7/23/02

By CARYL VELISEK

Bill Knill of Knill’s Farm Market in Mt. Airy, Md, was recently presented with the 2002 Service to Agriculture Award from MACAA. The award was given to Knill at a dinner at The Brick Ridge Farm Restaurant which featured Maryland-grown foods.
The Mt. Airy restaurant has been having monthly dinners that feature local producers. On June 18, they featured produce from Knill’s Farm Market and Linganore Wine Cellars, also of Mt. Airy.
“We wanted to present the award where local people would see Mr. Knill recognized for his accomplishments in agriculture and in the community,” said Bryan Butler of the Carroll County Cooperative Extension Service.
Knill, along with his wife, Jean, their son, daughter-in-law and three grandsons, farm more than 300 acres in Carroll County and run a produce market from their farm right outside Mt. Airy.
Formerly a dairy farm, Knill’s Farm now raises beef cattle, small grains, corn, soybeans, hay and fresh high value vegetables and fruit. The farm stand began in a wagon by the side of the road and moved back into the farm and a tent, and finally, into a permanent structure.
The Knills have incorporated conservation practices into their farming operation. No-till farming, crop rotation, clearing dead trees from wood lot areas for firewood for their urban neighbors and creating permanent pastures, are examples of this. Animals have been fenced from streams and ponds and permanent watering facilities have been established.
Currently, the Knills are working with Butler on a unique use of the high tunnel greenhouse idea, utilizing rain gutters as a media holding device for the production of early and late season vegetables and fruits.
A man who admittedly likes to “putter around with things,” Knill uses a tomato picker he fashioned from a Harley-Davidson golf cart and a wood burner for the greenhouse he made from things around the farm.
Knill has sung in the local Methodist church choir for more than 30 years and has served on numerous committees. He provides hay rides as part of the Mt. Airy Fall Festival Days.
Some of his other agriculturally related community activities include service to the Southern States Cooperative in Mt. Airy, Southern States Cooperative Board of Directors; the Frederick Petroleum Corp.; Southwest Carroll Citizens Advisory Committee; Carroll County Economic Development Committee; Future of Agriculture in Carroll County Committee; Carroll County Agriculture Commission; and the Maryland Friends of Agriculture Fund.