode alone takes viewers to locations in Allegany, Charles, Frederick, Howard, and Prince George’s counties, as well as Washington, D.C.

Season six of the weekly series also features special themed episodes about the Thanksgiving holiday, Maryland agricultural innovations, and state distilleries, wineries and breweries. More information about the series is available at mpt.org/farm, and viewers can join the conversation on social media at the hashtag #MDFarmHarvestFans.

Series host Joanne Clendining, who earned an 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 six. She is joined again by Al Spoler, co-host of WYPR-FM’s “Cellar Notes” and “Radio Kitchen” programs, who handles duties for each episode’s The Local Buy segment.

More than six million viewers have tuned in to Maryland Farm & Harvest since its fall 2013 debut. The series has taken MPT viewers to nearly 250 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first five seasons, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C.

Agriculture continues to be Maryland’s largest commercial industry, contributing more than $17 billion in revenue each year. The state currently has some 12,200 farms – 84 percent of them family-owned – and nearly 6,000 full-time farmers. These farms account for more than two million acres, which translates into 40 percent of Maryland’s land being used for agriculture. Approximately 350,000 Marylanders are employed in some aspect of agriculture.

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.

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 Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit; Maryland’s Best; the Maryland Agricultural Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation; the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation; 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 Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc.; the Rural Maryland Council; the Maryland Seafood Marketing Advisory Commission; the Maryland Farm Bureau, Inc.; Mar-Del Watermelon Association; and the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission.

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Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept