Photo Credit: Maryland Public Television’s (MPT’s) Maryland Farm & Harvest

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its ninth season, will feature farms and locations in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, and Carroll counties during a new episode airing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 14. Viewers can watch on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream.

The weekly series takes viewers on a journey across the Free State, telling interesting stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow agriculture in Maryland, the number one commercial industry in the state. 

Joanne Clendining, who has earned two Emmy® awards from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for her work on Maryland Farm & Harvest, returns as host. She is joined by Al Spoler, who handles duties for each episode’s The Local Buy segment.

With introductions filmed at Broadview Farm in Westminster (Carroll County), the December 14 episode features the following segments:

• The Joys of Goat Yoga (Carroll County). An increasingly popular health and wellness trend called Goat Yoga is making waves at Bountiful Farms in Union Bridge near the Frederick County line. Christy Yingling, founder of Goat for the Soul, describes her program as a combination of animal therapy and yoga. Yingling started her yoga business on the farm in 2018 to promote wellness and physical activity. She says during the outdoor yoga sessions her baby goats do whatever they please, whether it’s grazing in the pasture among members of the yoga class, taking a position next to a participant hoping for some attention, or just observing the proceedings. Yoga instructor Jennifer Carpenter says the goats are incredibly smart and social animals, and her yoga class participants enjoy what these “kids” add to the experience.

• From Sheep to Fiber to Yarn (Baltimore County). Feederbrook Farm in Freeland features a sheep operation run by Lisa Westra. She did not set out to become a shepherd or an expert in sheep care and fiber processing and tells the story about how she fell into the occupation due to an unusual turn of events. Given the situation, Westra quickly grasped how to care for the farm’s 40 sheep. The perception is that all wool feels the same, but Westra explains that different breeds produce fibers that vary widely in texture, color, and density. The farm has 10 varieties of sheep that offer different qualities of fleece – some better suited for outerwear, while others are more ideal for use against the skin. Viewers learn about the multi-step process Westra used to take the newly sheared wool to produce hand-dyed yarn in a variety of colors and textures.
• The Local Buy: Free-Range Poultry (Anne Arundel County). Segment host Al Spoler visits a fertile valley near Tracy’s Landing in southern Anne Arundel County to learn how rotational grazing techniques are used on a free-range farm. This process enables the “animals to get the best out of the land before they impact it negatively,” explains Dave Haberkorn of Morris Hill Farm. Vicki Haberkorn notes that the grazing methods she and her husband employ to raise chickens, turkeys, and ducks, as well as pigs and sheep, generate positive feedback from environmentally conscious customers. Together, Dave and Vicki create safe and healthy conditions for their animals to thrive. At the conclusion of the segment, Al Spoler enjoys roast duck prepared by the Haberkorns. The recipe will be available at mpt.org/farm.

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. 

More than 10 million viewers have tuned in to Maryland Farm & Harvest since its fall 2013 debut. The series has traveled to nearly 400 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first eight seasons, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C. 

Past episodes can be viewed on MPT’s website, while episode segments are available on the series’ YouTube channel. Engage with the show on Maryland Farm & Harvest’s Facebook and 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’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, MidAtlantic Farm Credit, Cornell Douglas Foundation, Maryland Soybean Board, Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts, Wegmans Food Markets, Maryland Nursery, Landscape, and Greenhouse Association (MNLGA), the Maryland Seafood Marketing Fund, Maryland Farm Bureau, and The Campbell Foundation. 

Other support comes from Mar-Del Watermelon Association and Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation (MAEF).

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Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept