JOANNE CLENDINING: From the mountains to the shore, Maryland's agriculture is on full display.

Did you know, zoo animals have a dietician?

That alpacas have fiber, not fur?

And peaches and rockfish are a perfect combo?

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: Maryland agriculture is such a varied industry, not only in the crops grown and the animals raised but also in the ancillary industry it supports.

Hi, I'm Joanne Clendining, welcome to "Maryland Farm and Harvest."

We're at Churchill Farms in Baltimore County's Long Green Valley.

Churchill Farms is one of a handful of horse farms created by the Schuster Foundation to give children from underserved communities in Baltimore City, a chance to experience the sport of horseback riding firsthand.

Coming up, a farm in St. Mary's County that raises alpacas that pack a personality.

But first, I mentioned how agriculture supports a variety of ancillary industries, like this horse farm for instance.

But did you ever imagine a zoo would fall in that category?

Well, neither did I, until I found myself making a salad for an elephant.

♪ ♪ A lot goes into feeding animals, whether it's cows, pigs, or even goats, an animal's nutrition is really important, especially when you're 18 feet tall and learning how to swim, or just horsing around.

We're here at the Maryland Zoo where their team knows better than most that every animal has got to eat, that's why they created a small-scale farm called "The Sustainability Garden" to help feed the 130-plus types of animals.

And while there's nothing better than touring the zoo, I decided to get a firsthand look at just how this farm is feeding these furry friends.

Can you tell me a little bit about the garden?

I've heard some amazing things about it.

EMMA O'DONNELL: Absolutely, well welcome to our garden, this is run by our Conservation Department and Commissary Department and all of the food that we grow here actually goes straight to the animals within the zoo.

JOANNE: Wow, that's pretty amazing.

What's even more impressive is the fact that the onsite farm has been built from the ground up through a team of staff and volunteers.

GARDENER: Grow, grow, grow!

JOANNE: Tomatoes, peppers, and leafy greens are all on the menu for the herbivores and omnivores.

And while it's not enough to cover the 1600 pounds of food that goes out every day, it does provide enrichment to encourage physical and mental activity to keep the animals healthy.

These tomatoes look great.

EMMA: Thank you so much.

JOANNE: So, where does the food go once it leaves the garden?

EMMA: That's a great question, uh, we take it straight to our Commissary Department, and from our Commissary Department it goes right out to all the animals you see.

JOANNE: Oh, I would love to check that out.

EMMA: Let's do it!

JOANNE: The Zoo's commissary is a restaurant-grade kitchen, where meals are prepped for animals of all sizes and diets.

Which means, you sometimes find things you hope wouldn't be in your kitchen at home.

Oh my gosh!

I don't think this came out of the garden.

Whether it's frozen mice, pellets or produce from the garden, each animal has a very specific plan.

Fortunately, I have Shelbie Owens to help show me the ropes.

SHELBIE OWENS: Three, all three of them.

JOANNE: Oh my gosh, hello!

Alright, oh, almost done.

SHELBIE: Oh you're doing great.

JOANNE: Here we go, are these the right size?

SHELBIE: Yeah, they're perfect, the elephants are gonna love it.

JOANNE: Awesome.

Once the food is prepped, it's time to start packing up the delivery truck.

SHELBIE: Sometimes you just have to Jenga your way in.

JOANNE: Yeah, how do you... (laughter).

No, this is good, I didn't exercise this morning, so.

(laughter).

So how many animals will we be feeding today?

SHELBIE: So today we're going to be feeding approximately 1200 animals in total at the zoo.

JOANNE: Wow, that's a lot!

SHELBIE: Yeah.

JOANNE: There's so much that goes into each animal's diet, like the three of this, the two of this, and like how does that, who determines that, how do they determine that?

SHELBIE: So our vet staff are gonna be the ones that do that.

Um, they essentially go with weight, body score conditions, and a number of other factors, they create a diet and then we kind of follow it.

We have several different diet sheets that kind of make sure that our sheets are accurate.

So they get the correct diet that they need, every day!

So take this.

There you go.

JOANNE: After a handful of deliveries, I think it's time to see what happens in an animal barn.

Armed with a walkie-talkie, I get up close and personal with one of my favorite animals.

Commissary to Elephant, permission to come in?

(door buzzer).

(walkie-talkie beeps).

Hi.

SARAH BALZER: Hi, come on in.

JOANNE: Thanks.

This is Felix, a 40-year-old African Savannah elephant, and she's as friendly as she is hungry.

I like you.

(laughter).

I don't want to be the reason she has gas all day.

Garden produce isn't just a hand-fed snack, it's also used as enrichment by spreading the food across the yard, it maintains Felix's foraging behavior.

SARAH: It allows them to explore their yards, keep them entertained and content.

We'll put food around, we'll hide it in different places and that'll allow her to roam across the yard, we want her to get as much exercise as possible and also just helps keep some variety in her day.

JOANNE: That sounds like fun, hide and go seek!

SARAH: Yeah.

JOANNE: So we hear that elephants are smart animals, I mean how smart is she really?

SARAH: She is very smart.

She knows about 80 commands.

JOANNE: 80 commands?

SARAH: Yes.

And they learn them very easily.

On a trunk, foot.

Good girl.

That way we can be able to see her mouth, her feet, make sure that everything is healthy.

JOANNE: It's benefits like these that have the zoo team looking forward to expanding their Sustainability Garden and it seems like the animals are just as excited.

(flamingo honking).

♪ ♪ Wow, it has been a great day at the zoo.

Okay, okay.

But I mean could you ever really have a bad day at the zoo?

No.

While the Zoo garden is just getting started, I'm looking forward to seeing how it grows and hoping they'll let me feed another elephant.

And did you know, giraffes eat well over 100 pounds of food per day?

While elephants are pretty much eating machines, consuming upwards of 600 pounds of food per day.

By contrast, humans eat around three pounds a day.

♪ ♪ Alright, it's time to test your agricultural know-how here is our thingamajig for the week, do you think you know what it is?

No, it's not a shovel.

If it were it wouldn't do a very good job.

Here's a hint.

It was probably used more in winter than in summer.

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

What's a farm without farm animals?

Especially those animals we call pets.

Whether they're the cuddly lap variety, the worker bees, or the big hairy-dairy kind, we asked to see who you all call pets.

Here are some of those cuties.

Enjoy.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Our next story features animals that you don't see every day unless you're in South America or at the zoo.

But alpaca farms are gaining in popularity, prized for their unique coat and I got a chance to see them up close and personal.

♪ ♪ (razor buzzing).

There's something in the air today at Briar Branch Alpaca Farm in Clements, it's soft, it's fluffy, and you'd better not call it wool.

DANA RUSSELL: Sheep have wool, alpacas have fiber.

JOANNE: Today is shearing day meaning all 50 of the farm's resident alpacas are taking turns getting their annual haircuts.

It's one of the busiest days of the year for farmer Dana Russell who started raising alpacas 10 years ago on a six-acre section of her family's farm.

DANA: They've given me this little corner, so I do very well with it.

JOANNE: Shearing day means all hands on deck, from family members to professional shearers and today, a novice.

So how is this different from sheep wool?

SHEARER: People who have wool allergies will often still be able to wear alpaca.

JOANNE: Say goodbye to itchy sweaters, plus the fiber is warm, water-resistant, durable, and naturally silky.

No wonder the ancient Incas placed a higher value on these fleeces than on silver or gold.

DANA: The llamas were what the village people used, but the alpaca, that's what the royalty had.

JOANNE: Over 70 alpaca farms have popped up in Maryland since the '80s when these unusual farm animals first made their way into the U.S. from Chile and Peru.

But back in the early days of America's alpaca industry, the focus wasn't on the fleece itself.

DANA: Mostly they were used for breeding stock.

JOANNE: Breeding alpacas, to make more alpacas to sell for a lot of money.

But then, the stock market crashed and the alpaca bubble, like the housing bubble, burst.

DANA: Can't hardly sell an alpaca anymore and a lot of people went out of business.

JOANNE: Luckily for Dana, her interest lie less in procreation and more in creation.

It's all about the fiber.

DANA: Two different kinds, Huacaya and Suri.

JOANNE: And how do they tell, how do you tell the difference between them, like what kind... DANA: This is the long stringy hair, see how straight the hair is?

And look how light and fluffy, see how fluffy this is, just like cotton.

JOANNE: Yep.

A few days before these cuddly camelid lost their winter coats, I stopped by to check them out.

These little guys are baby alpacas or cria.

And they can be a bit stubborn.

Where are you going?

DANA: What I like about the alpacas the most is that they all have different personalities, there's no two alpacas that are alike.

JOANNE: Take Carmalita, who watches us like a hawk while we worked with the babies.

But I think I won her over in the end.

Here Carmalita, I'll feed ya girl.

DANA: And normally she's so humble and so sweet, so it was surprising to see her take control over the babysitter.

JOANNE: That's funny.

Then there's outgoing Cinnamon.

DANA: Hi Cinnamon, Cinnamon want some too?

Ah, Cinnamon, you eat like a pig.

You're mean.

Alright, just take it out of the bucket.

JOANNE: Hey.

DANA: Pig.

JOANNE: Dana's work with this super soft fiber doesn't end with shearing day.

DANA: I clean as much dirt and as much um hay and things like that out of the fiber and then take it to my fiber mill and then I have it processed however I want it to be processed.

JOANNE: Finally, it's ready to be transformed into hats, scarves, and stylish sweaters.

Some of these products are made off farm, but some Dana makes herself on her felting machine and computerized weaving loom.

I tried my hand at something a little lower-tech.

So bring it up here.

DANA: Mm-hm.

JOANNE: Okay.

DANA: And then that helps to create your pattern you just go up and down and then you get your pattern.

JOANNE: What will this be?

DANA: This is going to be a scarf.

You can also make table runners or placemats.

JOANNE: Finally, I stop by Dana's on-farm boutique to check out some camelid couture.

Forget farm to table.

♪ ♪ This is farm to fashion.

The sweaters and scarves are guaranteed to keep your body warm.

And meeting some of the lovable animals who help produce them, well, hopefully, it warms your heart a little too.

(kissing sound).

(kissing sound).

Aww.

Dana's alpacas are raised on quality grains and lush pasture.

What they eat directly affects the quality of the fiber.

And while most alpacas are raised for their fiber, the real money is in breeding.

The most expensive alpaca ever sold was a female that went for three-quarters of a million dollars at auction.

Coming up, Chef Kurt Peter pairs corn, peaches, and rockfish in this week's "Farm to Skillet" but first, the Dunloggin Cattle Herd was once the most prized dairy herd, not only in Maryland but around the world.

The superb genetics behind this famous herd, both "Then and Now."

♪ ♪ This may seem like a typical suburban neighborhood, but these houses in Howard County sit atop the breeding ground for one of America's most well-known dairy herds.

The only trace that remains today is the neighborhood's name, "Dunloggin."

But before the houses or cattle, there were trees.

Around 500 acres of sturdy white oak that caught the attention of lumberman Joseph Natwick.

He bought the land in 1926 and was "done logging" two years later.

Instead of leaving the land unused, Natwick decided to milk it for all it was worth by starting a Holstein Dairy Herd.

Keeping the land's past in mind, he named the herd, Dunloggin, Over the next 15 years, Dunloggin became one of the top-rated dairy herds in the world and herd manager Paul Misner was the key to its success.

Misner was an expert breeder and skilled marketer.

He traveled across the country showing the cattle at state fairs.

Crowds were impressed by the cow's high milk production, body shape, and longevity.

By the early 1940s, Dunloggin had reached its peak popularity but World War II was drawing materials and workers away from the farm, so in 1943 Natwick decided to sell off the herd.

2,000 people came to Ellicott City to watch the sale of 230 Dunloggin bulls, cows, heifers, and calves.

The herd brought in over $380,000 the largest amount ever made on a dairy herd at the time.

While the original herd only existed for 15 years, its genetic legacy continues today.

Dunloggin descendants are still prized members of dairy herds from Wisconsin to Vermont to Maryland.

Impressing farmers with the pedigree and production.

Late summer in Maryland means sweet corn, peaches, and the Chesapeake's own rockfish are in demand.

On this week's "Farm to Skillet" Chef Kurt Peter finds all these ingredients and more at the St. Michaels Farmer's Market to create a summer seafood ensemble.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ KURT PETER: Hey folks, I'm Kurt Peter, chef and owner of Chesapeake Chef Service.

Today we're gonna be making one of my favorite summer dishes, pan-seared rockfish with sauteed local vegetables, but first, we're gonna be getting everything we need here at St. Michaels Farmer's Market.

Let's go!

BRETT: Hey.

KURT: Good morning, Brett.

BRETT: Good morning, Kurt, how ya doin,' good to see you.

KURT: Good, good.

That produce looks awesome.

BRETT: How can I help you today?

KURT: The dish we're gonna be featuring is gonna need some Eastern Shore local sweet corn.

BRETT: How many of them do you need?

KURT: I'll probably take about six today.

BRETT: 10 dozen?

KURT: Just six today.

BRETT: Alright, we can hook you up.

Six and we'll give you one to grow on.

KURT: One for good luck?

BRETT: One for good luck.

KURT: Awesome, thanks buddy, you have a great day.

BRETT: Thank you, sir.

KURT: See ya.

Good morning.

VENDOR: How are ya today?

KURT: Great, looking for some.

VENDOR: Great, how can I help ya?

KURT: Local mushrooms, these look great.

VENDOR: Wonderful, thank you, what will you have?

KURT: I think I'll probably go with the yellow oysters today.

VENDOR: Okay, how much would you like?

KURT: Probably about a half pound.

VENDOR: Okay, it's a little over half is that okay?

KURT: That's perfect.

Tell me a little bit about how you guys grow them.

VENDOR: We grow in a controlled grow environment, they're temperature controlled, in a compost material of peat moss and sawdust.

KURT: Cool, looking forward to trying them.

VENDOR: Yeah, great.

You'll have to come visit us someday.

KURT: Will do, thank you.

VENDOR: Thank you, enjoy.

Good morning, ladies, how are you?

♪ ♪ KURT: Wow, if you could only smell that.

♪ ♪ Hey Olivia, what's going on?

OLIVIA: I'm good, how are you?

KURT: Good.

Yeah, peaches look awesome.

OLIVIA: Good, good.

Are you making something with them?

KURT: Yes, we're doing a little rockfish dish today with some grilled peaches.

OLIVIA: Okay, okay.

So for grilling peaches you're gonna want them a little bit more firm just that on the grill they soften up more.

KURT: Awesome, well thank you.

OLIVIA: Thank you.

KURT: You have a good day.

OLIVIA: Thank you, you too.

KURT: Hey Sarah, good morning.

SARAH: Good morning, what's on the menu tonight?

KURT: Uh we'll be doing a little rockfish dish, kind of looking for a whole fish today.

SARAH: Alright.

Well, I do have some rockfish and bluefish left today.

You can take a look at them.

KURT: Awesome.

Wow, so a couple things we always look for when we're buying whole fish is clarity in the eyes, and the color of the gills, so.

And these are fresh, when'd you catch these?

SARAH: We, everything we bring to the market we catch day of.

Earlier today we did have some filets, so you're lucky you got here when you did, all we have is the whole fish left today.

KURT: That's perfect, that's what I'm looking for.

SARAH: Alright, we'll get you all bagged up here.

Nothing fresher than rockfish from the Bay that's caught today.

KURT: That's awesome.

It's beautiful, thank you guys so much.

SARAH: Thank you, you enjoy.

♪ ♪ Absolutely love coming to the farmer's market, look how fresh all these ingredients are.

We got fresh rockfish harvested this morning, basil, peaches, corn.

Alright, guys, I got everything I need, let's go cook!

♪ ♪ Hello everybody, welcome to my kitchen.

Wow, look at all this awesome beautiful produce.

So we're going to start getting are garlic and onions chopped.

So when you're dealing with fresh garlic, we always try to cut off the uh, the end of the garlic, it's a little bitter.

Finely dice our onion.

Olivia steered us right, these peaches are perfect for grilling, so we'll kind of split them in half.

We're gonna cut these into sections of eight.

Next, we're going to move on to our tomatoes, so we have these uh, yellowish-orange ones, are sunburst.

They are very high in sugar and low in acid.

Next, we're gonna prep our corn, we're gonna use a mandolin, you can either use a knife to cut, to cut the kernels off, we use a mandolin to kind of keep your kernels the same consistency in shape and size.

These are yellow oyster mushrooms, very delicate.

We're just going to lightly cut these off.

And lastly our basil, man that smells so aromatic.

And once again, always good to use a sharp knife when cutting basil because it's a very delicate herb.

♪ ♪ Alright, we are now moving on to our rockfish, this is our Chesapeake Bay rockfish caught right outside Hooper's Island.

Today when we're cleaning our fish, we're gonna be taking the skin off, so it's gonna be a skin off filet.

So rockfish have pin bones, so we're cutting up around the ribcage and typically I like to, to get the filet to the end of the board and I'll start down by the tail and just slowly work my knife down between the flesh and the skin.

Now that we're ready to cook, we're gonna first start off by grilling some peaches.

So you want to make sure your grill is hot and well oiled.

These peaches will probably take about two minutes per side, and the point of this is to just get a little bit of smokey flavor in, in the peaches for the dish.

A little bit of fresh garlic, some diced onions.

We're gonna sauté this 'til they're about translucent.

Now we're going to add our corn, so we're just trying to get a little bit of caramelization on the corn, a little color.

Next, we'll add our tomatoes and our mushrooms.

Next, we'll deglaze with a little white wine.

Oh, that smells awesome.

We're gonna turn this off and let this kind of finish in the back.

Now once your cast iron's hot we're gonna hit it with a little oil, start to sear our fish.

And when you're searing any kind of protein, you always want to start with your presentation side down first.

We'll continue for about two to three minutes on each side.

Take a quick peek.

About two more minutes on the flip and then we'll let them rest and we'll start plating.

Alright, here's our corn, onions, garlic, mushrooms, local tomatoes, I'm gonna try to keep this in the center of the plate.

We're gonna grab our peaches and we'll top with our fish.

Just a little drizzle of olive oil.

Look at this, everything's so fresh, everything was harvested this morning.

Oh wow, the smokey flavor, sweet peach.

This is such an easy recipe to make, you guys need to go to mpt.org/farm get your recipe, and start making this at home.

See you guys next time.

JOANNE: That looks amazing.

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, it probably was used more in winter than summer.

This is a coal ash sifter, a sifter like this was used to separate ash from larger coals, returning them to the furnace to keep the fires going.

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... (bird chirping).

♪ ♪