- "Washington Grown" is made possible by funding from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

- Hi everyone.

I'm Kristi Gorenson and welcome to, "Washington Grown".

We have farm families of all types here in Washington State, from 150-year-old multi-generational farms to beginning farmers breaking out on their own.

In this episode, we're gonna gain some wisdom from our unique potato farmers.

I'm visiting potato farmer James Baker.

- Put your boots on every day and go to work and it works out.

- Yeah.

And I'm making a savory potato waffle at Cafe Flora in Seattle.

So this will take a while.

- This will take a little while, yeah.

- So you get point.

- Also works really well.

- Right?

I'm mashing.

- You get the point.

- Get the point.

- You're mashing, you're mashing.

- Still mashing.

- Still, she's still mashing.

- Then Val's getting some nuggets of wisdom from his six generation farm family.

- For almost 150 years the 11th commandment in our family is thou shall not sell the farm.

- All this more today on, "Washington Grown".

[upbeat music] It's a flavor-cation for your mouth.

- Flavor-cation.

- And I'm just gonna hold on.

[pilot laughs] - You go a long ways to go.

Yeah.

No, it's okay.

- Okay.

Sorry.

I know, get with it.

- You are not kidding about a party of flavors.

Wait a minute, where are all my pears?

- Eat two, pick one?

- Exactly.

- I'm gonna stick around a while.

- We're changing hearts tonight.

- Yes we are.

- Wow.

I got work to do.

- Yeah, you do.

- All right, let's go.

[upbeat music fades] [upbeat music] - On days when Seattle is rainy and a little gloomy, there's one special spot where hungry people can go to rest and forget about the world outside for just a little bit.

Cafe Flora lives up to its name with plants, a water fountain and floral decor, creating a vibe that feels perfectly relaxed.

And it helps that the food is pretty amazing too.

- It's soothing.

It's Zen.

- I don't think there's any other restaurants I can think of that have like a fountain burbling in the background.

- This place feels as warm and welcoming as it did 30 years ago, which is a real treat.

- We've really tried to create that kind of, a little bit of that French countryside ambiance.

- Owner, Nat Stratton-Clarke and his team have designed the space to feel cozy.

The vegetarian menu matches the lovely decor, allowing guests to enjoy their company or find solace in the stillness.

- We've got just gorgeous plants everywhere.

And then some incredible floral wallpapers.

- I love your floral wallpaper here.

- It's so fun.

- I have to say.

- Whether it's the kind of peak summer or it's January, you still feel like you're in that amazing kind of floral space.

- I've been coming here for about 25 years.

- We just love it here because they are so creative.

- Like the atmosphere is very unique, very relaxing.

- Yeah.

- And the food is incredible.

- So Cafe Flora opened in October of 1991.

- Wow.

- I know.

We're one of the oldest restaurants now in Seattle and one of the oldest vegetarian restaurants in the country.

We've had so many celebrations and also so many just delicious Saturday morning brunches.

- Stay tuned because later in the show, Nat and I are going to make Cafe Flora's Washington Potato Waffle.

- You think you've tried potato in every way at breakfast.

- Yeah.

- But now we're doing it in an waffle.

- And this is a savory thing.

- Savory waffle.

[upbeat music] - Here in Washington, in the Columbia Basin, the best potatoes in the world are pulled straight out of the dirt.

But it doesn't happen that way by itself, you need experts on the subject and those experts need to have the right technology and tools for the job.

- We're low tech rednecks around here.

This is the most technological advanced thing I use.

Yeah I got my shovel.

- Yes.

Okay good.

[Kristi clapping] - This is our technology.

[both clapping] Supposed to keep clapping?

[Kristi laughs] My name's James Baker and we're out here in Russet Burbank potato Field.

- It looks really good.

- No, it does look good.

- Yeah.

- One of the things I try to do is I try to get in every field every day, checking for problems, checking for sprinkler packages and stuff like that.

- Yeah.

James's story has had its fair share of ups and downs.

After the family farm he grew up on had to be sold, James started over from scratch.

Today he rents the fields that he grows his crops on.

- I'm third generation farmer, but I'm first generation financially.

When I got my first loan from the USDA, I got told no seven times.

Finally I think they just said yes to get me to stop showing up, so.

- Persistence.

Yeah.

- I guess I'm addicted to the stress.

So potatoes are great 'cause you got something to worry about all the time.

I had a real wise farmer that taught me a lot of things.

I asked him when I was about 15, what's the most important thing you could put on your field?

And he told me your shadow.

And I've always remembered that, so I tried to make sure I got my shadow on every field every day.

- Should we go out- - Oh, this is all you.

- This all me.

Great.

- You get those shoes dirty.

- I know.

- I wish they made those in a 13 extra wide, but I don't think they do.

- You like them?

- Yeah.

- They would match your shirt, kind of.

- They would work.

Yeah.

But you don't want a little spindly one, you don't want a big wide one, so you want to kind of go out there and go, what's the average of my field look like?

Because I can go out here and I can find you a spud that looks like we're gonna be broke and I can find you one that looks like we're retiring.

So you know, you gotta find the average.

- You're going with me.

- No I'm staying over here.

I'm not getting dirty.

- No, no, no, you have to go with me.

- Gonna kinda wanna brush it back.

Then we'll pull the whole plant up and take a look at it.

- Okay.

- But we're checking how many tubers we got on here.

If we got any diseases coming up in here, which everything looks good.

We're looking to see, we want to have healthy hair roots coming out, nice long roots.

Everything looks pretty good today.

- Awesome.

- So I guess it's time for lunch.

- Time for lunch.

[upbeat music] [Kristi laughs] What do you want people to know about what you do?

- It's possible.

- Yeah.

- People look at it and they think it's really hard to get into farming.

You're gonna get told no a lot, that doesn't matter, it just means adjust, it doesn't mean no, it just means no today.

When I got my first loan, I think I had $800 in my savings account.

Put your boots on every day and go to work and it works out.

- Yeah.

- There's several times I could have quit and a smarter guy probably would've, but the fact that we're still here, it's what keeps me going.

- Yeah.

Well, I'm glad you're here.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Thank you for having us out in the field and... - Well thanks for coming.

- Yeah.

- I'm normally out here by myself, it's nice to have a little company.

- There we go.

- The view got a little better today.

[Kristi laughs] That probably wasn't allowed, you can cut that part out.

- No, I bet that stays in.

- Oh no.

[upbeat music] So we grow potatoes all over the United States and all over the world for that matter, but everybody knows that the best potatoes are grown right here in Washington.

Do you know how many potato growers there are in the state of Washington?

I'll have that answer for you right after this break.

- Coming up, I'm making a savory potato waffle at Cafe Flora in Seattle.

So this will take a while.

- This will take a little while, yeah.

- So you get the point.

- Also works really well.

- Right?

I'm mashing.

- We get the point.

- Get the point.

- You're mashing, you're mashing.

- Still mashing.

- Still, she's still mashing.

- And we're learning about Tomás' camping adventure, making campfire potatoes.

[upbeat music] - In Washington, we have 250 great potato growers in our state.

- We're back at Cafe Flora with an incredible menu of vegetarian delights, this cozy spot reflects Washington grown plant life in both the decor and the menu.

- The food combinations are always terrific.

- And they have the best squash blossom pizza I've ever had.

- Is that ever yummy looking.

Doesn't it make you hungry?

- Being vegetarian for us is really about celebrating just the incredible bounty that we have here in Washington state.

- Owner, Nat Stratton-Clarke understands that in order to make good food, you need the best ingredients.

And with vegetarian cuisine, you have to think farm to table.

- We have just some of the most incredible farmers that we get to work with.

And you don't have to do much to produce that's grown in Washington because it's got so much flavor.

We are so lucky to live in a place that has the incredible vegetables, the incredible produce and our job is really just to highlight that.

- Very fresh ingredients, terrific flavors.

- It's one of those things where I'm like, I don't know how you made this so perfect, it's so simple, but it's like just perfectly prepared.

- What are we gonna make today?

- So we are gonna make our crispy potato waffle.

You know, we've done so many fruit based waffles, you know, the maple syrup, we're like, let's try a savory one.

And I was like, let's try it for the weekend and we'll just see what the response is.

And we made five batches.

- Holy cow.

- We literally could not keep it in stock.

- Yeah?

- It was wild.

We just had, it kept going.

It's like, okay, I need another 20 pounds of potatoes, another 20 pounds of potatoes.

And it is by far the most popular waffle we've ever made.

- Never take that off the menu.

- I know.

I think we're stuck with it.

For a good reason, I think we're stuck with it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Well I cannot wait.

- It's gonna be fun.

- We are surrounded by some big, bad, beautiful Washington grown potatoes.

- These are amazing potatoes.

- These are huge.

- They're massive.

They're from Mount Vernon.

- What kind of potatoes are these?

- These are Yukon gold potatoes.

- Okay.

- We go through, I'm gonna say hundreds and hundreds of pounds of these a week.

That's what I love is this recipe to me highlights that flavor of potatoes in such a nice way.

You think you've tried potato in every way at breakfast.

- Yeah.

- But now we're doing it in a waffle.

- And this is a savory thing.

- Savory waffle.

- We boil the potatoes for 15 minutes, then dry them in the oven.

For our dry ingredients, we mix rice flour, corn starch, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum and egg replacer, then whisk it all up.

Next we put our potatoes, sautéed onion, cooked garlic, vegan mozzarella and scallions into a bowl and begin mashing.

- So this will take a while.

- This will take a little while.

Yeah.

- So you get the point.

- Also works really well.

- Right?

I'm mashing.

- We get the point.

- Get the point.

- You're mashing, you're mashing.

- She's still mashing.

- Still, she's still mashing.

- We add coconut milk, garlic, oil and water and stir it up.

Then we add our dry ingredients and it's time to cook the waffle.

- And you can see those nice, right?

We can see the scallions in here.

We can see that roasted garlic.

And that's what I love about it is when you bite into it, you kind of taste that full flavor.

- Okay.

- There we go.

We've loaded up our waffle iron.

- Yes.

- We're gonna close it.

This one, we lock it.

And then we're gonna let this one cook for about five minutes.

- Okay.

Now it's time to chop some herbs.

- We use Oxbow Farm, Local Roots Farm, out in Carnation.

And they grow so many great herbs for us.

Parsley, dill, these gorgeous chives.

- Chives.

- You know, the green onions.

Especially in the spring, you know, you just get those really nice spring onions that start coming in.

- It smells really good.

- I love it.

The fresh herbs just make me happy.

- Yeah.

- They make everything taste so good.

- We top the waffle off with some vegan herb butter, some crème fraîche, crispy shallots and our fresh herbs.

Now it's ready to eat.

[upbeat music] I love how it's really crispy on the outside and then nice and soft and- - Yeah.

So soft.

- Potato-y on the inside.

- I know.

It's so fun.

You start with these whole potatoes and you end up here and you still taste the potato through and through.

- And the richness of the garlic is in there too.

- Yeah.

Garlic, herbs, potato, it's just magic.

- All of it together is just delicious.

To get the recipe for Cafe Flora's Washington Potato Waffle visit us at wagrown.com.

- I don't think I need to state how important water is to all of us.

It's an essential building block of life and without it, we wouldn't be able to grow all of the amazing crops here in Washington that keep us fed.

In this area, the underground aquifer water supply isn't able to keep up with the demand being placed on it, but there are solutions.

Today I'm in the Columbia Basin visiting a team that works around the clock to get water to the farmers that need it.

- So this is all part of the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program.

- Craig Simpson is the secretary manager of the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District.

He and his team are building and expanding these water canals to get water from the Columbia River to the fields where crops are being grown.

The amazing thing is there's no pumps needed to get the water to the farms.

- It's at the end of the canal and the lands we wanna serve actually downhill.

So we're able to make a gravity delivery system without a expensive pump plant and the power that's necessary.

It's about 5,600 acres that this'll deliver to.

- Now that may seem like a lot of acres of land and a lot of water, but it turns out that's only a small fraction of the mighty Columbia River.

- At Grand Coulee, we divert only about 3% of the annual flow for- - That's it?

- Yeah.

And so it's just a fraction of the amount of water that's actually going down the river.

We're really blessed in the Columbia Basin Project, right?

We have a Columbia River that has a lot of water- - Yeah.

- Compared to almost every other river in the western United States.

It's just a big relief for us over many of our other, our friends that are around that don't get their full water supply on an annual basis.

- Well it's just one of those other reasons why we're just so lucky to live in the state that we do.

- Yeah.

- And it's why our farmers do such a great job and why our food is so amazing.

- They take our water and do amazing things with it.

- It's crazy to look at this and go, wow, this water's coming all the way from the Columbia River.

- Yeah, it is.

- This is amazing.

- There's over 90 different crops that are growing in the Columbia Basin Project.

So it pretty much, if you can put water to the land, it'll grow almost anything up here.

Some of the communities around here rely on the aquifer that's also being used for irrigation.

And if we can take that demand off of the aquifer, it saves that water for our local communities.

- Right.

- Which is a huge focus for the whole Odessa program.

- This is the end of this canal.

And you said mile?

- 86.

That's actually called the 86.4 and that's because it's 86.4 miles down the canal from the bifurcation.

But in order to do this work during the irrigation season, we had to dike off the canal.

We came in this spring before water came in and built this dike.

And you can see how dry it is on that side, so- - Yeah, it's bone dry.

- Yeah, we came in and put this in.

- So when that's finished, will this dike be removed?

- Yeah.

- And the water flows again.

- Yep.

We'll remove it over the winter.

- It's holding the water back for this guy.

- Yep.

Yeah.

This is the turnout or the place where we're gonna make delivery into one pipeline that heads to the southeast from here.

- Okay.

- Goes down towards the town of Connell, about seven miles down to the southeast.

So this structure will have two automated gates in it that will adjust to meet the flow demands that the landowners have.

All the water that goes down gets used.

It doesn't- - Okay.

- There's no waste associated with the deliveries of these systems.

You're standing in the kind of the bottom of the canal right now.

- This is the bottom right here.

- Yeah.

So you can see, well even down here at the end, it's still a pretty big canal.

The water level is gonna be- - Yeah.

- You know, another maybe five feet over my head.

This thing will take, takes right around 73 cubic feet per second, it's like 33,000 gallons a minute.

- Wow.

Hey, that's moving some water.

- The quantities of water we deal with are just mind boggling.

They do something with it, right?

I mean, the water's great, but if they don't produce something, it doesn't do us any good.

- It's all good.

Thank you very much, man.

- Yeah thank you, Tomás.

- Appreciate it.

[upbeat music] Our "Washington Grown" team has a few proud graduates of Washington State University.

That's why we're down in Pullman tonight for one of Pullman's proudest traditions, football.

- Tonight is WSU versus Utah State.

- Brandy Tucker is the director of marketing for the Washington State Potato Commission.

She and her team are down here tonight cheering on the Cougs and Washington potatoes.

- Today we're in Pullman promoting Washington potatoes.

There is a lot of misconceptions that Washington doesn't grow a lot of potatoes, but we actually grow about 44% more per acre than any other state in the nation.

Tonight we've got our fry van here, we bring it to athletic events to promote how healthy potatoes are for athletes.

One big misconception is that only fresh vegetables are healthy, but that's not necessarily the case.

- She's right.

To make the perfect fry, you only need three ingredients, fresh Washington potatoes, healthy oils to cook them in, and a little salt for flavor.

- Come on by and get some free french fries, all grown in Washington.

- Now it's time for some fresh fries right out of the fryer.

- Free fries, how can you deny it?

Yeah, it's awesome.

- We're gonna do it this way.

There you go.

- Oh okay.

[upbeat music] - These are really good.

- It's nice and meaty, it's a meaty fry.

- The inside's soft, the outside's crunchy.

That's all you want.

- I gotta have another one, just to make sure.

- They're excellent.

Really, really good.

- They're crispy, they're fluffy.

It's like a lineman, gotta be light on the feet but you gotta be heavy.

- It feels like it's an actual real potato.

- Now Brandy is a UDub fan through and through, Wazzu's biggest rival, so we had to make her give us a go Cougs.

- Go Cougs.

I looked at the camera.

I know.

I can't do it, I can't do it.

Go Cougs.

Go Cougs.

- Nice try Brandy.

But let's show you how Wazzu really celebrates.

- Go Cougs!

- Go Cougs!

- Go Cougs!

- Go Cougs!

- Go Cougs!

- Go Cougs!

- Woo!

Woo!

[upbeat music] - Go Washington potatoes.

- Woo!

Washington potatoes.

- No, not Idaho, Washington.

Yeah.

[gentle music] - Coming up, Val's learning how one family has kept their farm together for over six generations.

- For almost 150 years the 11th commandment in our family is thou shall not sell the farm.

[upbeat music] - Up in Burlington there's a farm that's the very definition of a family operation.

Although there's a long history before them, today Knutzen Farms is home to three generations who have all gathered to share some wisdom with me.

We have Roger and LouAnn as the fourth generation, their children, siblings Kraig and Kristi, and then the future of the operation, cousins Tyler and Dan as the sixth generation to work on the farm.

For the Knutzens, trusting that your family knows what they're doing is the key to success.

- Things are changing so fast that it's pretty hard for a past person that's been involved in the farm to put his ideas forward because the technology is beyond belief.

Each morning when my parents would get up and grandparents would get up, because this ground is only eight feet above sea level, it was very mucky.

And so the first thing the crew had to do was put on what's called a tule shoe, it's like a snowshoe on each foot on a horse in order to keep sinking in.

And now when they get in a tractor, they have GPS that is far beyond what I could even run a tractor for right now.

I mean, I couldn't run a tractor.

I can steer it, but that's about it.

When you think about that technology and what's taken in just two generations time, it's pretty amazing what they've carried this business into.

- Turns out a family business means all hands on deck.

- One time, we have three children, and Roger needed help down in the field on the combine.

I knew I couldn't leave Kraig home with the two girls because that wasn't gonna work.

[all laughing] I put him in the cab of the combine and down we went.

Everybody helped.

You know, everybody worked on the farm, everybody helped.

And then when we got done, we'd come home and eat.

[Val laughing] - All hands on deck still, right?

What does it mean to be a part of this legacy?

- It's really special.

You know, when you see the pictures, when you talk about their names, you actually had sat on their lap.

- For almost 150 years the 11th commandment in our family is thou shall not sell the farm.

- Ah.

- And we've held that.

- We're not forgetting what legacies we have in the past, what we've learned from those generations and their hard work and efforts.

You know, farms aren't gifted, they're bought.

And it doesn't matter if it's generational, that is the challenge is to make sure that we can move forward in our own direction.

- I'm very passionate about it.

I know Kraig's passionate.

I know my parents were passionate.

I know those ahead of us were passionate and those coming are too.

- I still have them as a resource.

- Right.

- I get to go to grandpa if I need something.

I get to go to Kraig.

I get to go to Kristi.

I even get to go to my cousin Tyler, he has his own expertise too.

So to be able to pull on all that expertise makes the job at lot easier.

- Yeah.

- It's very special place to be.

- Yeah.

- I feel very fortunate to be part of it.

- But for the kids, farming wasn't an expectation, it was a choice that they had to make.

- Mom and dad very much expected any of us that were to come back to make sure that we had a full education and college degree - By working off the farm for a period of time, which all of them did, they don't have to go somewhere else to determine if it's better on the other side.

They know, they've seen both sides.

- Not only can bring some other skills back to the farm from working off of it, but you can appreciate the differences between working for somebody else and having to work for yourself.

- It also gives them the opening, if they want to continue there, they're more than welcome to.

But they're always welcome back.

- Don't stop believing in agriculture.

Wave when you see, you know, a farmer.

[Val laughing] And understand that we're here, we're trying to do our best to produce food.

We're not just bettering us, we're bettering all people.

[upbeat music] - We're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank and I am joined by the whole gang.

- Here we are.

- Which doesn't happen very often that we all get to be together.

Val and Tomás and Chef Laurent Zirotti.

Thanks for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

- We are talking about Washington grown potatoes.

- Yum.

- Our favorite.

- Yes.

Favorites.

- Favorites.

- Absolutely.

- One of the staples of the show.

[all laughing] - And for good reason.

- Yes.

- And for good reason.

And we're just spreading the word.

- Yes.

- About how incredible Washington grown potatoes are.

- We grow the most potatoes.

Everybody talks about Idaho potatoes, but Washington, they're the biggest grower in the nation.

- We are number one.

- Yeah number one.

Exactly.

- We don't say the I word here.

- No.

[all laughing] - I mean we go from, you know, the Skagit Valley with the beautiful purple potatoes to, you know, central Washington where you have the Russets and all the other different types and you know, made into french fries for a lot of the fast food restaurants that people go to.

- And Eastern Washington with those really big baker kind.

- Yes.

So good stuff.

Anyways.

- And today we're gonna try a recipe from Chef Tomás.

- Chef Tomás.

Tell us about that.

- I wouldn't go so far as say Chef Tomás, but yeah.

Well this was another great opportunity for my daughter, AnnaLucia and I, to go out in the woods and see what it's like to take a little Washington grown ingredient and enjoy some great food out there.

And it's just fun to be able to tweak a recipe.

And you know, we wanted to do something that was obviously with potatoes, 'cause we all love potatoes, but let's do something that's just a little easy.

And there's nothing more simpler than this one.

As you're about to see, it's quick, it's easy and it's delicious.

- But if you have great products- - Yeah.

- Especially from Washington- - And I feel like everything tastes better.

- You can do anything you want even if it's simple, it's gonna taste great.

- Yes.

- Exactly.

- And everything tastes better when you're like outside, I feel like, you know?

- Oh yeah.

- I don't about that.

I don't know about that.

Maybe with family.

- Well you haven't been outside enough.

- Yeah.

- We need to get you out there.

- Let's find out.

Let's take a look.

[upbeat music] - All right, we're back at camp.

So what are we making for dinner?

- Tonight we're making campfire potatoes.

- This is probably one of the most easiest and quite possibly the most delicious things you could make on a camp out.

[upbeat music] - Mm.

Mm.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- That's so good.

- Now that is how you make campfire potatoes and that's how you take your next campfire to the next level.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music fading] [birds chirping] [upbeat music] So as you can see, it's a pretty easy recipe, but it was delicious.

Just a couple of simple ingredients, it's all you need.

And I think in our journey here on, "Washington Grown", so many times, I feel like the more simplistic a recipe is sometimes the better it is.

- It's the best.

I agree.

I agree.

- It is, great ingredients, you gotta go simple.

- Yeah.

- And I love the fact that you put the cheese at the end, I love that.

It's almost like a- - I know, we were all excited.

It was like the potatoes looked great and then you put cheese.

- Almost like a campfire poutine.

- Yeah.

- Oh yeah.

- You can put cheese curd and all that.

- Yes.

Just needed some gravy and we were set.

- Done.

- Does that make you wanna go camping?

- No.

[all laughing] - I'm gonna have to make up some better potatoes if I'm gonna get this guy out.

- You're gonna have to keep cooking to get chef and I out.

[all laughing] - And what I also loved about your recipe is that, you know, you just eat it right off the foil.

- That's it.

- You don't need a plate or anything.

- No.

No dishes.

- It's just that's your dish right there.

- It's about being simple.

And with something like that, you can just take all your dry ingredients and put them in one bag.

Measure them at home and then that way when you go out, all you gotta do is just... - Shake it up.

- Dump and you're done.

- Chapeau Chef.

[all laughing] - Well and of course it's about being with your family too.

I mean it was a great opportunity for my daughter and I to have some fun adventures and we can't wait for next season to do some more.

So it's gonna be awesome.

- You're gonna lose your job here pretty soon.

She's gonna take over for like all of us.

[all laughing] - Food taste always better with good company.

- Yeah.

- Good job, Tomás.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

[all laughing] - To get the recipe for campfire potatoes, visit wagrown.com.

Whether a farmer's been doing it 50 years or 10, you can be certain that the food that you are eating was grown by the best farmers in the nation.

That's it for this episode of, "Washington Grown".

We'll see you next time.