* HOST: From the greenhouse to the classroom, agriculture is everywhere.

Did you know that one teacher's hobby led to a booming plant business?

That this Maryland school lets students get down in the dirt?

And that farming can teach valuable life lessons too?

Don't go anywhere, stories about the people who grow our food and more are coming up next on Maryland Farm & 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... Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit: Lending Support to Agriculture and Rural America... Brought to you in part by a donation, from the Cornell Douglas Foundation...

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... 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: It might be cold outside, but it's a balmy 50 degrees in the greenhouses here at White House Nursery in Upperco.

Right now, they're working hard to make sure these baby plants are ready to grow on farms and in gardens come springtime.

Hi, I'm Joanne Clendining, and this is Maryland Farm & Harvest .

Today, we're talking about agriculture education.

Whether, in the classroom or on the farm, people of all ages and backgrounds can benefit from learning about how things grow.

But don't worry, there won't be a pop quiz at the end.

Coming up, we visited a school where kids learn about agriculture firsthand.

But before that, being in a nursery, surrounded by beautiful plants and the smell of flowers is a very relaxing experience.

But as you'll see in our first story, it can also be very dangerous, if you're a bug.

* Watching insects buzz through a sea of colorful plants isn't a rare sighting.

But what these bugs don't know is that their sweet nectary treat just might come at a cost.

Former teacher, Michael Szesze owns and operates Carnivorous Plant Nursery in Frederick County, Maryland.

He specializes in growing plants that rely on a unique source for their nutrients... Bugs.

MICHAEL SZESZE: The notion of plants that eat bugs is so contrary to what we usually think of as mother nature, that it's just really an intriguing subject in itself to do that.

And the variety that nature has taken to find adaptations to survive and to continue to grow and to multiply, I just find that an exciting thing.

And education is such a good way to be able to spread that.

JOANNE: As an award-winning high school science teacher for 35 years, Michael discovered that carnivorous, or, or bug-eating plants, were an incredible teaching tool.

MICHAEL: When you start a botany unit in high school, you're going to get kids who just roll their eyes and go, "Oh, plants...they are so boring."

And I'd say, "Well, wait a minute, let me show you something."

So, I'd bring out some carnivorous plants and I'd say, "Well, look at these and look at what we can do."

They would start asking questions about them.

JOANNE: He shared this experience with other teachers, which led to an idea.

MICHAEL: So, I started doing talks at the national teacher conferences, a variety of them, take some carnivorous plants, talk about engaging students and share with them some of the lab activities that we were doing in the classroom.

And after the talk, there was often a very common question: "Where can I get some of those plants, Michael?"

And dawned on me what the answer should be, "Well, you can get them from me."

And so, we started the nursery about 20 years ago.

Couple of sales the first week, but it has just skyrocketed.

It's been a wonderful experience.

Now, we've got five employees.

Things are doing very well for us.

JOANNE: So, with dozens of varieties from all over the world, just how do they grow all these exotic specimens?

MICHAEL: If you want to succeed with the plants, you have to understand their habitat, where these guys come from.

And it's a rather unique habitat.

They need to be wet all the time, you want a nutrient poor soil, and you want to give them as much light as possible.

So that's what we do here in our growing beds.

JOANNE: The plants still get their energy from the sun, but since they can't get many nutrients from the soil, they have to catch them.

JAKE HARMON: They're pretty much self-sufficient.

They pretty much take care of themselves as far as catching bugs and eating.

But we do need to supply water and obviously light, but I mean, really nature or just does the rest for the most part.

These plants have evolved.

It's crazy what they do.

And I'm really amazed by them for sure.

JOANNE: They all use different hunting techniques.

Some have sticky sap, some have tricky traps, others just go snap.

And the appetite of some plants is truly amazing.

Apparently, customers can't get enough either.

Despite their small footprint, business at Carnivorous Plant Nursery just keeps growing.

JAKE: We do orders Monday through Thursday.

So, we have orders every day.

So, you're pretty much going see me going out, picking the plants, cleaning them.

And my assistant, you will see him wrapping them up.

And his project, he packages them all up and gets them ready for shipping.

JOANNE: Working on alongside his wife and son, Michael transformed the nursery from a hobby to a major operation.

They now ship thousands of plants worldwide every week.

MICHAEL: The interest is just amazing, and it continues to grow because we've specialized in a very unique little niche of the plant world.

You put a carnivorous plant in front of anyone, a child, an adult, they really start asking questions and begin to understand not just the beauty of nature, but why the environment is so important to us.

These plants are a great stimulus for that kind of conversation.

JOANNE: And if you're a bug, just remember to watch your step.

* All right, it's time to test your agriculture expertise.

Here is our thing-a-ma-jig for the week.

Do you think you know what it is?

Well, here's a hint.

It's not an ice pick for a mountain climber.

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

It's been said that one of the best ways to learn is by doing.

And that is certainly true of farming.

We asked farmers to send us photos of their kids getting a hands-on education.

And this is what we saw.

* JOANNE: Speaking of hands on-education, up next, we're traveling to a school where the classroom looks a lot like this.

* ASHLEY BODKINS: All right.

So whenever you find something, put it inside of your bag.

You can take the whole leaf if it's on a leaf.

JOANNE: These third graders are on a mission to solve a mystery.

ASHLEY: Tests on anything else?

JOANNE: What's been damaging the green bean leaves in the garden?

ASHLEY: So, they cause skeletonizing damage, these pests do.

JOANNE: At Crellin Elementary School in Garrett County, it's hard to predict what each day will bring.

It's something that principal, Dana McCauley, reminds her staff of all the time.

DANA MCCAULEY: We have to be flexible to work here, because you just never know what to expect.

You never know what opportunity's going to come up that we need to jump on.

JOANNE: That's why, when something like plant damage comes up, teachers run with it.

ASHLEY: Kind of look under the leaves.

STUDENTS: Ewww.

JOANNE: The third graders search for the culprit with help of University of Maryland extension agent, Ashley Bodkins.

STUDENTS: Yeah.

So that's called a "Mexican bean beetle."

JOANNE: One of a few partners from outside organizations that help teach farm lessons at Crellin.

DANA: You know, we're not experts in any of this as teachers.

And so, we rely heavily different agencies and organizations to come in and give us their expertise, and work with the kids.

JOANNE: Which means, teachers like Jennifer Rohrbaugh get to learn as well.

JENNIFER ROHRBAUGH: I've really become interested in it.

And you know, I'm at home Googling how to take care of goats, and sheep, and you know...little things, little questions we have.

So, my kids laugh, but it has inspired me to learn more about the animals.

JOANNE: The farm is home to two barns, a greenhouse, a garden, two goats, two sheep, and somewhere between 12, and 18 hens.

DANA: They're free-range.

So, some days you count 12, some days you count more than that.

JOANNE: So, how did a small elementary school in western Maryland end up with a farm?

It all started with a 2011 Intel School of Distinction Award for mathematics, which Crellin won for their innovative math program.

They were one of six schools from across the U.S. to win the award.

And it was the trip to the award ceremony in Washington, DC that really planted the seeds for the program.

DANA: There were schools from all over the nation there.

And one of the schools from Kansas had an agriculture program.

And the principal was up talking about this agriculture program.

And at the time, Karen Gilpin, who was a first grade teacher, was leaning forward as she was talking and she was really getting into it.

And I can remember looking at another teacher and I said, "Look at her.

Mark my words, we'll be building a barn."

JOANNE: And Dana was right.

The next year, they were building that barn with the help of some grant money and a student's parent who happened to be a farmer.

From there, they started integrating the farm into the school's curriculum.

DANA: We have to teach the same standards as everyone else.

You have to teach the next gen standards.

You teach common core standards.

It's how we teach, it is a little bit different.

TEACHER: There you go.

JOANNE: Each grade level has a project they work on for the year.

Kindergarten, first graders research what kind of bedding the hens like.

And second grade is all about the money.

DANA: They're responsible for selling the eggs.

And then as financial literacy, they are also responsible for paying bills that we get, if we have to purchase bales of hay or straw or the feed.

JOANNE: Once, they reach the third grade, students do research projects with soil.

DANA: Shake it a bit.

Sometimes, you have to shake it.

Tap it down.

Yep, there you go.

See it?

JOANNE: And fourth and fifth graders learn about growing in a greenhouse.

STUDENT #1: I think, these ones all over here are Mexican sunflowers and they're supposed to grow 6-7 feet tall.

JOANNE: It's also the students' responsibility to tend to the barn animals each morning.

JENNIFER: We feed the hens.

They gather the eggs, give the hens water, and we close the hens in, so that they have time to lay.

JOANNE: This barn duty might sound like a chore, but the kids don't see it that way.

JENNIFER: The students love to do barn duty.

When I go into a classroom, it's always, "I haven't gone for three weeks."

It's usually a special treat.

JOANNE: And while, there's some time for play, it also involves hard work like cleaning the goat barn and putting down new sawdust bedding for the hens.

And just like learning about pests or what plants grow best in what soil, barn duty teaches students another lesson, one that might be the most rewarding.

How to be the farm's caretakers.

DANA: So, I think it just kind of pulls them back into it, gives them a real purpose for being here and they're part of how we function.

And that's important to kids to feel be, that they're needed.

JOANNE: Ag education programs may teach cutting-edge information, but the idea of ag education is anything but new.

Let's go way back in time to learn about learning, from then to now.

* Before 1862, a university education was reserved mostly for the sons of the privileged class.

In an effort to make higher education available to the working classes, President Lincoln signed into law, the Moral Act of 1862.

Also known as the Land Grant Act, this legislation gave states federal land for establishing public colleges, one per state to teach agriculture, mechanical arts, and military tactics.

University of Maryland College Park was one of them.

The Act improved the lives of many Americans, but not all.

Black residents of Maryland and other Southern states were excluded from the original land grant institutions.

A second Moral Act in 1890 established land grant colleges that would admit African Americans.

Among them, The university of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Two later Acts expanded the land grant system.

The Hatch Act of 1887 created agricultural experiment stations, research centers that conduct laboratory research for the benefit of Maryland farmers and other residents.

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established an official system of cooperative extension services.

This allowed land grant universities to take their research knowledge straight to local communities, giving people access to the latest developments in agriculture and home economics.

Today, the University of Maryland College Park and Eastern Shore continue to fulfill their original land grant mandate, to provide teaching, research, and service not only to their students, but to all the residents of Maryland.

Every farmer's journey is unique, but they share one thing in common.

They had to learn a lot to do their jobs.

Hear how they did it as we "Ask a Farmer."

* ALLISON ROSTAD: How I learned to be a farmer was reading.

I got a lot of questions when I started farming about my processes, and how I do things, or how I treat the birds and things like that.

And in order for me to have those right answers and functionally run the business was to read, research, and just absorb as much knowledge as I possibly could.

JAY MCGINNIS: A lot of the things I learned were from my, my parents and my grandfather from growing up on the farm.

But as I grew older, you learn it from other friends, and other farmers, and going to meetings, and talking to be people.

That's where a lot of the more current information comes from.

The word spreads and you find out about things, and you kind of get an idea, and you try it out, and see if it works and kind of go from there.

But I'd say the basics definitely started with them.

SCOTT BUDDEN: I would say, the biggest thing in terms of learning oyster farming is a lot of trial and error.

I worked a little bit on other farms doing part-time stuff and consulted with some environmental NGOs.

University of Maryland extension agents are very helpful in that way too.

But at the end of the day, you kind of have to roll your sleeves up and get dirty to a degree, and figure out what works, and what doesn't.

SAM PARKER: I give a lot of credit to the FFA organization that I participated in when I was in high school, majored in agriculture in college, and certainly keep my ears to the ground for things coming out of the University of Maryland or Maryland Department of Agriculture.

And ongoing education is important for sure, to be a farmer in today's world.

JOANNE: While, farming is hard work, there are many benefits to spending time outdoors in the open air.

On this week's Local Buy, Al Spoler visits a farm where young men are reaping the benefits of farm work while learning a few life lessons too.

Al?

* AL SPOLER: Here at Our House Farm in Montgomery County, they not only think about farm to table, they think about farm to community.

This is a play where kids from all over the state of Maryland come to learn about the joys of being in nature, where their food really comes from, and above all, the benefits of hard work.

Located on the campus of Our House Incorporated, this 12 acre certified organic farm was founded in 2007.

Today, Marc Grossman and his team provide organic produce for the local community and a change of pace for young men who really need one.

MARC GROSSMAN: So, you see how I always hold a bunch going back upside down like that?

That's really critical.

That's how we're going to be able to do this as we... BEATRICE RICE: Our House is a residential group home and we have this trades, vocational piece of it.

And when they are recommended to us, the whole point is to get them out of their immediate environment and to put them in a place where it's peaceful, it's serene.

They're able to kind of step back from the day-to-day of the world.

So, being able to stay on a farm, you know, is something that most of them have never experienced.

MARC: We're only taking up the first few layers and we only want the ones with size.

BEATRICE: I think what the farming does is teaches them responsibility.

It teaches them hard work.

It helps them with understanding, you know, all of the tactical details about what fresh food looks like, because a lot of them come from areas where you know, they don't know what a brussels sprout looks like.

I think, it plays into the life skills that they need as they transition from here back out into the community.

AL: And when the young men aren't working on the farm, they can be found in the dorms, learning other valuable skills.

ISAIAH JOHNSON: And this place has saved me from trouble.

They drastically just changed my life.

MAN: Like this?

You want it on top like this?

Like this, right?

ISAIAH: Yeah.

I used to be a follower, but I kind of like got on the right track and like to help lead people into the right path.

AL: Whether, indoors or out on the farm, Our House teaches young men what it takes to grow, and not just food.

And despite it being a cold day in November, they're still harvesting produce, including one of my favorites.

I tell you, I go way back with brussels sprouts but never in my life have I seen them actually growing in the field.

They're little cabbages growing on the side of this big stalk.

MARC: That's exactly what they are.

Little cabbages.

AL: They're in the same family?

MARC: Yeah, it's a Brassica.

AL: Wow.

MARC: Yes.

AL: Wow.

Very nice.

Brussels sprouts have become a very popular side dish, from at home cooking to even fancy restaurants.

The demand for them in Maryland continues to grow.

Now, I see that your trainees are not only harvesting the sprouts, but they're harvesting the leaves as well.

MARC: Yeah.

You know, brussels sprout leaves, people don't realize this.

Brussels sprout leaves, these things are delicious.

They're like sweet collard greens.

And then, I'll hand you the leaves and you're going to bunch it for me.

* Go ahead and bunch that up for us.

AL: This may not be the tidiest one, but it's sincere.

* I've been eating steamed brussels sprouts for decades.

But I understand that up in the kitchen, they're going to show me a new way to enjoy them.

Well, Marc, I think it's amazing.

This little old Brussels sprout used to be despised, but today, it's really become very popular.

MARC: Well, of course, it was despised.

People were steaming it.

You can't do that.

It's a fantastic crop.

It just shouldn't be steamed.

AL: No.

Well, here's a good example of another way of cooking with it.

To me, this looks like a stew of some kind.

MARC: That's exactly right.

It's a west African collard green stew, except instead of collard greens, we're using brussels sprout greens.

AL: Oh, like these right here.

MARC: Exactly.

AL: And they cook down.

I'm going to give it a bite here.

Tell me what's in this.

MARC: Well, most of these ingredients are grown on the farm.

We of course have the brussels sprout greens, onions, garlic.

There's some pepper flakes, paprika, sherry, vinegar, maybe little cumin.

AL: Wow, it really tastes great.

What we'd like to do is put the recipe on our website, so people can try it at home.

Go to mpt.org/farm and look it up.

Thank you very much.

MARC: Thank you.

AL: For the Local Buy, I'm Al Spoler.

Joanne?

JOANNE: Thanks, Al.

Visit mpt.org/farm to get all our Local Buy recipes, and you can watch full episodes online 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 thing-a-ma-jig?

Did you guess it?

Our hint was that it's not an ice pick for climbing mountains.

This is a double-sided cultivator.

On one side, there's a blade for digging up dirt.

And on the other side, it has tines for raking.

It's two tools in one.

Congratulations, if you got it right.

Join us next week for another thing-a-ma-jig, along with more stories about the diverse, passionate people who feed our state.

I am 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... Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit: Lending Support to Agriculture and Rural America... Brought to you in part by a donation, from the Cornell Douglas Foundation.

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 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... *