♪ ♪ HOST: When it comes to agriculture, Maryland is in a perfect state of happiness.

Did you know a Baltimore market marks a major milestone, that fine wine begins on the vine, and fermenting led to a sweet story of success?

Don't go anywhere.

Stories about the people who grow our food, plus, The Local Buy are coming up next on Maryland Farm and Harvest .

ANNOUNCER: Major funding for Maryland Farm and Harvest is made possible in part by...

The Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board: Investing in smarter farming to support safe and affordable food, feed, and fuel, and a healthy Bay... Additional funding provided by... Maryland's Best: Good for You, Good for Maryland...

Rural Maryland Council, a collective voice for rural Maryland... MARBIDCO: Helping to sustain food and fiber enterprise for future generations... A grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Program... Farm Credit: Lending Support to Agriculture and Rural America...

The Maryland Soybean Board and Soybean Checkoff Program: Progress Powered by Farmers... Wegmans Food Market: Healthier, better lives through food...

The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts... CHILD: The Maryland Agriculture Educational Foundation promoting the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.

ANNOUNCER: And by...

The Maryland Nursery Landscape and Greenhouse Association...

The Maryland Seafood Marketing Fund...

The Maryland Farm Bureau Incorporated...

The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment... And by... Closed Captioning has been made possible by Maryland Relay, empowering those who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech disabled to stay connected by phone.

♪ ♪ HOST: The amazing thing about Maryland agriculture is that it includes farmers in every stage of their career, from the newbies just starting out to the older established farmsteads that have stayed the course.

Hi, I'm Joanne Clendining.

Welcome to the 10th anniversary season of Maryland Farm and Harvest .

Speaking of those farms that have stayed the course, we're here at Burrier's Linganore Farm, where the Burrier's have worked the land here for generations.

We first visited Dave and Belinda Burrier back in season one.

I stood in this very spot nearly a decade ago.

And while their farm has gone through a few changes over the years, the Burrier's are still committed to preserving this beautiful land and the farming lifestyle.

Coming up, a viticulturist makes growing the perfect grape his mission.

But first, a Baltimore farmers' market in an unlikely location has something to celebrate, and one of its farmers has been a part of the benchmark from day one.

♪ ♪ JOANNE: It's another early morning in Baltimore, and the Baltimore Farmers' Market is springing to life.

From April through December, rain or shine.

SAMUEL HANSON: Everyone in the city knows about this market.

JOANNE: Sam Hanson manages the Baltimore Market.

SAMUEL: Folks just meet up here and start their Sundays...

PERFORMER: (Singing).

SAMUEL: ...and then check out what's new that week.

♪ ♪ Beyond just being a place where folks can get fruits and vegetables, and food, we have other offerings as well, from hot food to art made by like, local craftspeople people.

But it's also like, a gathering area.

(singing fades out) (applause) It's just like, a good place to really run into folks, you see around town.

JOANNE: This year is special since it marks 45 years since the market started, and when local farmers began hauling their crops to this open lot under the Jones Falls Expressway.

But this market is still a youngin compared to Baltimore's renowned public markets, which are the oldest continuously operating public market system in the United States.

The first market opened in 1765.

And at one time, eleven public markets were the city's main source of fresh food for the community.

Six of the original eleven public markets remain, with Lexington Market, built in 1782, considered one of the oldest public markets in the United States.

Today, you can find dozens of farmers' markets in Baltimore and its surrounding suburbs, with the Baltimore market being the largest producer-only market in the city.

It's a big change from its early days.

PAM PAHL: Thank you.

Have a good day.

JOANNE: And Pam Pahl, from Pahl's Farm in Woodstock, Maryland has been here from the beginning.

PAM: We've been here forever, 45 years.

JOANNE: When the Baltimore Farmers' Market got its start in 1977, the Pahl Family Farm was already five generations old.

Leslie Pahl Sr. ran the farm with help from his son, Les Pahl Jr., who happened to be dating Pam.

PAM: When we started, I wasn't married.

I was in college.

JOANNE: By 1978, Pam and Les Jr. were married, and the Pahl Family Farm and the Baltimore Market had been growing ever since.

PAM: It's a different way of life, but my kids are all hardworking and are really good talking to people, and it's from growing up doing it.

JENNIFER PAHL: Growing up here, there's a lot of memories.

JOANNE: Jennifer Pahl was born in 1990 and is the second of four Pahl kids, who have literally grown up at the market.

JENNIFER: We always joke around that this is our church because we're here every Sunday.

PAM: Yeah, all my kids would hang out here in a playpen, you know, on the back of the truck.

Once they could start walking and doing things, we give them baskets of potatoes or onions to fill, and they liked the work.

JENNIFER: Yeah, and I get a lot of customers that come back and say, "I remember when you were this tall and you were here in diapers or filling potato containers or onions."

JOANNE: And just like the market customers who've seen the Pahl kids grow up, the Pahls have watched as the market has grown and changed over its 45 years.

PAM: What we sell has changed.

When the market opened, there was not all the different food people.

There was the beef barons and then the French bread guy.

Maybe one other...

I don't even know, if there was coffee here then.

And we used to sell large quantities of, say, corn and greens.

I mean, we used to bring over a thousand dozen corn here to sell on a Sunday morning, and I mean, we'd sell out.

And those days are done.

People don't put it up and can it.

People don't cook like they used to.

It's amazing the different changes.

JOANNE: Luckily, for the Pahl family, six generations of farming has instilled an unwavering work ethic.

PAM: She's the loader and unloader, and I'm the pusher.

♪ ♪ You know, we rely on this income.

We live off the farm.

We don't have other jobs.

So, it's a tough life sometimes, but it's very rewarding most of the time (laughs).

JENNIFER: Growing up, mom always said, "We had to have a real job, so I had to figure out something that could make me money, especially year round, just because the vegetable and plants are just part-time.

Growing up, I've always loved animals.

Dogs, cats.

That was always kind of like my job to take care of them, so I just figured I could start raising them, try to make some money off of it.

These are some of the younger pigs.

I slowly started with the pork and evolved to the fainting goats, and the chickens, and the ducks for the eggs.

Is that okay?

For the most part, it's been a success.

We have a lot of repeat customers.

It's definitely been fun starting with the vegetables and then the flowers.

We've always had the preserves.

And just kind of moving into the meat aspect of things.

JOANNE: Jennifer's been here since she was in diapers.

So, will she make it to 45 years at the market like her mom?

JENNIFER: I'm sure (laughs).

I mean, I've been here 32, so I don't have that many more years to go (laughs).

♪ ♪ JOANNE: All right, it's time to test your farm implement know-how.

Here is our thingamajig for the week.

Do you think you know what it is?

Well, it was featured in season one.

Here's a hint, it's a tool that when held in your hand, becomes an extension of your thumbnail.

Stay tuned and we'll have the answer at the end of the show.

What's the old saying?

We will sell no wine before it's time.

Well, Maryland has over 80 wineries, and each serve up a variety of wines made from locally grown grapes.

And one man has made it his mission to keep his finger on the pulse of Maryland vines.

♪ ♪ JOANNE: It's a warm late summer afternoon at Antietam Creek Vineyard.

Owner, George Warmenhoven, is looking forward to harvesting this year's grape crop, and he's asked Joe Fiola, Maryland's leading grape expert, to stop by and take a look.

JOE FIOLA: We always say, you can add sugar and you add acid, but you can't add flavor, so... GEORGE WARMENHOVEN: Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

JOANNE: Joe's no stranger to Antietam Creek.

He was out here when George first bought the 60 acre tract of land adjacent to the famous battlefield.

GEORGE: Joe came out and he was very candid, and very balanced, and you know, he let us know the good things about it, some things that were not ideal.

You know, we have 55 acres here and we toured the entire property, and he suggested you know, one or two spots where he said, "It made the most sense to do your plantings," and that's what we did.

We followed that.

JOANNE: Joe Fiola is a viticulture and small fruit specialist who's been instrumental in helping create some of Maryland's finest vineyards.

JOE: I've been blessed to be able to do what I do.

I get to grow grapes, I get to make wine, I get to work with commercial fruit growers and commercial wineries.

I get to make a difference, I hope, in a farmer's land is helping them to make a better living and have a business that's going to succeed.

JOANNE: Joe's headquartered at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville, Maryland.

The 490 acre University of Maryland research farm is dedicated to testing which grains, fruits, and vegetables will do best in Maryland's climate.

Here, you'll find rows upon rows of experimental crops of corn, wheat, and soybean, alongside orchards, and vineyards.

For a scientist like Joe, it's a veritable playground.

JOE: We're in the middle of the orchard, the research orchard.

We have multiple crops.

We have the trellised apples there, the hops that you see right here.

We have peaches at the top of the hill, a couple of my vineyards, including the big one at the top of the hill there.

JOANNE: Grapes are Joe's passion, and if there's a new variety or cultivar, as it's known, available for research, Joe will want to put it in the field.

♪ ♪ And while Joe likes to say that the wine starts on the vine, the art of winemaking takes place in his small but fruitfully efficient lab.

JOE: Welcome to my processing room.

This is the connection between the research I do in the field, where I grow varieties at seven different locations around the state, then it comes in here and this is where I process it, where we turn the grapes into wine.

To make a great wine, you have to start with great grapes.

To me, it is more an art than a science in that I do not manipulate anything.

Do minimal intrusion to get the grapes how they're expressed in the field into the bottle.

If you grow Cabernet Franc on the Eastern Shore, here is the wine it will make.

Here is your palate that you can start with.

And each location, as you know, Western Maryland versus Southern Shore versus Eastern Shore, have different characteristics of the grapes, therefore, I want to express those and show that what the variety does, its expression in that particular location.

JOANNE: Aside from a varieties of grapes that grow best in this region, Maryland growers are up against a host of challenges including disease and climate.

JOE: Maryland has a humid continental climate and our rain is unpredictable, and our temperatures are usually higher than you would typically like for grapes.

So, what I typically do is look around the world to Italy and the Old World, France, et cetera, in areas that have similar climate, and we import those varieties and they're the ones that we're testing throughout the state, and see if they'll perform the same way here as they do in their native land.

So, it's up to me to find out what the critical information is, sort through it, and make it understandable at a commercial grower level.

JOANNE: Joe Fiola made a career out of helping vintners be successful.

Big Cork, one of Maryland's largest vineyards, has Joe on speed dial.

They grow an unusually large number of grape varieties, many of them experimental, something owner, Dave Collins takes pride in.

DAVE COLLINS: Joe, we grow a little bit of Vermentino here.

I was wondering how this variety stands on your list of recommended varieties.

JOE: Since, I've been working with it for over 10 years now, it's moved up to the recommended list, I think based on the data as to why and here, and what you've been doing, and other locations.

JOANNE: Joe loves to keep tabs on these up-and-coming cultivars at Big Cork.

JOE: It's a pleasure working with Dave Collins.

He's got an amazing site here.

He's a premier viticulturist and he makes the wine too.

So, most importantly for me, he's open to trying new varieties.

JOANNE: And Dave Collins will tell you Joe Fiola has meant a lot of success of his business.

DAVE: His depth of knowledge in small fruits, horticulture across the board, soils, insects it's so deep that I can count on him to give me a good, honest answer that can help our business.

JOANNE: Back at Antietam Creek Vineyards with the harvest in, it's time to taste the fruit of George's labor.

(sound of cork popping open) It's an invite Joe looks forward to.

GEORGE: Try these, Joe.

JOE: Thank you.

GEORGE: This is our premier white wine.

We always do very well with the Chardonnays, probably because of the limestone in the clay.

JOE: And this is your latest vintage?

GEORGE: Well, what's your reaction?

What do you think?

JOE: Ripe fruit.

Nice balance.

Good acidity.

I think this one has a little more crisp acidity than your last finishes.

GEORGE: Than the others?

JOE: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE: Joe, all very good insight.

I appreciate all you've done and continue to do.

JOE: Thank you, and I'm very happy for your success here and continued, and hopefully you'll keep planting more and making more great wines.

JOANNE: As the vines and wines of Maryland continue to mature and improve, we have to credit the work of one man who has made a difference.

GEORGE: I think without Joe's input, we wouldn't have a viable vineyard and we probably wouldn't have, you know, the quality wine that we do.

I think, we're very lucky to have Joe as a resource here in Maryland.

JOANNE: Joe has been awarded 12 patents for small fruit variety development and has extensive experience fermenting berry and fruit wines.

And did you know Maryland's very first vineyard was in 1662, when Governor Charles Calvert planted 200 acres of European grapes along the east bank of the St. Mary's River.

Fermented foods have been around for over 10,000 years, with proven health benefits.

And one Kent County farmer turns her produce into healthy options from an old family recipe.

On this week's The Local Buy, Al Spoler gives us his gut reaction.

Al?

♪ ♪ AL SPOLER: Just a stone skip away from the Chester River, you could find Oksana's Produce, a small but picturesque farm where Oksana Bocharova is picking the perfect produce for pickling.

OKSANA BOCHAROVA: I always was making sauerkrauts for family.

Learned it from my mom.

One day, one of my friend, who was running a natural food store, he said, "Why don't you start making it to sell?"

He was the first who started selling it at his store.

I did the only Russian kraut then, and then I started developing different recipes.

AL: All those recipes require a variety of crops.

And on her farm, Oksana is making every acre count.

Oksana, everywhere I look, I see something different growing.

How many crops do you have here?

OKSANA: Well, I get this question often, but I actually never counted (laughs).

It is a lot of crops.

AL: I'll count for you.

Four dozen different things, maybe.

It's amazing.

OKSANA: It is a very dense planting, and I like to be diverse, so everyone at the farmers' market has something to buy from me.

AL: Oksana's roots in agriculture go back to when she was a child in her homeland of Russia.

OKSANA: I feel sometimes that the farming, working with the land is in my blood because my ancestors were actually peasant farmers for many, many generations.

They had individual plots.

But in late 1920s, early 1930s, Soviet government wanted them to combine into the bigger plots, so then the land was taken from my ancestors and became a collective farm.

AL: It was in those fields where her agricultural aspirations started.

After earning a master's degree in agronomy, she came to the U.S., where she worked on a few different farms.

But the ultimate goal was always to have fields to call her own.

OKSANA: I'm capable of running my own business.

I have knowledge, I have experience, but I have no money.

I started looking into opportunities where to get resources.

AL: Oksana was able to procure a loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and bought this plot of land in Kent County, fulfilling her dream of farming and fermenting her crops into products like kimchi, curtido, and one of my favorites, sauerkraut.

But of course, it all starts in the field, and I'm here to lend a hand.

OKSANA: We need to walk through and find bigger leaves like this and then just snap them.

AL: Okay.

On the sides?

OKSANA: On the sides.

For example... AL: Okay, right in there.

OKSANA: ...like that.

AL: Okay.

I can do that.

Now, what do you use the dill for?

OKSANA: We do ferment pickles.

We're using our own dill to ferment them.

AL: It's a good bunch.

OKSANA: It's a good bunch.

Yeah, but I charge four bucks for it, so it better be good.

AL: Cheap at twice the price.

OKSANA: (laughs) Okay.

AL: That's nice.

After harvesting some leeks... OKSANA: So, they are happy, right?

AL: ...and playing a game of catch with cabbage...

Okay, here you go.

This is how they invented rugby.

OKSANA: That's cool.

Played basketball a lot... AL: There you go.

OKSANA: ...so I can catch.

AL: We load up and head to the kitchen for a lesson in fermentation.

OKSANA: Right now, we're preparing our vegetables that we cut out on the farm to make kimchi.

AL: Oh, great.

Here you go, boss.

Of course, the first step to make kimchi, or anything, for that matter, is to chop the veggies.

And I still have all my fingers after all your chopping.

OKSANA: (laughs) I was careful.

AL: Oh, I thank you.

Next, Oksana moves over to a soaking station.

There, she mixes up salt and water to create a brine.

How long will this soak for?

OKSANA: Well, we'll be soaking it for about two hours.

AL: Mm-Hmm, that's enough?

OKSANA: That's enough, yes, to soften everything and to open the cells for salt to come in and fermentation.

And then, we're going to add onions, ginger, garlic, and red pepper to it.

AL: Lovely.

OKSANA: Mix it all well up and then put it in buckets to ferment.

AL: How long does fermenting take?

OKSANA: For my kimchi, it takes about two weeks.

AL: That long.

Wow.

OKSANA: Yes.

AL: I bet it'll taste really good.

OKSANA: It will taste really good.

AL: Very good.

With the kimchi fermenting, Oksana has sauerkraut ready to go.

Boy, look at all that.

How long has this been fermenting?

OKSANA: It's been fermenting for a week.

AL: Really?

It smells so good.

Wow.

You got any of this at home that I could try?

OKSANA: Yes, I do.

I think you're going to like it.

AL: Well, Oksana, I can't believe how many things, we whipped up in the kitchen.

You've got quite a variety here.

OKSANA: Yes, we do make a few different varieties of fermented food besides sauerkraut, and most of the vegetables, we grow out on the garden is used to make them.

AL: What is the one that I'm eating here?

OKSANA: Right now, you're tasting traditional Russian kraut.

AL: How does it differ from like German kraut, for instance?

OKSANA: In my opinion, the difference is the spices that are used.

In Russian kraut, dill is used.

Dill seed and dill weed.

German sauerkraut uses caraway seed.

AL: Caraway seeds, exactly.

This tastes really nice.

What I'd like to do, if you would give us some of your ideas for how to use this, we'll put it on our website, so people can try it at home.

Go to mpt.org/farm and give it a try.

For The Local Buy, I'm Al Spoler.

Joanne?

JOANNE: Thanks, Al.

Be sure to check out mpt.org/farm for all our recipes and resources.

Plus, you can watch all Farm and Harvest episodes there as well.

Also, don't forget to follow us on social media for show updates, pictures, and videos.

Now, hold on, we're not done yet.

Remember our thingamajig?

Do you know what it is?

Our hint was it's a tool that when held in your hand, becomes an extension of your thumbnail.

No, it's not for hitchhiking.

This is a husking peg.

The point of the husker is positioned over the tip of the husk-wrapped ear, and with a quick pull, exposes the ear.

You can imagine that without this, your fingers would be pretty sore by the end of the day.

It's not really used nowadays since the advent of modern machinery does the job faster and easier.

Congratulations, if you got it right.

Join us next week for another thingamajig, along with more stories about the diverse, passionate people who feed our state.

I'm Joanne Clendining.

Thanks for watching.

Closed Captioning has been made possible by Maryland Relay, empowering those with hearing and speech loss to stay connected.

♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Major funding for Maryland Farm and Harvest is made possible in part by...

The Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board: Investing in smarter farming to support safe and affordable food, feed, and fuel, and a healthy Bay.

Additional funding provided by... Maryland's Best: Good for You, Good for Maryland.

Rural Maryland Council, a collective voice for rural Maryland.

MARBIDCO: Helping to sustain food and fiber enterprise for future generations... A grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Program... Farm Credit: Lending Support to Agriculture and Rural America...

The Maryland Soybean Board and Soybean Checkoff Program: Progress Powered by Farmers... Wegmans Food Market: Healthier, better lives through food...

The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts... CHILD: The Maryland Agriculture Educational Foundation promoting the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.

ANNOUNCER: And by...

The Maryland Nursery Landscape and Greenhouse Association...

The Maryland Seafood Marketing Fund...

The Maryland Farm Bureau Incorporated...

The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment... And by... ♪ ♪