MPT series Maryland Farm & Harvest visits Carroll, Harford, and Washington counties during January 24 episode

ANNAPOLIS, MD (January 24, 2023) – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its 10th anniversary season, will feature farms and locations in Carroll, Harford, and Washington counties during an animal-themed episode premiering on Tuesday, January 24.  

Maryland Farm & Harvest airs on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream. Encore broadcasts are available on MPT-HD Thursdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 6 a.m. Each episode also airs on                         MPT2/Create® on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.  Episodes are also available to watch on demand using MPT’s online video player and the PBS Video App.  

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. During its 10th season, the series revisits some favorite farms and farmers from past episodes.

The January 24 episode features the following segments: 

• Lumina Honey Products (Harford County): Retired scientists Jane Kuhl and Drew Denton live by the philosophy of “Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow” – inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Upon retirement, the married couple had both time and resources to pursue their dream of owning a farm. They purchased Lost Acre Farm in Bel Air, a produce farm on a property located near where Jane grew up. After responding to an ad from a beekeeper looking for a farm to keep his honeybee hives, they became fascinated by the bees and took a beekeeping class at Harford Community College. Jane and Drew show their hives and how they collect honey, discuss the lifecycle of the honeybee, and talk about challenges they have faced during the past 10 years. Then the couple show the barn where the honeycombs are spun and the honey extracted and strained. They use the honey to make and sell beeswax soaps, candles, and jarred honey as part of their Lumina Honey & Hives products line. 
• 10th Anniversary Revisit, Season Five – “Mack, the Bee Dog” (Washington County):  The Maryland Department of Agriculture is the only government agency of its kind in the country to employ a “bee dog”— that is, a dog trained to sniff hives to check for a contagious, colony killing bacteria known as American Foulbrood. In this segment, viewers follow a yellow lab, Mack, and his handler, Cybil Preston, Maryland Department of Agriculture chief apiary inspector, as they inspect hundreds of hives in Freeland before they are sent to California to pollinate an almond crop. Ora Hays of Hays Apiary in Smithsburg explains why almond growers across the country are willing to pay beekeepers to ship millions of bees to them each winter.
• The Local Buy: Maryland Sheep Dairy (Carroll County):  Shepherds Manor Creamery in New Windsor, operated by husband and wife Michael and Colleen Histon, is the first and only sheep dairy in Maryland. The Local Buy segment host Al Spoler visits the milking room, where Michael explains the unique nature of a sheep dairy in Maryland and the benefit of sheep milk when compared to other forms of dairy. Al gets a tutorial on cleaning and milking the sheep before visiting the cheese room where Colleen shows the cheese making process, starting with culturing the cheese, heating it, cutting the curd, additional heating, and molding. Colleen then shares with Al her savory quiche, made with fresh vegetable and two kinds of sheep cheese. The recipe will be available at mpt.org/farm.  

More than 15 million viewers have watched Maryland Farm & Harvest on MPT since its fall 2013 debut. The series has traveled to more than 430 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first nine 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 Twitter.

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, Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (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 Seafood Marketing Fund, Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, Maryland Farm Bureau, and The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment. 

Other support comes from Mar-Del Watermelon Association.

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Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept