JOANNE CLENDINING: From every corner of the state, Maryland agriculture is a producer's paradise.

Did you know Maryland's climate keeps farmers on edge?

That cows can be a stress reliever?

And chickens a continental cuisine?

Don't go anywhere stories about the people who work the 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.

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.

The Maryland Nursery Landscape and Greenhouse Association, The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts.

The Maryland Farm Bureau Incorporated.

The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

The Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, promoting the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.

And by Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.

(theme music playing).

(bird chirping).

JOANNE: Every season Maryland farmers face a variety of challenges.

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

One major challenge is climate change, unpredictable weather patterns including more frequent and intense storms, droughts, and temperature fluctuations can affect crop yields and livestock health, forcing farmers to adapt their practices and invest in new technologies.

Here at Church View Farm in Millersville, they were your traditional Maryland farm, corn, soybeans, and tobacco, but since the early '60s, the Jacob family streamlined their focus to just hay and livestock.

And it's working out just fine.

Coming up when the pressures of life are too much to bear, bovine therapy just might be what the doctor ordered.

But first, a successful crop relies on three simple but necessary elements, sunlight, nutrient-rich soil, and water.

Too much or not enough of either can spell trouble.

(tractor engine).

No matter how many years you've been farming, there's something undeniably exciting about a harvest.

DONALD MARING: And this is kinda like the, the payoff for what you've worked all year for, it, uh, makes it all worthwhile, when you see the fruits of your labor here in the end.

JOANNE: But harvest time also means long hours, and the hope that this year's crop has been a good one.

DONALD: If it was easy, everybody would do it.

JOANNE: Few know just how difficult it can be and none more so than Woodbine's Donald Maring, who grows over 1300 acres of corn, soybean, wheat, and hay.

DONALD: It's very busy.

It can get pretty hectic, especially the way it's been the last three weeks, we haven't had a day off for rain, I mean, sometimes you, you almost welcome a day off just to, to, to slow down just a little bit because when you have nice weather like this, you just feel like you're just not getting enough done to take advantage of it.

Go on.

JOANNE: Donald knows just how important it is to take advantage of the weather when you can.

Especially so this season where the climate has been unpredictable.

DONALD: We've gone from, from way too wet to too dry real fast a couple different times now.

I mean, earlier in the year and now just three weeks ago we were so wet and had two weeks of, of wet and dreary weather and now we haven't had any precipitation for three weeks now and we're getting extremely dry again.

JOANNE: That oscillation between inundating rain and drought during key reproductive cycles of crops has led to lower yields.

DONALD: The, the biggest effect has been on the soybeans, the two weeks of rainy, cloudy weather we had in the first part of October really hurt the quality of the soybeans.

A lot of 'em are moldy, some are even rotten.

Um, the quality is very poor.

JOANNE: Donald also lost 170 acres of soybeans due to slug damage, which needed to be replanted costing time and money.

But he isn't the only one who has been experiencing these issues.

According to the University of Maryland, the state's climate is changing towards wetter and warmer conditions with a higher frequency of extreme weather events like storms or droughts.

And while these changes make it more difficult to grow, Donald takes his commitment to feed his community seriously.

DONALD: We lose more farmland every day across the country and of course, the population is ever increasing.

So I mean, the farmers have to continue to be more efficient and more productive.

JOANNE: In other words, farmers like Donald Maring don't dwell, they overcome.

While his planting in April wasn't what he was hoping for, Donald plants a later double-crop bean after harvesting wheat in June.

And unlike the early season bean, they're thriving.

DONALD: For a double crop beans, they're, they're high, well they're almost to my waist here and uh, they're podded nice.

There's three and four beans on every node, five here on this one.

So, uh, and a lot of four bean pods, so I mean, you can see that they're going to yield well without even getting in the combine.

Yeah, these beans are all hard as a rock.

They're, uh, definitely ready to harvest.

JOANNE: The heart of farming is rising to the challenge even when the variables are out of your control.

And Donald doesn't let weather or anything else keep him up at night.

DONALD: When you get to my age, it's pretty easy to fall asleep after you've been out working hard all day.

(laughs).

You just do the best you can possibly do.

You get done planting and you just pray for the rain and the good weather and then have a, a good harvest at that.

And, uh, it's just what you do every day.

JOANNE: And next season is never far from his mind and as these soybeans are being harvested, Donald has a farm hand running behind him planting cover crops.

DONALD: This is wheat that we harvested this summer.

Uh, we kept some of it back to plant for a cover crop and after we harvest soybeans, uh, we took sample of it and sent it off to University of Maryland Seed Lab and was tested to make sure it meets their germination standards and has no noxious weed seeds in it.

We plant the cover crops to help prevent erosion and runoff and uh, the biggest thing is to protect the Bay and water quality.

JOANNE: It's a testament to Donald Maring's commitment to the land, soil, and water.

Back in the combine, the numbers are looking good on the double-crop beans.

DONALD: Yield has been exceptionally well.

These were running just about 70 in the field, we finished just a little earlier.

Typically double-crop beans if you get 40, you feel pretty good.

JOANNE: With two harvests side by side, Donald is seeing much different results than he did earlier in the year.

DONALD: The beans on my right hand here on your left were just about ready to harvest when we had the two weeks of wet damp weather at the beginning of this month, and a lot of 'em got moldy, some are rotten, uh, they shriveled up.

These beans were harvested today, they were double crop beans planted after wheat and they weren't affected by the weather 'cause they weren't near maturity yet at that point, so it's quite a difference in the two of 'em in quality.

JOANNE: That means a much better price at the market.

But before then, Donald still has plenty of fields to go, but he doesn't mind.

DONALD: Some people look at you and say, "How can you stand to just go back and forth across the field all day long?"

But I love what we do every day, uh, when, when you enjoy what you do every day, it makes it pretty easy.

I can do this all day long.

JOANNE: Donald Maring was recently named Mid-Atlantic Master Farmer of the Year for demonstrating exemplary land stewardship and community leadership.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is among most prestigious award a farmer can receive and has been dubbed the Oscars of farming.

And did you know the Mid-Atlantic Master Farmers started in 1927, is America's longest running agricultural honors program that fosters stewardship and leadership?

The award is co-sponsored by cooperative extensive programs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and West Virginia.

♪ ♪ 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?

Here's a hint.

You'll find that beauty is skin deep with this tool.

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

We mentioned the three elements that make a successful crop and in turn a successful harvest, and when it all comes together, it's a joy only a farmer can know.

Here are picks of that combine time we strive for, enjoy.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Sometimes life can be a hard road to hoe one thing after another, but no matter what's stressing you out, our next segment will show you how cows can ease your mind, body, and soul.

(tractor engine).

Maryland winters can be mighty chilly.

Even so, there are some chores that need doing no matter what the temperature.

Some might be a little harder than usual.

So on days like these, it's a good idea to find a friend to cuddle up to.

AIDEN DART: This is my lunch hour.

JOANNE: Aiden Dart is like many suburbanites, nice home with a fire pit, a big dog, a little donkey, and three mini cows in the backyard.

Meat Maple, Petey, Brody, and Mr. Buttons.

AIDEN: He's definitely the spoiled baby of the bunch.

JOANNE: This crew of cuties is the core of Brandywine Cow Cuddles, and their job is to warm hearts.

AIDEN: Excited to see cows.

CALLIE MILLER: Yes.

AIDEN: Oh, it's a surprise?

ALEX SIPES: Two and a half months ago she showed me this TikTok, how cute the Highland cows were.

And she's like, "I've always wanted to pet a Highland cow, I would love to."

And I was like, "You know, they're like cow-cuddling farms you can go to, right?"

AIDEN: So it's Maple, Petey, and Brody.

The business I have is a snuggle ranch, so we're a cow cuddle farm where people get to come and experience private sessions with us and our pets.

CALLIE: They're like big, like big old dogs.

JOANNE: And they're doing some brisk business.

AIDEN: Brandywine Cow Cuddles.

Hello, Brandywine Cow Cuddles.

JOANNE: Even during the winter where the cows see 20 to 30 groups a week.

Luckily she has a mobile office.

AIDEN: Yeah, I can answer emails from my outdoor office.

JOANNE: Which is a world away from her previous office.

AIDEN: Professional background is I was the COO of a vascular surgery center for the past 10 and a half years.

That job did become very stressful and as I, you know, have reflected the past couple years about what I wanted to do as a career change, the thing that really resonated with me is that I wanted to spend my time doing something I enjoyed.

I already had the cows, they weren't intended to be a, a cow business, they were intended to be pets for my daughter, but it really grew into me appreciating the experience that I had with the cows and then wanting to share that experience with other people.

And then their favorite spot... CALLIE: Under the chin.

AIDEN: Is under the chin.

CALLIE: It was kind of a dream come true for me.

It's like a very tranquil, just experience, kind of just combing the cows and petting them.

So it kind of just allows you to take a moment and kind of stop and, you know, slow down and relax.

AIDEN: When people come in, a lot of times they don't really know what to expect.

We have people that come every week for individual sessions, much like therapy, they'll get their, their cow fixed and they're ready for ready for the world.

TENANNA GEORGE: I will say partially for me, it probably was a little bit of selfish too 'cause I just actually had to put two of my mastiffs down.

So this is kind of an emotional support for me too.

JOANNE: Cow cuddling, also known as bovine assisted therapy, got its start in the Netherlands more than a decade ago.

Today scientific studies have shown that cow's gentle nature sociability and physical presence can help with emotional healing.

But Aiden didn't need science to know that cows had a calming effect on her daughter.

AIDEN: All throughout high school, she would go visit different farms and hang out with cows and that was really her Zen time and having six acres that I wasn't really using, I was like, "Hey, let's get a cow."

And so we got Maple and Petey when they were babies and I bottle-fed them in the winter for six months.

And after bonding with them, I was like, you gotta get your own cows, these are my cow babies now.

JOANNE: For Aiden, that calming effect was life-changing.

AIDEN: They became my refuge from, you know, an overly stressful high responsibility job.

And having a background in business and seeing how much people enjoyed them, selfishly, that positive environment of people being excited and seeing the cows is really kind of what motivated me to bite the bullet and make the, the huge change from COO to cow mom.

JOANNE: In May of 2024, Aiden went full-time as a cow mom to Cuddling Cows and she has not regretted the move.

AIDEN: I think for me it was something that slowly developed into me realizing that you can, you know, kind of do whatever you want to do and have fun doing it.

Petey's ready to check you guys out.

JOANNE: Also, it almost makes up for her daughter being grown and off on her own.

AIDEN: Almost, almost, I know.

Um, no, it, it almost makes up for my daughter being away.

I did give her one more excuse to come back home to visit.

So she comes back often and jokes and says we have, we have shared custody of Miss Maple.

JOANNE: And did you know, cow cuddling not only offers numerous benefits for mental and physical well-being, but can foster a deeper appreciation for farm animals, and a deeper understanding of their lives and environments?

Coming up a chicken dish with European roots.

But first on this week's, "Ask a Farmer How it Works," Josh Ernst explains how crop crimping has nothing to do with his style.

♪ ♪ JOSH ERNST: The question I always get is what's crimping?

Do we do it?

And why?

So this here is crimped rye, we plant our non-GMO soybeans into a mix of rye, and let's see there's some barley here as well.

One of the challenges with planting into, uh, cover crops planting green is what do you do with all of this stuff?

What the crimper does is it's in front of our tractor, so as we're planting these rollers with bars on them are knocking the crop over and the advantage of that is it helps to kill the cover crop.

Then the planter comes along and plants through it.

And this crimped cover here, actually a, uh, acts as like a mulch, just like when you take straw and mul, mulch your garden.

So one of the challenges for us is weed control.

So this crimped, uh, cover mulch helps to suppress any weeds that might come up and compete with the uh, non-GMO soybeans.

Well, that's about all I know about crimping.

JOANNE: On this week's "Farm to Skillet," Chef Matt Lego borrows from a classic continental dish and cooks up a meal that will give you something to crow about.

(pan sizzling).

MATT LEGO: Harvest season's the perfect time of year to cook up a hearty filling, comforting meal.

My name's Chef Matt Lego of Leo Annapolis, and today we're here at the Anne Arundel County Farmer's Market to cook up one of my favorite dishes, Continental Chicken.

Think this market's got everything we need to bring the dish together, so let's go.

BRIAN: Hey, Matt.

MATT: Hey Brian.

BRIAN: How you doing?

MATT: Good, how are you?

BRIAN: Excellent, good to see you.

MATT: Good to see you.

BRIAN: So what's on your menu today?

MATT: I got this idea, I grew up with this dish called Continental Chicken, have you ever heard of it?

BRIAN: I have.

MATT: So I'm trying to recreate this dish.

BRIAN: Okay.

MATT: But I was hoping you could help me out.

BRIAN: I got what you need, hang on.

Got the bacon.

MATT: Look at that bacon.

So this whole bird's great.

I love that you sell whole, whole chicken, not just the pieces.

BRAIN: Yeah, you get a lot more meals out of a whole bird and you know, I raise, I get these, I'm responsible for their existence, I commission their hatching.

I thank them all collectively.

MATT: Yeah, well I feel like, you know, you can really taste the difference.

I mean, you can taste a, a, a product that was grown, raised, made with love, and... BRIAN: It's true.

MATT: This is incredible, I'm really excited to use it.

BRIAN: Wonderful.

Thank you, my friend.

MATT: Fantastic.

BRIAN: Enjoy.

MATT: Brian, thanks very much man, I really appreciate it.

BRIAN: Always good to see you.

MATT: Hey Bob.

BOB: Hey Matt, how you doing buddy?

MATT: How are you?

BOB: Good to see you again.

MATT: Yeah, I see these delicata squash here, these are absolutely beautiful.

BOB: These are good, everybody loves these.

MATT: I love these delicata though because the skin on 'em is nice and soft, you can just eat the whole thing.

Carl.

CARL: Chef, good morning, how the heck are you?

MATT: How's it going man?

CARL: Good man, real good.

MATT: I was looking for something kind of like potato, something starchy.

CARL: Got you covered.

MATT: But if you got any like red skin potatoes, that'd be, that'd be nice, add a little color to the dish.

CARL: We can do that for you.

MATT: Yeah.

CARL: Come on over here.

MATT: Yeah.

CARL: Show you what we got.

MATT: Yeah.

CARL: How many you thinking?

MATT: A nice handful of those guys.

CARL: A nice handful, some hands are nicer than others.

MATT: Well, that's right.

CARL: How many onions do you think you want?

MATT: Probably two, two will get the job done.

CARL: Alright, two nice medium-sized onions.

Alright, here you go Chef, two onions.

MATT: Beautiful.

Thanks a lot, Carl, I really appreciate it.

CARL: Good luck on this, I hope this recipe's gonna be out there 'cause it sounds like a winner.

MATT: I'll let you know how it goes.

CARL: Beautiful, love it.

MATT: Man, I just love coming to these farmer's markets.

I should have brought a second basket with me, but I think I got everything I need to make this Continental Chicken happen.

So I'm excited to get back into the kitchen and whip it up for you guys.

I'll see you in the kitchen.

We are back here at Leo and I am so excited to make for you guys one of my favorite dishes growing up.

It's got a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in this dish for me.

We'll start with our beautiful little red-skinned potatoes.

Toss them with a little bit of canola oil and some salt.

These are beautiful shiitakes.

We're just gonna break 'em up into bite-sized pieces.

These are some beautiful Brussels sprouts, they got a nice, a nice weight to 'em, they feel nice and heavy.

We're just gonna cut these in half, we're gonna toss them in canola.

Alright, let's move on to these beautiful delicata squash, so you want to cut these into rings, is you're gonna take your squash, whatever size diameter the seeds are, find the corresponding ring mold.

The seeds are gonna pop right out, just like that.

These don't toss and bowl very well, so what we're gonna do is just, we're gonna go over with a nice drizzle of canola oil.

♪ ♪ We've got this beautiful bird here from P.A.

Bowen Farmstead, and this thing is magnificent.

So when I break down the chicken, we start on the wings.

♪ ♪ And there you've got beautiful boneless skin-on chicken breast.

And then we are gonna lay our chicken breast in there like that.

Yeah, we're starting to get some nice color on that chicken breast.

We are gonna render our bacon.

That fat is gonna be the base for our roux when we start on the gravy.

♪ ♪ Uh, it looks like our gravy is just about ready.

It's time to plate this thing up.

We're gonna start with a nice good ladle of our bacon and shiitake mushroom gravy.

I'm starting to, to recall all those, uh, all those childhood nights requesting Continental Chicken.

And man, I'm, I'm starting to get real hungry for this.

And here you have it.

Fresh, rich, salty, comforting.

Go to mpt.org/farm to grab this recipe.

Oh yeah, that's the stuff, man, oh man.

Go get this recipe.

JOANNE: That looks so good.

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 you'll find beauty is skin deep with this tool.

This is an apple peeler.

You attach an apple to these prongs, adjust the blade, and as you crank the handle, the blade peels the apple.

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" 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.

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.

The Maryland Nursery Landscape and Greenhouse Association, The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts.

The Maryland Farm Bureau Incorporated.

The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

The Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, promoting the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.

And by Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.

(bird chirping).