MPT Series Maryland Farm & Harvest Visits Dorchester, St. Mary’s, and Queen Anne’s Counties and Baltimore City During February 20 Episode

Series host Joanne Clendining tours the Maryland Zoo’s on-site farm
and visits an alpaca farm on its busiest day of the year

ANNAPOLIS, MD (Feb. 16, 2024)– Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its 11th season,  will feature farms and locations in Baltimore City and Dorchester, St. Mary’s, and Queen Anne’s counties during an episode premiering on Tuesday, February 20. A preview of the episode will be available 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. Episodes are also available to view on the free PBS App and MPT’s online video player following their broadcast premiere. 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 Church Hill Farm in Hydes (Baltimore County), the February 20 episode features the following segments:

• Maryland Farm Zoo (Baltimore City). The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore cares for more than 130 different species of animals, and each one needs a healthy diet. Host Joanne Clendining visits the zoo to take a tour of its on-site sustainability garden, a small-scale farm built by staff and volunteers to help feed the many herbivores and omnivores residing at the zoo. She also visits the commissary, a restaurant-grade kitchen where meals are prepared for animals of all sizes and diets, and helps with food prep and delivery for some of the more than 1,000 animals under the zoo’s care.

• Farmer Flashback: Briar Branch Alpaca Farm (St. Mary’s County). Alpacas are prized for their unique coat of fiber, which is one reason alpaca farms are gaining in popularity. Shearing day is one of the busiest of the year at Briar Branch Alpaca Farm & Boutique in Clements, and host Joanne Clendining is on-site to lend a helping hand. On shearing day, all 50 of the alpaca take turns getting their annual haircut. In addition to helping relieve the animals of their winter coats, Joanne takes a tour of the alpaca’s pastures, learns about the history of alpaca farming in the U.S., and tries on some of the many alpaca fiber creations for sale in the Briar Branch boutique.
   

• Farm to Skillet: Chef Kurt Peter, St. Michaels Farmers Market (Dorchester, Queen Anne’s counties). Chef Kurt Peter, owner of Chesapeake Chef Service out of Stevensville, leads viewers through the St. Michaels Farmers Market, where he finds locally produced ingredients to make pan-seared rockfish with sautéed vegetables. After gathering the necessary ingredients, Peter demonstrates how to prepare and present the delectable dish. The recipe will be available at mpt.org/farm for viewers to try for themselves.

More than 16 million viewers have watched Maryland Farm & Harvest on MPT since its debut in 2013. The series has traveled to more than 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 Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Assistance Fund; 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 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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