MPT series Maryland Farm & Harvest visits Baltimore, Harford, Kent, and Wicomico counties during February 27 episode

ANNAPOLIS, MD (February 23, 2024) – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its 11th season,  will feature farms and locations in Baltimore, Harford, Kent, and Wicomico counties during an episode premiering on Tuesday, February 27. 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 27 episode features the following segments:

• Farm Safety (Baltimore, Kent counties). Agriculture is the largest commercial industry in Maryland, and it’s also one of the most dangerous. This segment reveals some of the hazards of farming through the heart-wrenching stories of farmers such as Hank Suchting, who owned Branchwater Farms in Reisterstown, and Joey McHenry, who leads McHenry Beef in Kennedyville with his wife Jenell. Then, viewers meet Brian Freese, a safety and rescue instructor at the National Education Center for Agriculture Safety, who explains the importance of farm safety training for both farmers and first responders.

• Delmarva Chicken Festival (Wicomico County). In 1923, Cecile Steele of Ocean View, Delaware ordered 50 chicks for her family farm. When 500 arrived, she built more coops to accommodate the chicks and eventually sold the surplus chickens to be consumed as meat, spawning a meat-chicken business that only grew from there. Last fall, the Delmarva Chicken Festival in Salisbury celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of the meat-chicken industry, which is now worth $4.8 billion. Visiting the festival, viewers learn about the history of Delmarva chicken production and get a glimpse into the present state and future possibilities of this thriving industry on the Eastern Shore. 

• Farm to Skillet: Chef Keema Johnson, Bel Air Farmers’ Market (Harford County). Chef Keema Johnson leads viewers through the Bel Air Farmers’ Market, where she finds fresh, locally produced ingredients to make a pan-seared pork chop dish with stuffed squash blossoms and succotash. After purchasing everything she needs to cook the meal – plus some fresh flowers to enhance the dining environment – Keema heads to the kitchen to show how to prepare and present the simple yet succulent 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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