JOANNE: It's a big wide agricultural world from the shore to the mountains and all points in between.

Did you know that cover crops are the root of all things good, that Maryland hills are home to a tea farm, and a hot sauce is rooted in its swagger?

Don't go anywhere, stories about the people who work our land and feed our state are coming up next on "Maryland Farm and Harvest."

NARRATOR: 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.

A grant from the Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Fund.

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 Check Off program, progress powered by farmers.

Wegmans Food Markets, healthier, better lives through food.

The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts.

The Maryland Nursery, Landscape and Greenhouse Association.

The Maryland Farm Bureau Incorporated.

The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.

And by... (theme music playing).

(birds chirping) JOANNE: Since its founding in 1634, Maryland has played a vital role in the nation's farming history.

Hi, I'm Joanne Clendining, those agricultural roots run deep here at Basil Harding Farmstead, it's part of a larger agricultural preservation district in Frederick County called Peace and Plenty.

The present-day owners of the district's farmsteads have banded together in an effort to keep the farming history alive for generations to come.

Coming up, a small farm in Howard County sees their future in tea leaves, but first, a once bustling farmstead of tobacco and livestock is now a center of environmental education where Maryland farmers can develop the skills they need to become one with the land.

♪ ♪ The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the entire United States and is home to over 3600 different species of plants and animals.

Its contribution to Maryland's economy and beauty cannot be overstated and The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Clagett Farm does what it can to ensure farmland and The Bay, thrive harmoniously.

DAVID: We're standing on 283 acres of some of the last agricultural property in central Prince George's County Maryland.

And we were founded on the idea that healthy soils will really help clean The Chesapeake Bay.

Using sound agricultural practices we can help feed our communities, we can provide food to food-insecure areas and really we can connect with the human health aspects of clean water, clean air, and clean soil that hopefully we can preserve for future generations.

JOANNE: David Tana and his team know it's going to take more than one farm to save The Bay, but through training, education, and connecting farmers to grants to switch over to regenerative agriculture techniques, they believe they can make a difference.

DAVID: It's really about moving a needle for us, we don't expect change to happen overnight, we acknowledge and appreciate all the work that farmers across the state of Maryland are doing, and we want to be able to help them on their journey into these practices and we also want to be able to help consumers understand what their choices are and how those choices also impact water quality, their health and the health of the planet in general.

JOANNE: To improve soil health, Clagett Farm dedicates almost 175 acres to permanent pasture for their grass-fed livestock.

(cow mooing).

DAVID: That's land that's on hilly terrain, it would not be good to grow crops in, even disturbing that soil a little bit we're gonna see sediment runoff, we're gonna lost nutrients from that topsoil, that's not good for water quality, but that's not also good for a farmer because they're literally watching the dollars that they've spent building their soil health or putting fertilizers on it, go down the drain.

JOANNE: Livestock coordinator Alex Outten rotates the Red Devon herd every two days, with each paddock getting at least 30 days of rest time before the cows return.

ALEX: So we're kind of just getting back to how they were grazing when they were bison out in the West.

So they're always getting fresh grass, the grass and the soil gets a nice rest to regrow and rebuild before they come back to it and then they drop their manure and their pee on it and regrow and add more nutrients to it.

It keeps our nutrients on the ground in the grass and it keeps it out of The Bay.

So you can see the before and after of what they've grazed and what they haven't grazed yet and how much diversity's in here.

So we've got lots of clover and fescue and depending on time of year they need different things, and they'll know it, so we just give them a little bit of everything and they figure it all out themselves.

♪ ♪ JOANNE: Clagett Farm also runs a 250-member produce CSA and donates 30% of their harvest to local food banks.

Today is planting day but for vegetable grower Jared Planz, the work began well before the crops hit the field.

JARED: It starts all the way in January where the team of us are starting to seed our onions and our shallots, our leeks, things like that and then we start moving in and we're hand seeding a lot of these into trays and we're taking care of these, you know, I'm checking on the greenhouse two to three times a day, every single day, you know I can't take a single day off on that or there's a chance that your plants'll die.

Taking care of them one step at a time, ensuring that they have the best possible start, so that way when they head out into the field, they're really nice good healthy stock.

FARMER: Yeah.

FARMER 2: Yeah, looks good.

JOANNE: But veggies are only as healthy as the soil they're planted in.

When fields aren't being used, they're planted with cover crops.

This winter variety is made up of rye, clover, and hairy vetch.

JARED: There's a couple purposes of this winter cover crop for me.

One is to hold my soil in place over the winter, I want to make sure that you know, big rain storms, things like that don't wash any of my soil away from me.

But also, a crop like this, hairy vetch, does a really wonderful job of fixing nitrogen.

And what that means is there's these little nodules right on the base of the roots and these nodules get filled with this nitrogen-fixing bacteria and that bacteria when released into the soil, helps produce a huge you know, flurry of nitrogen that's available to the plants.

And what's really wonderful about this form of nitrogen is, it's available in a way that it doesn't wash away on big rainstorms, things like that.

So it's right here for my plants when we're ready for it.

JOANNE: It's good for the soil, and even better for The Bay.

But for Jared and the rest of the team, it goes even deeper than that.

JARED: When I think about why the soil is so important to me, one of the things that I always think about is, you know, my four-year-old son and I think that just providing enough food for us right now is not good enough.

What I've learned from every great farmer that I've met, is that we can all do a little bit better.

We're all trying to strive to be a little bit better each year, and the question is, what is stopping us from being able to provide healthier soil for the future generations?

JOANNE: The guidance that Clagett Farms provides proves that you can do well by doing good.

♪ ♪ All right, it's time to put your agricultural thinking cap on.

Here is our thingamajig for the week.

Do you think you know what it is?

No, it's not an antique lacrosse stick, here's a hint, this makes reaching the fruits of your labor a bit easier.

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

Speaking of fruits of labor, there's nothing more satisfying than getting those crops out of the field when they're finally ready.

Here are some of our favorite harvest-time photos from farms around the state.

Enjoy.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The British and their spot of tea, notwithstanding, when you think of tea, Asia obviously comes to mind, and for good reason, they produce the lion's share of the world's tea.

But a farm in Howard County hopes to put Maryland on that tea leaf map.

What happens when a computer scientist and an electrical engineer with no agricultural experience decide to become farmers?

Well, apparently something that has never been done before.

LORI: Heron's Meadow Farm is Maryland's first tea farm, we bought the farm, it will be ten years ago this December, and came up with the crazy hairball idea to try and grow tea here in a state that has never tried to grow it before.

JOANNE: Yes, tea, that cozy passport in a mug, that's been connecting us to different cultures and customs for centuries.

And while Maryland might not come to mind as a tea capital of the world, here in Woodbine, something unique is brewing.

BOB: And it was almost a fluke, we were down at a café down in North Carolina, having lunch, we're both drinking iced tea and I just had this thought that occurred to me, like "Hey, we both like tea, I wonder if we can grow that?"

And that's really the spark that started it.

LORI: It's almost kind of like this dream come true, for a dream that didn't really knew I had until it culminated.

I like the fact that we're kind of paving the way.

I like the fact that I produce something new in the world, so this field is my happy place.

JOANNE: Happiness isn't the only crop being cultivated in Bob and Lori's field.

It's filled with camellia sinensis, the evergreen shrub from which tea comes from.

And today is harvest day.

LORI: Fundamentally I'm just looking for the gorgeous new growth.

A leaf that looks supple and young, those make the best cup of tea.

One of the first questions that people ask us when they come to the farm is, "What kinds of tea do you grow?"

And we have to explain well, we grow all kinds because they all come from that same plant.

True tea is tea that is brewed from the leaves of camellia sinensis.

JOANNE: Popular varieties like rooibos and herbal teas are actually called tisanes or an infusion of leaves, flowers, and fruits, whereas white, green, oolong, and black come from camellia sinensis and are considered the true teas.

LORI: What makes them different is the amount of oxidation and processing that you provide to each batch of leaves.

JOANNE: The first step from harvest to steep is the withering process.

This will reduce the moisture content and start breaking down the cell membranes.

Green tea won't wither as long and instead moves to a step called "kill green."

BOB: Now this step is what keeps a green tea, green.

It's gonna stop the oxidation of the leaves.

For a black tea, you want that oxidization to continue and they'll get darker and darker and darker, so.

Most people understand, like if you slice an apple or an avocado and just leave it out, it starts to brown, that's the oxidization.

That's the fundamental difference between a green tea and a black tea.

JOANNE: Bob and Lori use the sous vide method.

They vacuum seal the harvest and then heat it to about 150 degrees, stopping the oxidation.

Next hand rolling breaks down the cell walls, extracting oils to enhance the flavor of the tea.

BOB: All right, so we've done some rolling so far, once I'm done with that they go into the oven and get dried for a few hours.

When it comes out of the oven what we'll have is a finished tea that looks just like that.

JOANNE: It'll then be packaged up and sold in Lori and Bob's storefront.

Along with the locally grown tea, Lori is offering up pots and mugs that she has designed and crafted herself.

LORI: Pottery came first in my life and I discovered that making teapots was my favorite project when I was throwing something.

So when we talked about growing tea and starting the tea farm, it all kind was very synergistic and clicked.

To me, drinking tea can be very ritualistic.

There's tradition and ritual steeped into it and a lot of that, you look at the vessels that different cultures and ancients used to, you know, partake in a tea ceremony, and to me that's what I love.

JOANNE: The next challenge that Bob and Lori hope to overcome is the propagation of their plants.

The bushes they are growing have been sourced out of state, tracing their origins to Sochi, Russia.

LORI: We are now at a point where we can harvest seeds from our plants, the problem we are having, Maryland winters are too cold for them to go out into the field that first year, so we need to winter them over, we tried wintering them over indoors last year, that experiment failed.

JOANNE: Undeterred, Bob and Lori plan to build cold weather frames to protect their seedlings through the winter.

If successful, the benefits for Maryland agriculture go beyond Heron's Meadow Farm.

LORI: If we can come up with something that is more tolerant to our cold and more adapted, maybe it produces more, maybe it's more commercially viable for other farmers too to put in the ground.

And for me personally, it's just more of that, this is a challenge to me and I like to see things come to fruition and you know your hard work pay off.

JOANNE: For now, we'll just have to wait and see if camellia sinensis can become the next big Maryland crop.

Until then, there's always a cozy cup of tea.

(slurping tea).

Lori and Bob are rooted in their commitment to propagate tea in Maryland's inhospitable weather conditions and we sure hope they succeed.

And did you know, that 3.7 billion cups of tea are consumed every day?

Americans drink almost 50 billion glasses of iced tea each year.

Accounting for more than 80% of all tea consumed in the U.S. Coming up, Al Spoler gets hot under the collar.

JOE: Yep.

JOANNE: But first, on this week's then and now, harvesting corn and hay when it's still green in the field may seem counterintuitive, unless you're preparing a feed mix that's been a farm staple for centuries.

♪ ♪ Silos, we've all seen them, tall cylindrical structures dotting the landscape of rural Maryland.

They're often used by farmers for grain storage, but many silos are actually packed with an unusual take on sauerkraut.

Okay, okay, so it's not sauerkraut exactly.

Silos are used by livestock farmers to produce and store something called silage, or haylage, a form of preserved cattle feed made up of high-moisture grass crops like hay, corn, or oats.

Silage is produced by shredding the plant and packing it into an airtight space, such as a silo to ferment.

The resulting fodder even tastes and smells sour and because it's preserved, it can provide the cattle with the fiber they need throughout the year.

The very first batch of silage in America was made right here in Maryland in 1876.

A simple pit filled with corn and covered with soil.

Silos themselves didn't make their way to the Maryland landscape until the 1930s, when a brutal drought hindered farmers' ability to grow enough raw hay and grass to feed livestock.

Silos were adopted as a means of storing and cooking fodder for lean times.

Farmers today still make use of silage, especially during winter, but the silage-making process has evolved over time.

One new innovation is the silage veil.

A large, sausage-like plastic roll used to store silage in place of a silo.

As farm sizes have grown, these wrapped veils have made feeding large numbers of cattle more efficient.

On this week's "The Local Buy," Al picks a peck of peppers that are packing the heat.

Al?

♪ ♪ AL: When I'm driving around the Baltimore Beltway, farming is not the first thing that comes to my mind.

But I know of a fella here Gwynns Falls, Maryland that grows some of the world's hottest peppers and turns them into a sauce with a lot of swagger.

Today I'm going to help him harvest a batch and turn it into a really great sauce that's probably going to knock my socks off, if I can find the place.

Apparently, I'm getting close, but.

Hold on, here we go, here we are, here we are.

Hey Joe?

JOE: Al.

AL: Hi, hi, how are you?

JOE: What's up, buddy?

AL: Joe Panella is the owner and saucier of Ellicott City Sauce.

JOE: I make sauce that's tasty and hot, some people just go straight for heat, but uh.

AL: Uh, not me.

JOE: I add the flavor, swag, Swagger Sauce.

AL: There you go.

JOE: Yep.

AL: Joe's swagger sauces begin as hand-sewn seedlings in early spring.

The various pepper plants are organized into color-coded cups for planting.

This plot might look tiny, but it packs a mighty punch.

How much pepper power per square foot do you think you have here?

JOE: Enough to light your socks on fire.

AL: Okay.

JOE: 100%.

We have ghost peppers in the first row.

Carolina Reapers, Scotch Bonnets, Red Savinas, Naga Vipers, 1,000 pepper plants this year.

AL: Well I'll tell you what, there's more danger here then there is in a minefield because you just rattled off all the ones, I know that have at one time or another claimed the "hottest pepper."

JOE: That is 100% true.

AL: Joe, if somebody were to voluntarily offer to eat a hot pepper, how would you tell them to prepare for the experience?

JOE: My suggestion to people is to catch their breath.

The breath is everything.

If you can breathe.

(inhaling and exhaling).

So if you practice that before you get into the peppers, you're life's gonna be a little, it's gonna be better.

AL: How long does the assault on the palate last?

JOE: Carolina Reapers are gonna leave you hurtin' for about, well I mean the burn's gonna be there for 15-20 minutes, at least.

AL: Uh-huh.

JOE: And then you have the whole passage through the gut.

AL: Oh, no.

JOE: And then the next morning.

AL: It gets you on the inside too?

JOE: It goes all the way through.

Peppers don't say, "Sorry."

AL: Well Joe, we talked about making a sauce together and I made it perfectly clear that my palate is as sensitive as a baby's bottom, so.

(laughing).

Can we build up something that I can tolerate?

JOE: I believe so.

All right, let's do this.

AL: Alrighty.

JOE: Pot.

Some sugar, salt, and vinegar.

Got a fresh tomato.

One tomato.

AL: Mm-hm.

JOE: Two tomatoes.

What's your flavor of choice, do you like Old Bay?

Do you like uh.

AL: I like Old Bay.

JOE: Do you like "Chesapeake Seasoning?"

AL: Old Bay is fine.

JOE: Okay.

So we might add a little bit more later.

AL: Okay, in honor of Al.

JOE: It's a Maryland thing.

Start with jalapenos.

AL: And where are these on the heat scale?

JOE: These are on the very bottom of the heat scale.

AL: Okay.

Not quite the bottom, but the scale is subjective.

The Scoville's Scale measures a pepper's heat, which is generated by the amount of the chemical compound capsaicin.

A bell pepper's Scoville Heat Unit or SHU is zero, while the jalapenos Joe's adding are around 2500 SHU.

For this sauce, Joe's also adding Red Savina's at 500,000 SHU.

Ghost peppers at one million SHU and the recently dethroned Carolina Reaper at over two million SHU.

The new Pepper X now reigns at 2,693,000 SHU.

Boy, I'm glad he's not growing those.

Not terribly thick.

JOE: Nope.

AL: Vicky, if I don't make it home tonight, I do love you.

JOE: Cheers.

AL: Cheers buddy.

(screaming sound effect).

JOE: Yep.

AL: Pineapple.

JOE: Yep.

Yep.

That's the Carolina Reaper.

AL: That helps.

JOE: You're alive.

AL: You're supposed to be my friend?

JOE: We'll suffer together, brother.

AL: Okay.

JOE: We will suffer together, brother.

We will make it through.

I wouldn't lead you into any battle we couldn't get through.

AL: To tell you the truth, I thought it'd be a lot worse than it is.

Um, I can see how some people would like it, it is just within the realm of tolerance.

Well listen, we're gonna put all sorts of information about your Swagger Sauce on our website at mpt.org/farm you can check it out.

I don't think you're gonna want to try this at home, you may want to 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?

Did you guess it?

Our hint was that this makes reaching the fruits of your labor a bit easier.

This is an apple picker.

The basket on this pole allows you to reach the fruit high on a limb and catch it once its picked.

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.

(music plays through credits).

NARRATOR: Major funding for "Maryland Farm and Harvest" was 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.

A grant from the Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Fund.

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 Check Off program, progress powered by farmers.

Wegmans Food Markets, healthier, better lives through food.

The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts.

The Maryland Nursery, Landscape and Greenhouse Association.

The Maryland Farm Bureau Incorporated.

The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.

And by...