Award-winning original series highlights the best of Maryland agriculture from the Appalachian Mountains to the coastal plain and everywhere between First two episodes visit farm locations in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Garrett, Frederick, and St. Mary’s counties
Maryland Public Television’s popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest returns for its 14th season on Tuesday, November 10, with the first of 13 new half-hour episodes. A preview of the new season is available on MPT’s YouTube channel HERE.
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, returns as host. She is again 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 Pond View Farm in White Hall (Harford County), the November 10 season premiere episode features the following stories:
- McGinnis Family Grain (Baltimore County): The McGinnis family, 2025 inductees into the Governor’s Agriculture Hall of Fame, have maintained their century-old agricultural legacy across a 1,600-acre grain farm. Patriarch Wayne McGinnis has transitioned the White Hall farm’s operations to his son Jay and daughter-in-law Nicole, seamlessly blending large-scale grain production with a unique charitable beef program. This segment explores the McGinnis’ multi-generational succession, showing viewers how the family’s land stewardship continues to serve both the environment and the local community.
- Dixon Family Farm (St. Mary’s County): Former Marine Jeff Miller and former NSA intelligence officer Claudinne Miller traded high-stakes careers to take over a historic 55-acre family property in Mechanicsville. With no prior agricultural experience, the couple is actively transforming this former tobacco land into a thriving lavender and cut flower operation using sustainable, regenerative farming practices. Host Joanne Clendining visits Dixon Family Farm to learn about the Millers’ unexpected journey as farmers, then joins them in the fields to help harvest the lavender crop.
- The Local Buy: Milburn Orchards (Cecil County): After facing significant cherry crop losses due to unseasonably harsh spring weather and late-season frosts, Milburn Orchards in Elkton leans on its diverse business model to sustain operations. Segment host Al Spoler visits the farm to discover how the Milburn family uses strategic crop diversification and thriving agritourism to mitigate these unpredictable climate risks. During his visit, Al experiences Milburn’s popular agritourism offerings firsthand by picking blueberries and enjoying fresh apple cider donuts.
The November 17 episode – with introductions filmed at Inverness Brewing in Monkton (Baltimore County) – features these stories:
- Lambing Season at Hollywood Farm (Anne Arundel County): Just outside of Annapolis, Hollywood Farm is a 125-acre operation specializing in niche lamb production. Viewers visit Hollywood during the intensive spring lambing season, when nearly 100 baby Katahdin lambs are birthed at all hours of the day. There, fourth-generation farmer Gwen Manseau shows how her family maintains the farm’s balance sheet by capitalizing on direct-to-consumer demand for local lamb while also diversifying income streams by selling firewood, hosting events, and renting farmland to local community garden groups, all while using regenerative practices to heal the land and the Chesapeake Bay tributaries that surround it.
- Garrett Growers Cooperative (Garrett County): In the high plateau of the Allegheny Mountains, Garrett County farmers face a harsh climate that compresses their growing season into just a few months. To overcome these challenges, a group of small farmers formed the Garrett Growers Cooperative. Viewers discover how the farmer-owned and operated collective pools resources to scale supply and meet the demands of local restaurants, grocery stores, and wholesalers. Audiences also learn about the cooperative’s “Veggies on the Move” mobile market initiative, which strengthens the region’s food system by partnering with local health councils to deliver fresh produce to rural food deserts in towns such as Kitzmiller and Friendsville.
- Farm to Skillet: Chef Sara Kephart (Frederick County): Chef Sara Kephart of Sarah Kep’s Kitchen demonstrates how to craft an elevated potato gnocchi and Bolognese dish using ingredients sourced entirely within a 20-minute radius of her kitchen in Thurmont. Her journey begins at Moo Cow Creamery in Frederick, where she gathers dairy and meat and gets hands-on cow-milking experience with owner Pam Moser. After a stop at 78 Acres Farm in Smithsburg to harvest fresh vegetables, Sara heads back to the kitchen to prepare the gourmet meal. The recipe will be available for download at mpt.org/farm.
More than 20 million viewers have watched Maryland Farm & Harvest on the statewide public TV network since its 2013 debut. The series has traveled to more than 500 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations during its first 13 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 are available on the PBS app and MPT’s online video player, and 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 and MARBIDCO.
Additional funding is provided by Maryland’s Best; The Nature Conservancy; Maryland Soybean Board and Soybean Checkoff Program; Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts; Farm Credit; Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association; Maryland Farm Bureau, Inc.; Maryland Agriculture Education Foundation; a grant from the Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Fund; a grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program; The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment; and Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.
