MPT Series Maryland Farm & Harvest Visits Carroll, Dorchester, Howard, Montgomery, and Wicomico Counties During December 4 Episode

Bell Nursery (Montgomery County Location)

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, in its sixth season, will feature farms and other locations in Carroll, Dorchester, Howard, Montgomery, and Wicomico Counties during a new episode airing Tuesday, December 4 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 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. Segments featured on the upcoming episode are:

• Greenhouse to Home Depot (Howard & Montgomery Counties): This segment explores Bell Nursery, which bills itself as the largest wholesale nursery grower in the mid-Atlantic region, producing more than 100 million plants a year for 300 Home Depot stores. Viewers get a look at the nursery’s main greenhouse location in Burtonsville (Montgomery County), with 75 acres of greenhouse space and an additional 350 acres for outdoor growing. The segment then moves to the Elkridge (Howard County) distribution facility, where plants are carefully loaded and shipped. A unique part of Bell Nursery’s operation is its use of a network of about 30 growers, spread across the Eastern Shore. David Schaefer of Schaefer Farms in Denton (Caroline County) is one of them, and is interviewed at the distribution center.
• Farmer/Tinkerer (Wicomico County): Growing row crops requires heavy-duty equipment: a planter to plant the grain, a sprayer to fertilize it, a combine to harvest it, a truck to haul it and, of course, a trusty tractor. Someone would be hard-pressed to find a grain farm without at least one of these sturdy workhorses, but at Hammond Farms in Wicomico County, farmer Danny Hammond takes it a bit further – his collection of used and antique farm equipment includes 50 machines. Hammond also has more than 100 toy tractors on his farm in Willards, as well as other farm equipment – some in working order and others that are used for parts. While taking viewers on a tour of his collection he explains why, as a farmer raising 1,100 acres of grain, learning to fix equipment began out of necessity, but turned into a passion.
• Oyster Hatchery (Dorchester County): Oysters are an important part of the heritage and economy of the Chesapeake Bay region, and a healthy oyster population is essential for a healthy bay. This segment looks at how the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Lab Oyster Hatchery in Cambridge is putting more oysters in the bay through spawning and hatching young oysters. Some oysters raised there remain in an oyster sanctuary, while others end up on oyster farms through the hatchery’s remote setting training program, designed to teach people how to get involved in aquaculture. During the 2017-2018 season, 78,000 bushels of aquaculture oysters were harvested in Maryland.
• The Local Buy: Pizza Greens (Carroll County): Segment host Al Spoler visits Gardener’s Gourmet in Westminster to learn how farmer Cinda Sebastian and her son Wave William manage to grow more than two dozen varieties of salad greens – which are happiest in cool, moist climates – in Maryland’s summer heat. The recipe portion of the segment focuses on a way to use these greens not in a salad but on pizza. That recipe is available at 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. More information about the series is available at mpt.org/farm, and viewers can join the conversation on social media at the hashtag #MDFarmHarvestFans.

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