{"id":22366,"date":"2018-07-25T09:33:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T13:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=22366"},"modified":"2018-07-25T09:48:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T13:48:42","slug":"state-agriculture-agency-to-offer-family-friendly-activities-showcasing-agencys-diversity-during-maryland-state-fair-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2018\/07\/25\/state-agriculture-agency-to-offer-family-friendly-activities-showcasing-agencys-diversity-during-maryland-state-fair-2\/","title":{"rendered":"State Agriculture Agency to Offer Family Friendly Activities Showcasing Agency\u2019s Diversity during Maryland State Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANNAPOLIS, MD\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture does more than just work with farmers to ensure sound farmland management practices. It also promotes local agricultural and seafood products, ensures the wise use of fertilizers and pesticides, monitors the accuracy of weights and measures, controls mosquito populations, protects the health of Maryland plants and livestock, and so much more.<\/p>\n<p>The department will highlight many of the services it provides to improve the quality of life in Maryland during the 137<sup>th<\/sup> Maryland State Fair, August 23 to September 3 at the State Fair Grounds in Timonium. The 12-day festival will feature thousands of home arts and agricultural exhibits, daily livestock and horse shows, a wide variety of midway rides and games, thoroughbred horse racing, and national entertainment. The department will provide a variety of displays in the Cow Palace throughout the duration of the fair, including the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Friday, August 24 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s Resource Conservation program will have a model dairy farm on display from 10 a.m. \u2013 9 p.m. for kids to see what working on a dairy farm is really like. Activity books will also be available throughout the day.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Saturday, August 25 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s State Chemist program will show kids how to make slime and snow. They will be creating slime from 10 a.m. \u2013 12 p.m. and 4 \u2013 6 p.m. They will be making snow from 1 \u2013 3 p.m. and 7 \u2013 9 p.m.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Sunday, August 26 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s Spay and Neuter Board will be addressing the topic of controlling pet overpopulation and how Marylanders can help. They will also provide an Agriculture Encounter for Kids activity book and a coloring station all day.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Monday, August 27 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s Mosquito Control program will talk about the department\u2019s efforts in reducing mosquito populations around the state and how Marylanders can reduce potential breeding grounds in their own backyards. They will also show kids how to make snow from 10 a.m. \u2013 3 p.m. and will have a coloring station all day.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Tuesday, August 28 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s Plant Protection and Weed Management program will address efforts in monitoring for the Spotted Lanternfly around the state. They will also showcase the state\u2019s Chief Apiary Inspector Cybil Preston and her bee inspecting dogs from 10 a.m. \u2013 12 p.m. A coloring station will also be available from 12 p.m. \u2013 close.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Wednesday, August 29 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s Weights and Measures program \u2013 which ensures that consumers who buy anything by weight or quantity get what they pay for \u2013 will have a calibrated scale that can read people\u2019s weight. A coloring station will also be available throughout the day.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Thursday, August 30 \u2013<\/strong> Maryland\u2019s Best, the department\u2019s agricultural marketing program, will discuss the great products and marketing programs offered by the Maryland Department of Agriculture, including: the Maryland Ice Cream Trail, the Buy Local Challenge, Home Grown by Heroes, and more. Throughout the day, children can enjoy a fun coloring station and will be able to weigh themselves on a calibrated scale used by the department\u2019s Weights and Measures program.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Friday, August 31 \u2013<\/strong> The department\u2019s Food Quality Assurance program will address food safety and how they work to ensure safe, high quality agricultural products for Maryland\u2019s consumers. They will also make snow from 10 a.m. \u2013 3 p.m. and demonstrate how to candle an egg from 4 \u2013 6 p.m.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Saturday, September 1 \u2013<\/strong> The Rural Maryland Council will share their vision of\u00a0a future where all of Rural Maryland is prosperous with\u00a0thriving resources, vibrant economies, and healthy, connected communities. Throughout the day, children can enjoy a coloring station and will be able to weigh themselves on a calibrated scale used by the department\u2019s Weights and Measures program.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Sunday, September 2 \u2013<\/strong>The department\u2019s State Chemist program will show kids how to make slime and snow. They will be creating slime from 10 a.m. \u2013 12 p.m. and 4 \u2013 6 p.m. They will be making snow from 1 \u2013 3 p.m. and 7 \u2013 9 p.m.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li><strong>Monday, September 3 \u2013<\/strong> Maryland\u2019s Best Seafood, the department\u2019s seafood marketing program, will talk all about Maryland\u2019s seafood industry and how the department is promoting local seafood products. Throughout the day, children can enjoy a coloring station and will be able to weigh themselves on a calibrated scale used by the department\u2019s Weights and Measures program.<\/li>\n<p> <\/p>\n<li>In addition, the Maryland Horse Industry Board \u2013 a program within the department \u2013 will be at the Horseland tent throughout the fair.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Maryland State Fair will also celebrate \u201cAgriculture Day at the Fair\u201d on Thursday, August 30.\u00a0 The day includes a luncheon and tour of the fairgrounds with Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Joseph Bartenfelder. The luncheon is invitation only.<\/p>\n<p>For more Maryland State Fair information, visit <a href=\"www.marylandstatefair.com\">www.marylandstatefair.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>###<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD\u00a0\u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture does more than just work with farmers to ensure sound farmland management practices. It also promotes local agricultural and seafood products, ensures the wise use of fertilizers and pesticides, monitors the accuracy of weights and measures, controls mosquito populations, protects the health of Maryland plants and livestock, and<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2018\/07\/25\/state-agriculture-agency-to-offer-family-friendly-activities-showcasing-agencys-diversity-during-maryland-state-fair-2\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22369,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366\/revisions\/22369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}