Coming up on America's Heartland... did you know that artichokes are California's official state vegetable?
See why artichoke growers say this tasty green globe is easier to prepare and enjoy than you may think.
[Chris Drew] They actually are an entertainment piece and an adventure at the dinner time.
Plus, explore these rocky and steep hillsides outside of San Diego, where an ancient flower is grown and harvested.
[Diana Roy] They're the oldest flowers on earth.
Join Farm to Fork host Sharon Profis as she demonstrates how to make a sweet apple crisp topped with ice cream.
[Sharon] Tell me that is not the most beautiful, welcoming dessert you have ever seen.
We'll also tour an expansive new facility built by the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which partners with Georgia farmers to supply imperfect produce to those in need.
And discover how this soybean farmer in Iowa has turned his land into a wildlife habitat and boosted the productivity of his soil.
It's all next on America's Heartland!
America's Heartland is made possible by... ♪♪ ♪ You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ in America's heartland, living close to the land.
♪ ♪ There's a love for the country and a pride in the brand ♪ ♪ in America's heartland, living close... ♪ ♪ close to the land.
♪ ♪♪ [Chris Drew] Artichokes are a staple here in Castroville.
It's what Castroville is known for.
It's what really put Castroville on the map.
Castroville, uh, folks are very proud of the artichoke, and they have a festival that celebrates the artichoke each year and really enlightens people around the globe to what artichokes are and what they mean here, to the state of California.
Nestled along the Monterey Bay coastline, Castroville enjoys a marine layer that keeps it at a moderate temperature year-round, without extreme highs or lows.
99% of the nation's fresh artichokes come from California, with the majority grown right here in Castroville.
[Chris] We're stewards of the land.
We've been in business nearly 100 years growing in California, and we plan to continue that legacy.
Chris Drew is the president and CEO of Ocean Mist Farms.
It was founded in 1924 in Castroville by a group of family farmers.
Among them was Alfred Tottino, whose great-grandson, Glen Alameda, still works at the company today as director of operations.
[Glen] I'm fourth generation now, um, the last one working here on the day-to-day.
But we have a lot of family supporting, um, kind of on different roles.
When I graduated college, my grandfather was still coming in to work six days a week.
He was 90 years old and I couldn't pass up that opportunity, uh, to come work with him every day.
[Chris] Artichokes are fun to eat.
It's one of those vegetables that you can have on your plate and tell a story about.
And that's really what we're driving home is that there isn't a misperception about artichokes.
They're not difficult to eat.
They actually are an entertainment piece and an adventure at the dinner time.
If artichokes are an adventure to eat, they're an adventure to harvest, too.
Workers move surprisingly fast through these fields, seemingly flipping artichokes up into the air.
[Glen] When we're harvesting artichokes, individuals will have a knife kind of right on their index finger, and they're just harvesting strictly what's ready.
So, they're eyeballing it, where it is on the plant, how big it is.
And we're really looking for that artichoke to stem size ratio.
[Chris] We actually have an individual who wears a large backpack on their back, comes in with a knife, and they... they harvest that artichoke or pick that artichoke from the plant, throw it over their shoulder into a bag.
And that's taken off to the edge of the field where it's packed into a carton based on its particular size.
Once a backpack, called a canasta, is full of artichokes, it's offloaded on the side of the field.
Then, they're sorted and packaged, also in the field.
The packing machinery is mobile, moving right alongside the pickers as they both make their way through the large fields of artichokes.
♪♪ Ocean Mist says they have a four hour "cut to cool" policy, meaning the artichokes cut in the fields are quickly transported to a cooling facility.
That's where they'll be chilled to about 34 degrees.
From there, the artichokes head out to grocers in the United States and abroad.
[Chris] The majority of the artichokes generally can be found in metropolitan areas, the larger cities.
We do classify the Midwest as the artichoke dessert.
Now, we're still looking at ways that we can, uh, reach to those folks and convince them that artichokes are a great vegetable to consume for dinner.
Artichokes may be a popular dish in California, and in fact, were named the official state vegetable in 2013.
But they still remain a mystery to many people outside the Golden State.
[Chris] Artichokes are one of those vegetables that sits on the shelf at the retail store, your grocery store, and many don't know what to do with it.
Uh, it almost, at times, can look more like a weapon than something you're ready to sit down and enjoy.
But artichokes are extremely nutritious, they're fun to eat, and anyone that hasn't tried one should get out there and do so.
So, how do you eat an artichoke?
The most common way is to cut off the top and steam it until the leaves easily pull off, about 30 minutes or so.
Then, serve it with a dipping sauce like mayonnaise or melted butter.
You can also grill artichokes or even bake them.
Whatever your method, artichoke growers want you to know one thing- it's easier than you think!
[Glen] I think it can be very intimidating to look at this thorny vegetable here that does not look very inviting until you cook it up, eat it, and realize it was worth the work, and it really wasn't that much to begin with.
Whether you are an artichoke aficionados or a newbie, growers ask one thing- Eat more of California's official vegetable.
[Chris] If you haven't had an artichoke yet, or you're willing to try one, get out there and do so.
♪♪ You'll find them dotting more than 200 acres of steep, rocky hillside in the small San Diego County town of Rainbow, a type of flower growing many people may not have ever heard of.
[Diana Roy] I say "pro-TEE-uh" but I know there are some who- in other countries that refer to it as "pro-TAY-uh."
Diana Roy is the marketing manager for Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers.
Her job includes educating the public about these unique flowers that made their way to the U.S. market in the 1960s.
Diana says Proteas actually date back millennia.
[Diana] Well, they're the oldest flowers on earth, or one of the oldest plants on earth.
They are very, very exotic.
Um, there's so many different varieties.
They were named Protea after the God Proteus, who could kind of change his image.
They grow as weeds in their native Africa, but here in Southern California, more than 250 varieties of Proteas can be found, as varied as the Greek God they were named after.
[Diana] Uh, most people are amazed.
Uh, a lot of people don't think they're real.
And many, many people, when they are familiar with them, associate 'em with Hawaii.
Or maybe, um, if they've had the opportunity to visit Africa, associate it with that.
But, uh, they are grown here in California and because of its Mediterranean climate, they do very well.
Mel Resendiz learned how to grow these beautiful buds more than 40 years ago from Howard Asper Senior, the man who first brought Proteas to America.
Asper discovered in a select few places in the U.S., the climate and topography is just right for growing these exotic flowers.
[Mel Resendiz] Yeah, because the Mediterranean, uh, um, weather and this kind of climate and the soil, it's, uh, good drainage and dry.
But growing Proteas comes with plenty of challenges that require a lot of patience.
It takes five years to go from seed to a single flower.
From cuttings, it'll still take three years to see a bloom.
But soon after, one plant can bear as many as 45 flowers, and some will eventually produce hundreds of blooms from one single bush.
As for the bushes themselves, they can live for decades.
[Mel] We still have some plants that are probably 45 years.
[Producer] Amazing.
And they're still producing?
[Mel] They're still producing.
Yes.
♪♪ Between the Proteas and other flower varieties grown here- Pincushions, Leucadendrons, and Australian plants like Kangaroo Paws- Resendiz Brothers harvests a full ten months out of the year.
And that presents another, more physical challenge.
[Mel] I think I'm the only one that I'm growing, uh- using all those hills that nobody... nobody use, because it's very steep.
Harvesting includes hiking up steep mountainsides that would otherwise be unusable, trimming from sometimes towering bushes and carrying flowers that are significantly heavier than your average fresh-cut stem.
[Mel] We start first thing in the morning, uh, to harvest.
All depends on the weather.
Right now, we can harvest all day long.
But in the summertime, we have to kind of cut early and late, and put 'em in water, like, in 10 minutes.
In this part of the state, summer temperatures can reach the nineties or even hotter, making it essential to get these flowers cut and to the packing shed miles away as quickly as possible.
This is where another team of workers sort, arrange, pack and make wreaths.
Most of their flowers are shipped throughout the U.S. and Canada, where they're sold wholesale, but retail customers can buy them as well.
[Diana] We have an online store where we sell our bouquets and our gift boxes as well as our wreaths.
And we do a farmer's market every Saturday in Old Town Temecula.
It's all done with a focus on sustainability.
Clippings gathered from the packing shed and prunings in the field are turned into mulch and put back into the soil.
Being a California business, water is often in short supply, so drip lines are critical to provide just enough water to each plant.
As for fertilizers, these hardy flowers simply don't like them.
[Mel] Our flowers is almost organic because we don't use... we don't use fertili.... fertilizer or chemicals.
It's all part of what makes these exotic African flowers such a draw to those who know them.
Another reason they're growing in popularity is their longevity.
[Diana] You can enjoy an arrangement for two weeks in a fresh state.
And then, after that, you just let it dry and they dry beautifully.
And then, you have them for years.
So, it's a very unusual and unique flower.
Despite the challenges of farming these flowers, Mel says he finds peace in what he does.
And his secret to success?
Mel says it's his love of farming these steep and rocky hills year in and year out, over four decades.
[Mel] Every morning, I'm happy that I'm going to work and, uh, I get to the farm or work at the nursery or go to the packing shed and after I send my truck out, I come up to the hills and it depends if the day is hot or- I get my bottle of wine and sit in the middle of the flowers and enjoy.
♪♪ ♪♪ [Sharon Profis] Today, we're making one of my favorite fall recipes and we're making a Caramel Apple Crisp.
And I love to make it when the season starts to change and apples start to hit the grocery store and farmer's market.
So, let's get started by making our filling.
I have six Honeycrisp apples here.
I'm just going to go ahead and peel all of these apples.
And for this recipe, I'm choosing to use one variety of apple.
I keep turning to the Honeycrisp apple because it's just so well balanced.
It's sweet and tart, and it also keeps its shape as it bakes.
With all our apples peeled, now let's go ahead and slice them.
My preference for size, when it comes to a crisp or even a pie, is to go a little bit wider than I think is typical.
I just really like to actually bite into the apple.
And this bakes for quite some time, so it's going to break down, it's going to get softer.
So, it's a little less than a quarter of an inch.
All our apples are sliced.
Now, let's put the rest of our filling ingredients in this bowl too.
To this, we'll add a quarter cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, we'll do a pinch of sea salt, three tablespoons of tapioca starch.
This will make sure that the filling stays nice and thick because the apples, as they cook, they will release juices and we want the tapioca starch to kind of catch those juices.
We'll also do half a teaspoon of vanilla extract and the juice of half a lemon.
So, that's about two tablespoons.
We'll give this a mix.
All right.
Our filling is ready.
Let's go ahead and make our crisp topping.
In this bowl, I have one cup of flour and one cup of oats.
And to that, I'll add about a third of a cup of chopped walnuts.
Now, we're making a crisp.
Really, the difference between a crisp and a crumble is that with a crisp, you have a few more add-ins like those oats and those nuts.
To that, I will add a quarter cup of brown sugar, a pinch of salt, and then the good stuff- half a cup of unsalted butter.
And get it all combined.
So, the flour and the sugar and the oats are starting to absorb that butter.
And once you see no more dry spots of flour, you know your topping is ready.
To bake this dish, you can either use an eight by eight or nine by nine pan.
In this case, I'm using a cast iron skillet and we'll pour all of the apples and any juices that may have accumulated at the bottom right into our skillet here.
And then, let's get our crisp topping.
There's really no science to this.
We just want to make sure it's as evenly distributed as possible.
You'll get some flakier pieces, you'll get some, uh, chunkier pieces.
That is the fun of a crisp.
How beautiful is that?
Oh, my gosh.
This is ready to go in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
We're looking for a nice golden-brown topping.
In the meantime, while this is baking, let's go ahead and make our caramel topping.
For this sweet and slightly salty caramel sauce, you'll need one cup of granulated sugar, a quarter cup of water, half a cup of warmed heavy cream, two tablespoons of unsalted butter and one teaspoon of salt.
In a saucepan over medium heat, add the sugar and water.
Let it simmer and bubble until it turns a deep, golden brown.
It'll take about eight to 10 minutes.
Here, you'll want to keep a careful eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn.
That can happen quickly.
Finally, slowly add the heavy cream and whisk for a couple minutes until that mixture looks smooth.
Then, turn off the heat and whisk in the salt and butter.
Serve this caramel sauce warm right away, or store it in the fridge for two to three weeks.
Our crisp is out of the oven and it smells so good.
The cinnamon, the apples, the caramel- let's put all these things together.
So, first, I want to go ahead and add the caramel right on top.
I went ahead and kept this caramel warm.
And that's why we didn't add a ton of sugar to either the topping or the filling, because this is really going to give us that sweetness.
Take a nice portion from here.
Oh, man.
The apples have baked so nicely.
How gorgeous is that?
And you can see the tapioca starch really kept all of those juices together.
Let's get a nice scoop of ice cream, of course, right on top.
And of course, more caramel.
Tell me that is not the most beautiful, welcoming dessert you have ever seen.
Well, now all that's left to do is eat!
♪♪ Still ahead on America's Heartland, head to Iowa to meet a soy grower who has been on a quest to improve his soil for decades and whose land is now a welcoming home for wildlife.
But first, let's go inside the Atlanta Community Food Bank's new facility, where farmers and the community come together in the fight against hunger.
♪♪ In all directions around the Atlanta Community Food Bank, your eyes can be deceived by the sprawling blanket of trees.
What appears to be a vast, natural expanse is nature's cover for one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country- 6 million people in metro Atlanta.
And this food bank represents a lifeline for tens of thousands of residents.
Food insecurity is nearly as widespread as the trees.
[Kyle Waide] We serve food insecure families across North Georgia, close to 150,000, um, uh, households a month.
[Debra Shoaf] The people we serve are our next-door neighbors.
It doesn't take much to create food insecurity.
The majority of the people we are serving are members of working families.
Covering 345,000 square feet and operating daily, the Atlanta Community Food Bank runs on a network of 190 staff members and 1700 regular volunteers to meet the ever-growing need across North Georgia.
Staffers like Claude Jones realize this is more than just a paycheck.
[Claude] It's that feeling of being a part of a... a goal, a mission of ending hunger.
In 2022, the food bank celebrated two years in this facility.
Executive Director Kyle Waide and Chief Financial Officer Debra Shoaf say the timing could not have been more fortunate.
Going back to 2017, they knew they had outgrown their old building on the city's west side.
Thus began three years of intensive fundraising and construction.
[Kyle] It just so happened that we moved into this building in March of 2020.
[Debra] On March 11th, about 48 hours later or less, uh, everything started to shut down.
[Kyle] The pandemic really erupted, shut down the economy and we saw an unprecedented spike in demand as a result of that economic shutdown.
After meeting the immediate needs during the early days of COVID, the new expanded food bank was able to increase partnerships with local farmers.
From farms like this, managed by Rahul Anand, comes the fresh produce upon which the food bank relies.
[Rahul] Being able to feed people does really create a sense of pride.
It's... it's- You can do all kinds of things, but at the end of the day, everybody's got to eat and being able to produce the thing that they eat is... is really great.
Having the opportunity to work with places like the Atlanta Community Food Bank is, you know, a real benefit to operations like mine.
So, being able to expand and have partners who can, you know, help me do that, and I can help out as well, puts me in a position to, you know, pay staff reasonable wages, expand, and then get to a point where we're profitable enough to then donate produce to some of these organizations as well.
Other farmers in rural Georgia, like this watermelon grower, donate imperfect food to the food bank, food that is perfectly edible but may not look good enough for a grocery store shelf.
That prevents waste and bolsters the food bank's offering of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Back at the food bank's loading docks, where the fresh produce arrives, there's a certain kind of energy.
Volunteers are almost never in short supply.
Staff members take pride in their work.
[Claude] To create a lot of meals for the community is- It's beautiful.
And when Kyle Waide and Debra Shoaf look to the future, they see opportunity, the chance to grow and bring food security to their neighbors living in the tree-covered communities of North Georgia.
♪♪ [Wayne] You know, we've got challenges of feeding a whole world of people and we can't do it if we let our soils, you know, disappear and... and disseminate.
And so, it's... it's been a passion of mine to... to... to build my soils back and help mentor other farmers in doing the same.
Iowa soybean farmer Wayne Fredericks seems to feel the same way about soil as President Franklin Roosevelt, who once said, "The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself."
[Wayne] I started farming in 1973.
We never farm the same two years in a row.
We're always trying something new and different.
Wayne has had to adopt principles like minimizing soil disturbance and maximizing soil biodiversity, sometimes by necessity.
[Wayne] What got us into no-till soybeans is we froze up one winter and we couldn't plow anymore.
Since then, no-till farming has helped Wayne reduce soil erosion and the amount of water needed to cultivate his soybeans and other crops.
[Wayne] It has structure.
It has pore space.
There's room for water to infiltrate, instead of running off.
There's room for water to be stored.
And look at the color.
It's... it's a good, dark color.
That shows you that- the organic matter that's in this soil.
We rotate corn one year, soybeans the next year.
Now, you notice we have all this green growth out in here.
This is our cover crop.
This cover crop blend is- happens to be cereal rye, oats and kale.
Cover crops, according to Wayne, have decreased the need for herbicides and pesticides, while protecting water quality all for the greater good.
[Wayne] We definitely, as farmers, got to realize that what we do on our farm has effects further downstream.
Water from Wayne's farm drains into the Cedar River, which flows into the Mississippi River.
But first, it filters through his woodchip bioreactor.
[Wayne] We divert the water into this bed of wood chips.
And the bacteria that want to break down that carbon source, or the wood chips, pull the nitrogen off of the water.
That's a huge benefit.
Wayne also invites numerous wildlife species to his farm by restoring native habitat, which helps pollinate crops and reduce pests.
[Wayne] I remember the seed mix we used here had 52 different species.
That habitat is never the same from one year to the next.
Plus, we're providing a... a benefit for our pollinators and we've got our pollinator species.
And it... it's full of deer, fawn and pheasants going back and forth.
Farmers are understanding that... that there is value to doing things different.
We have to learn to- how to farm and maintain our productivity of the soil, you know, learn practices that rejuvenate, regenerate these soils and make them more productive and maintain that productive ability.
I'd love to have a conversation with any consumer that would want to know more about what we do on the farm, because our sole focus is to produce a quality product, a healthy product, and one that they would be proud to purchase in the store.
That's it for this edition of America's Heartland.
For more stories, full episodes and recipes, visit americasheartland.org or connect with us on Facebook.
♪ You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ in America's heartland, living close to the land.
♪ ♪ There's a love for the country and a pride in the brand ♪ ♪ in America's heartland, living close... ♪ ♪ close to the land.
♪ America's Heartland is made possible by... ♪♪
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