Washington County's Pathfinder Farm Distillery featured in MPT's 'Maryland Farm & Harvest'
Since the Kraft family moved to Maryland several years ago, Maryland Public Television's "Maryland Farm & Harvest" has been one of the shows the family watches together, Nate Kraft said.
On Tuesday night they will be watching the season 11 finale that features the family's Pathfinder Farm Distillery near Keedysville.
"We haven't even seen the episode yet," Kraft said in a phone interview on Thursday.
The distillery will be featured in the "Local Buy" segment that focuses on local agriculture products available for purchase.
Segment host Al Spoler visited the farm, where the Krafts took him through their process "from sunshine into moonshine," Nate Kraft said.
Spoler helped ground corn, make whiskey mash and run the still.
The weekly series "takes viewers on a journey across the Free State, telling engaging and enlightening stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow agriculture in Maryland, the state’s number one commercial industry," according to a Maryland Public Television release.
"They like what we're doing, the family farm thing and the value-added agriculture," Kraft said.
Kraft said they were a little nervous at first about being on the show. But they were excited to meet Spoler and the videography team, and to tell their story about making a living with family farming in Maryland in the 21st century.
The film crew visited Pathfinder Farm twice last year, including during harvest.
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How to watch 'Maryland Farm & Harvest'
"Maryland Farm & Harvest" airs Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT.
For Antietam Broadband customers, that is channel 3 and channel 31-1, according to Antietam's channel listings.
MPT airs an encore broadcast on MPT-HD, a different MPT programming channel, at 11 p.m. on Thursdays and at 6 a.m. on Sundays. Episodes air on MPT2/Create at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays. For Antietam Broadband customers, MPT2 is 31-2 or HD 818.
The episode can viewed via livestream at https://video.mpt.tv/livestream.
Episodes of "Maryland Farm & Harvest" also can be watched via the PBS App and MPT’s online video player after the episode airs.
The episode also features a segment about Peace and Plenty Rural Historic District in New Market, in Frederick County, Md., according to the MPT release.
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More about Pathfinder Farm
Nate and Natalie Kraft opened the distillery in 2021, having their first legal sale of moonshine that March 26, Nate Kraft said.
The distillery produces fruit-infused moonshine, bourbon and corn whiskey.
The "Local Buy" segment features the distillery's blueberry lemonade cocktail, Kraft said.
Farmer Lorn Cartee does the planting and harvesting, Kraft said. The corn is not genetically modified. While it doesn't yield as much as modern corn, it makes a great tasting whiskey, he said.
The Krafts do the drying, storing, mashing, fermenting and distilling as well as feed about 13 head of beef cattle. After the whiskey hash is made and distilled, the solids and liquids from the hash are fed to the cattle, who also eat corn, hay and grass in the pasture, Nate Kraft said.
The family has a tasting room open Thursdays through Sundays in downtown Boonsboro at 14 S. Main St. The farm's beef also is sold at the tasting room.
The farm, off Mount Carmel Church Road, hosts an annual special bourbon release and tasting the weekend before Thanksgiving as part of the Valley Craft Network Studio Tour, Kraft said.
Kraft said he and Natalie, both military veterans, stayed with his sister-in-law's family at a farm in southern Washington County for several months after he got out of the Navy. They enjoyed the area and decided to settle in South County in 2016. After living in Rohrersville for a few years, they bought the 42-acre farm off Mount Carmel Church Road in 2019.
"We enjoyed it here and wanted to live close by and have a rural lifestyle," he said.
And the business has been growing every year, he said.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Pathfinder Farm Distillery near Boonsboro featured on MPT show
