MPT series Maryland Farm & Harvest visits location in Ellicott City during March 3 episode

Maryland Public Television’s popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its 13^th season, will feature farms and locations in Howard, Frederick,and Somerset counties and Baltimore City during an episode premiering on Tuesday, March 3. An episode preview is available on the series’ webpage at mpt.org/farm.

Maryland Farm & Harvest airs on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT and online at mpt.org/livestream. Episodes are also available to view live and on demand using the free PBS app and MPT’s online video player.

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.

Joanne Clendining, who has earned three Emmy® awards from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for her work on Maryland Farm & Harvest, serves as series host. She is joined by Al Spoler, host of “The Local Buy” segments, and by a variety of local chefs who serve as guest hosts of the series’ “Farm to Skillet” segments.

With introductions filmed at Boordy Vineyards in Hydes (Baltimore County), the March 3 episode features the following stories:

· Little Portion Farm (Howard County, Baltimore City): Little Portion Farm sits on a three-acre plot at the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City. There, teams of volunteers led by farm manager Matt Jones use sustainable farming methods to restore the land's health and grow fresh food for those in need. All the food harvested from the farm is donated to the Franciscan Center in Baltimore, which feeds several hundred people daily.

· Farming in the Yard (Somerset County): Behind the concrete walls and barbed wire fences at Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, a group of inmates runs a small farm that serves some of Somerset County’s most food-insecure families. Incarcerated individuals are selected to participate in the Facilities Farming Program – a collaboration between ECI and the Somerset County Health Department – based on good behavior, enabling them to spend up to six hours per day working the land. The program provides participants with skills, structure, and dignity, and it provides the health department with about 10 tons of fruits and vegetables to distribute to local food banks each year.

· The Local Buy: Maryland Pawpaw Fest (Frederick County): Segment host Al Spoler visits Long Creek Homestead in Frederick, home of the annual Maryland Pawpaw Fest. There, homestead owner and festival founder Michael Judd gives Al a tour of his food forest, which features hundreds of different types of fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants grown using permaculture principles. Al helps Michael pick and prepare pawpaws for the upcoming festival before joining the approximately 600 attendees who gather to celebrate “America’s forgotten fruit.” Information about the 2026 Maryland Pawpaw Fest will be available at mpt.org/farm.

More than 19million viewers have watched Maryland Farm & Harvest on the statewide public TV network since its debut in 2013. The series has traveled to more than 500 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first 12 seasons, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C.

Encore broadcasts of Maryland Farm & Harvest air on MPT 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 PBS app and MPT’s online video player, while episode segments are available on the series’ YouTube channel at youtube.com/@MarylandFarmHarvest.

Audiences are invited to engage with the series 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 Fund; MARBIDCO; a grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program; Farm Credit; Maryland Soybean Board and Soybean Checkoff Program; Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association; Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts; Maryland Farm Bureau, Inc., The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment; Maryland Agriculture Education Foundation; and Maryland Pork Producers Association.