SOLOMONS — Calvert County took its annual farm tour off the fields and onto the water this year, steering state and county officials past the laboratories, docks and markets that tie the county’s economy to the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River.
The Department of Economic Development’s Oct. 29 tour made five stops in St. Leonard and Solomons, from a Morgan State University research station to a commercial fishing wharf, according to a county news release issued Oct. 30. State and county officials and agricultural leaders looked at research, industry opportunities and the local businesses keeping Calvert’s farming and maritime heritage alive, the county said.
The pitch is that farming and the water are one economy, and both are small enough that state attention matters. Calvert had 285 farms selling $15.2 million in products in the most recent federal count, and its watermen, aquaculture researchers and farm markets compete for the same customers, grants and policy decisions in Annapolis.
“Farming and seafood industries are vital to Calvert County’s economy and an important part of our community’s identity,” Julie Oberg, director of the county’s Department of Economic Development, said in the release. She said the tour was a chance to show off local farmers, watermen and agricultural businesses while strengthening partnerships with state leaders, so the industries can keep growing “for generations to come.”
From the lab to the dock
The day opened in St. Leonard at Morgan State’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory, known as PEARL, which sits inside Jefferson Patterson Park and focuses on understanding, managing and protecting coastal and environmental systems, according to the county.
In Solomons, the group visited the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, where researchers study the Bay and marine science, then Watermen’s Wharf, a stop the county used to highlight the commercial fishing industry and the work of local watermen.
Lunch at Trifecta at Harbor Island Marina in Solomons doubled as a roundtable on the county’s agricultural community. The tour ended back in St. Leonard at Chesapeake’s Bounty, a business the county described as connecting consumers with agricultural products while supporting regional producers.
The county’s release did not name the officials who attended or summarize what came out of the roundtable.
The route marked a clear change from a year ago. The 2025 tour on Oct. 22, led by Maryland Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks, stayed on land: Sassafras Farms in Dunkirk, Wilson Dowell Farms in Owings, Freedom Hill Horse Rescue in Dunkirk and Swann Farms along the Patuxent. This year, four of the five stops were tied to the water or Bay research.
A small farm economy, growing in value
Calvert’s farms are mostly small and mostly grow grain. The 2022 Census of Agriculture county profile, the latest federal count, shows:
- 285 farms, up 2% from 2017, covering 24,654 acres, down 2%
- An average farm size of 87 acres
- $15.2 million in products sold, up 141% from 2017, with crops making up 79% of sales
- Soybeans on 5,730 acres and corn for grain on 5,087 acres as the top crops
- 19% of farms selling directly to consumers
About 60% of Calvert farms are under 50 acres, according to the economic development department’s agriculture fact sheet, and the average farm sold about $53,500 in products. That is why direct-to-consumer outlets like Chesapeake’s Bounty, roadside stands and farm markets matter so much to growers here: many operations are too small to live on wholesale grain prices alone.
The tour also came weeks before a decision that will shape where Calvert farms can stay farms. The Board of County Commissioners is set to vote Nov. 17 on revised agricultural preservation rules, and farm owners have argued the changes would reach existing preservation districts through a one-year transferable development rights certification clause.
The county points farmers, watermen and residents looking for help or local products to ChooseCalvert.com and CalvertAg.com, which list economic development programs and where to buy from Calvert producers.
