Meet Bay-Friendly Farm Participants

Being your own boss, running a multi-generational family business, and seeing a crop through each year from planting to harvest; knowing that you are producing safe and affordable food, while taking care of your soil and the environment you and your family live in has to be one of the most rewarding things in life.

Sustainability has long been a philosophy of Schmidt Farms Inc. Our father and uncle were featured in Farm Journal Magazine in the early 1960s as some of the earliest adopters of no-till farming and using cover crops. This certification program was just part of the continuum of how we have always tried to operate. 

Given that we farm in a coastal plain with sandy loam soils, cover crops, conservation tillage and no-till farming have demonstrably improved our soil tilth, organic matter and water-holding capacity. Grassy waterways and riparian buffers have reduced sediment and nutrients from leaving our fields.

What consumers know and understand about agriculture is important. Being recognized for stewardship and sustainability through certification shows consumers and the larger community that you are doing your best to provide safe and affordable food while conserving resources and protecting the bay environment that Marylanders love. 

Farmers and watermen were the first and earliest opportunities for settlers to this region. Conservation matters because we still need farmers and watermen to produce the bounty that feeds this now very urban state.