Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) original series Maryland Farm & Harvest will air its 150th episode on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, featuring farms and locations in Frederick, Howard, and Prince George’s counties and Baltimore City. The show debuted on MPT in 2013.
More than 16 million viewers have seen Maryland Farm & Harvest since it began through on-air viewing and via MPT’s streaming platforms. The series has visited more than 500 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its 11-plus season run, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C.
The weekly series invites viewers on a trip across Maryland to hear stories and see landscapes, people, technology, and animals that create and sustain the agriculture upon which Marylanders depend. Agriculture is the state’s number one commercial industry.
The farms featured on the 150th episode include Willowdale Farm in Reisterstown (Baltimore County), where the introduction was filmed, along with Libertas Estates (Frederick and Howard counties), OlaLekan Farm (Prince George’s County), and Baltimore City in a Farm to Skillet tour with Chef Spike Gjerde (Baltimore City).
Libertas Estates is a winery in Mt. Airy, Maryland, and was besieged by spotted lanternflies, an invasive species that also invaded the area around Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia, Maryland. Viewers meet the farm manager at Libertas Estates who took a quack at limiting the presence of the lanternflies with the help of an army of Indian runner ducks.
OlaLekan Farm’s 26-year-old Tolu Igun is on a mission to make fresh and culturally rich foods accessible to her neighbors while fostering a farming community of her own. Growing ginger, okra, peppers, and other staples, she is a first-generation farmer and Nigerian immigrant who mentors budding farmers who wish to follow in her footsteps. She established the farm at the Urban Farm Incubator at Watkins Regional Park in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
Viewers are also treated to a shopping excursion through the eyes of James Beard award-winning Chef Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen. He meanders through the 32nd Street Farmers Market in Waverly, finding rabbit and bacon from Liberty Delight Farms (Reisterstown), peaches from Black Rock Orchard (Lineboro), and purslane and shallots from One Straw Farm (White Hall). Gjerde turns those fresh ingredients into a delicious, braised rabbit stew back in the comfort of Woodberry’s kitchen, and the recipe will be available for downloading at this link.
Host Joanne Clendining 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. She will be joined by Al Spoler, host of “The Local Buy” segments, and by local chefs as guest hosts of the series’ “Farm to Skillet” segments.
MPT airs encore broadcasts of Maryland Farm & Harvest 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. Past episodes can be viewed on the free PBS app and MPT’s online video player, while episode segments are available on the series’ YouTube channel.
