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ANNAPOLIS – Gov. Wes Moore honored Milton and Tina Nagel of Federalsburg April 3, presenting them Maryland's Century Farm designation for their Nagel Home Farm.
The couple received the honor April 3 at the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis. State Sen. Johnny Mautz and Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks attended the ceremony and reception.
“It just helps us to celebrate our heritage and remember … (that) Caroline County is the ‘Green Garden County,’” Milt Nagel told the Caroline Review April 9.
Maryland's Century Farm Program, established in 1994, honors families whose farms have been in the same family for at least 100 years and continue to be productive.
Other farms designated Century Farms are three on the western shore and five Eastern Shore farms: Molock Farms in Dorchester County, Hemsley Fortune Farm in Queen Anne’s County, Old Meadow Farm in Wicomico County, and Castle Farm and Windmill Creek Vineyard and Winery, both in Worcester County.
Nagel Home Farm joins the ranks of 18 other Century Farms in Caroline County.
The Century Farm Designation recognizes Nagel Home Farm's continuing legacy, its agricultural contributions and multi-generational stewardship of Maryland farmland. All the farm's tillable land is part of the Maryland Agriculture Preservation Foundation, something Milt Nagel’s father Myers secured.
The Nagel Home Farm is located near Caroline County's Colonel Richardson Middle and High Schools. Purchased in 1904 by Milt Nagel's great-grandfather Henry, the farm has been passed down his son Chris, and to Milt’s father Myers.
Milt Nagel acquired the 116-acre Home Farm in 2015 following the passing of his parents. He represents the fourth generation to live and work on the farm, and someday he will pass the farm on to his son Joshua, known as J.T., who may someday pass it on to his son Weston. Milt and Tina’s son Lucas passed away in 2022.
Milt grew up working on the family farm after school and during summers. The Home Farm has grown “primarily field crops – wheat and barley, soybeans, corn,” he said. “In the recent decades, back when my dad was alive, we did some cucumbers and string beans. He tried his hand at potatoes and tomatoes and different things.”
Nagel, who travels daily to Annapolis as the executive director of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, currently leases the land to one of his 18 first cousins who farms full time.
Nagel helps out as his schedule permits, pitching in to help his cousin – including tractor, combine and truck driving – hearkening back to the days when his own full-time farming dad taught his son valuable lessons firsthand.
“I don’t want to lose sight of that, and I’ve tried my best to keep my boys engaged and interested, and hopefully my grandson, as well,” Nagel said.
He’s concerned that recent legislation in the Maryland General Assembly to promote solar energy production could mean altering the terms of ag preservation.
“To think that forever doesn't mean forever – it kind of bothers me,” Nagel said. “If you either purchase property that's in active preservation, or you consciously enter ag preparation yourself, or you inherit property that's in ag preservation, you do so under the knowledge it’s forever.
“You go over to Delaware and other parts of Maryland, and you see farmland being gobbled up for various reasons, … and you wonder where it stops,” Nagel said.
