- "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".

Potatoes are grown all over the state from here in the Columbia Basin to the rich soils of the Skagit Valley.

In this episode, we're gonna learn what farmers are doing to help keep these potatoes feeding the world for generations to come.

Tomás is visiting S&B Farms to learn what makes Skagit Valley potatoes so special.

- It's like your babies out there.

It's fun to watch 'em grow and when harvest season comes around, it's just such a good feeling to put 'em in that shed.

- And I'm making potato and onion knish at Zylberschtein's.

- That's great.

Okay, that's way too much flour though.

Just kidding.

- Plus Tomás is learning how researchers are improving soil health.

You know, something that's happening within this little piece of soil can have an impact on the globe.

All this and more today on "Washington Grown".

[bright music] - It's a flavorcation for your mouth.

- Flavorcation.

- I'm just gonna hold on.

- You go a long ways to go.

- 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.

- That's where we are.

- Wow.

I got work to do.

- Yeah, you do.

- All right, let's go.

- Up in Northern Seattle, in the Pinehurst neighborhood, there's an unassuming little window with a long name.

You don't wanna judge this book by its cover because Zylberschtein's Delicatessen and Bakery is serving some amazing flavors in perfect packages.

Putting out what many people are calling the best bagel in Seattle.

- There aren't too many Jewish delis around this area.

It's kind of one of the good spot.

And again, they make their own bagels and everything.

- The food's just always really good and interesting.

My husband always gets a Reuben and I'd steal bites from him.

- For me, it's one of the best bagels in Seattle.

- I was looking around trying to find a good bagel in Seattle.

I had trouble doing that and so I said, I guess I better make 'em myself.

- Owner Josh Grunig took his passion for authentic Jewish dishes and his love of a good bagel and combined it with Washington's amazing fresh food to create something really special.

- Jewish deli food is all about making stuff from scratch and taking very humble ingredients and just making them taste outstanding.

Any of the items that we don't make in house, we really try to seek out other really passionate producers.

So everything that we can find of highest possible quality is gonna be from Washington.

- We love their breakfast and our kids love the sprinkle cookies.

- During Hanukkah, we always get the brisket and the latkes.

- Honestly, I usually just go down the line and I'm like, I want that, that, that.

- Don't miss later in the show, when Josh and I make Washington potato and onion knish.

- It's a delica...?

- Deliknishery?

- Deliknishery.

- Yeah.

That's we're changing hearts tonight.

- Yes, we are.

[bright music] - I've had the privilege of standing in a lot of fields over the years on "Washington Grown", but have you ever seen a potato field as pristine as this?

Here at S&B Farms, farmers Jen and her nephew Carl are working around the clock to ensure that their crop is just as perfect above the soil as it is below.

- Hey, check it out.

We're already harvesting.

- Yeah.

So how close before these are ready?

- Quite a ways.

- Quite a ways.

- Yeah.

- So they're gonna get much bigger than this?

- Yes.

- We hope so.

- Are we anticipating that this is a good yield, this is a good year?

- We're hoping.

- We hope so.

You know, you don't really know until you get down there and dig around.

- Right, exactly.

- Plants do crazy things.

- Yeah.

They have a mind of their own.

They're gonna grow the way they want.

Farming is not an easy gig, and sometimes legislation can cause conflicts and misunderstandings that can make it even more difficult.

Take for example, the proposal of waterway buffers.

These buffers would provide extra space between waterways and farmlands to allow more shade along the rivers so native fish can continue to thrive.

Care must be taken those to not affect the livelihood of the farmers that need that land to grow their crops.

So there's always a balancing act and compromises that both farmers and lawmakers must achieve so farmers like Carl and Jen can continue doing what they love.

- What has been proposed would take half of the land that we farm out of production.

I don't know a single farmer that could survive that.

- So it's a delicate balancing act.

- Yeah.

- You wanna protect the rivers.

- Yes.

- Protect the fish, but you gotta be able to use the land next to it.

It sounds like there just needs to be a lot of conversation had.

- Yes.

- Doesn't there?

- There needs to be a lot more conversation and there needs to come an agreement where we're talking about this on fish bearing waterways.

- Right.

- Not on irrigation ditches.

- A lot of these ditches, they don't carry water till we fill 'em up with water from the river anyway.

So there's no fish in them.

We are all for protecting water, that's... - Yeah.

- Just like the water in the ground, we're dependent on both of those.

- Right, yeah.

- Elements, to create a 200 foot buffer on four sides of a field, it would render it useless.

- Yeah, for sure.

- Really.

I mean, you couldn't farm in there.

- Did you guys always know that you wanted to work in potatoes?

- No.

- No.

- I was gonna be a elementary school teacher.

That's all.

- Okay, all right.

- I grew up on a dry-land wheat farm.

- Okay.

- In eastern Washington.

I had a lot of respiratory problems and being in a dry, dirty environment just exacerbated that.

Then I married a potato farmer and here we are.

- And here we are.

- It's like your babies out there.

- Yeah.

- All the work that goes into 'em, all the hours that you spend out here, it's fun to watch 'em grow and when harvest season comes around, it's just such a good feeling to put 'em in that shed.

- So this is the Fisher Slough project.

- Okay.

- My father-in-law donated this land for a salmon habitat project as good faith to show that the farmers are here doing what's right for the environment and trying to be good partners.

- And that's kind of happening all over the state, isn't it?

- It is, it is.

Farmers everywhere are trying to help out and do what they can to collaborate and help preserve the fish as well.

- Yep.

- Well, you guys are doing a great job.

Your crops look beautiful and I thank you so much for all the hard work that you guys put in.

- Thank you.

- And those restless nights just so I can have a baked potato.

[upbeat music] Hey, let's go.

I'm here in Walla Walla and the aroma coming from the food truck in front of the Burwood Brewery is making my mouth water.

But here WTF means a little something different.

All right Nathan, WTH is WTF, Eat it?

- That's up for interpretation.

- One of the staples of the menu is the cowboy poutine featuring amazing Washington potatoes and a little something special called cowboy candy or candied jalapeños.

Oh my gosh, all the layers in this thing.

- Yeah, you gotta get under there a little bit.

So these are, you know, local Washington potatoes out of the Tri-Cities.

But then of course, I've gotta put like, put a ton of brisket on, smoked brisket on top of it and then the cowboy candy and green onion.

Cheers, bro.

- Oh, cheers.

Look at that.

Ooh.

- If that doesn't scream for beer.

- I got the cowboy candy quick on where it was.

That is such a great idea.

That's a real surprise.

- Yep.

- Your brisket is so smoking and so tender.

Let's see if the cowboy poutine goes over with the patrons at Burwood Brewery.

- I'm salivating right now.

- Are you already?

- Can I try?

- He wants to try it.

- That is really good.

- It's awesome.

- That's fun, huh?

- That changes my perspective of poutine.

- It burns so good.

- It burns so good.

- I got a little sweet, a little burn afterwards.

- I like how the gravy's not just the like, traditional kind of white sausagey gravy.

- Local potatoes, not too greasy, little skin.

- Super crispy, I like that they're like string fries and the brisket's awesome.

- It's great.

- It's delicious.

- You can't stop me.

- Coming up, I'm making Washington potato and onion knish at Zylberschtein's.

It's a delica...?

- Deliknishery?

- Deliknishery.

- Yeah.

We're changing hearts tonight.

- Yes, we are.

And we're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest trying Chef Laurent's potato frittata recipe.

[bright music] We're back at Zylberschtein's in North Seattle.

Fresh sandwiches, perfect bagels, and authentic Jewish dishes are perfected in this kitchen.

Owner Josh Grunig wants everyone who walks up to the window to walk away with a smile.

There's just one tiny little problem.

- Where does the name come from?

- Where does the name come?

- Well, we were like, what is the longest, most difficult name possible?

- There you go.

- To come up with.

- Shibellsteins?

I guess maybe not.

- Either Zylberschteen's or Zylberschtein's.

- I won't lie, for the probably the first year, I just said [incomprehensible mumbling].

I'm going to [mumbles], do you want anything?

- Do you wanna say Zylberschtein's?

- No.

- No.

- So my family immigrated from Poland and my mom's side of the family, their last name is Stein.

And so our name before we came to the US was Zylberschtein's.

- I've always called it Zylberschteen's, oh man.

I need to fix that.

My whole family is calling it the wrong name.

- That is how you pronounce it right.

But when the food is this good, not even a tricky name will keep people away.

Well, from what I hear, there are like lines out the door.

- Yeah, don't come on Saturday.

We're trying to make food slowly and intentionally.

We're trying to honor the past in that way.

- Yeah.

- And so I thought it would be great to use our family name.

- We love their breakfast and our kids love the sprinkle cookies.

- During Hanukkah, we always get the brisket and the latkes.

- Honestly, I usually just go down the line and I'm like, I want that, that, that.

- What are we gonna make today?

- We're gonna make potato and onion knish.

- I don't know what a knish is.

- So knish is kind of like a Jewish dumpling.

- Okay.

- We roll out our dough really, really thin, and then we roll it into itself and make these really thin layers.

- It's gonna be delicious.

I can't wait.

This is a lot of everything, right?

- Well, everyone needs 60 knishes though.

- I think they do.

- Yeah.

- 50 for me.

- Yes.

- 10 for you.

- That's fair.

- We start by combining eggs, water, olive oil, salt, apple cider vinegar, and flour together.

Then mixing it up and letting it rest.

Now, it's onto the Washington potato and onion filling.

- We've got our cooked red potatoes, we've got our yellow onions, which we've cooked these down for about five hours.

- How many onions does it take to get this amount?

- This was about 10 pounds of onions.

It really, really cooks down a lot.

- That's how you do it right, though.

- That's how you do it right.

- We add our cooked potatoes, caramelized onions, olive oil, salt and pepper into a pan and mix it up.

Then it's back to the dough.

- So we've got our knish dough.

It's been resting overnight, so it's nice and cold.

- How many knishes do you make, like in a day here?

- Not that many.

[laughs] - But after this... - We're gonna change the- - Yeah.

- Knishery here or something.

- It's a delica...?

- Deliknishery?

- Deliknishery.

- Yeah.

We're changing hearts tonight.

- Yes, we are.

- So I'm gonna show you how to throw the flour on the table.

- Okay, now I've seen this.

- So we're gonna get a good, a good handful.

- Okay.

- And you wanna let flour kind of settle down into your pinky.

- Okay.

- And as you throw it, open up your hand.

So I'm going like that.

So I'm gonna have a nice even layer of flour on there.

You, and if you, you don't do this right, then all the knish will be ruined.

So no pressure.

That's great.

Okay, that's way too much flour though.

No, I'm just kidding.

- Now Josh uses a sheeter to flatten out the dough, then we roll it out even flatter.

Next, it's time for the filling.

- All right, so now we're gonna take this strip of our knish dough.

We're gonna roll it over.

And now I'm gonna pull the dough and make it even thinner.

I'm gonna rotate it 90 degrees.

And then I'm gonna roll it over again.

I'm gonna take the edges and I'm gonna fold that under and I'm gonna set it down on the table and I'm just gonna press it down.

- We put them in the freezer for an hour, then add an egg wash and bake them for half an hour.

These look beautiful.

I think it's time that we get to try them.

- Well, I don't eat, I don't eat them.

- You don't?

- No, I'm just kidding.

Let's do it.

- Washington potatoes and onions.

They taste so good.

- I could just eat handfuls of caramelized onions.

In New York, how they serve knish are like in a hotdog stand in a steamer.

You can have a whole one and then that will pretty much carry you through all of lunch.

You can imagine this being, eating this warm on a cold day outside.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, cheers.

Let's eat some more.

- To get the recipe for Zylberschtein's Washington potato and onion knish, visit us at wagrown.com.

Coming up, Tomás is getting his hands dirty, helping out the Skagit Conservation District.

- Well, there's a lot to do, so let's get to work.

[bright music] - Here in the Skagit Valley, farmers are working tirelessly to bring us the best produce in the world, but they're not alone.

As the Skagit Conservation District provides hundreds of people and knowledge to ensure that the natural resources of the area continue to provide the produce that farmers can be proud of.

Today, I'm talking with Emmett Wild about his specific project.

- So this is a new pivot irrigation system.

So we have low elevation sprinklers, that help to keep water out on the field instead of aerosolizing and blowing away in the wind.

- Usually in this area, farmers use cannon sprinklers to irrigate.

- The advantages to a system like this seem absolutely a no-brainer.

But it's that the cost, that's the barrier to entry, is that correct?

- That's one of the big barriers here.

Yeah, so this is, you know, a pretty expensive system and we were able to seek funding from the State Conservation Commission.

- Okay.

- And also partner with USDA through the Natural Resource Conservation Systems Environmental Quality Incentive Program.

And those two funding sources together really helped make this a viable project.

This field might have been brown at this time of year with all this heat that we've had.

This allows you to keep water on the field rather than blowing away and get more even spread of water.

The Conservation District, we're a non-regulatory, non-enforcement special purpose district.

And we only work with people who reach out for help for technical assistance and wanna work with us and help them to make those stewardship improvements that they wanna do but, and give 'em the tools to be able to do that effectively.

- It speaks for itself.

- Absolutely.

- I mean, when you see this beautiful field, the proof is in the pudding.

It's right there.

You guys are doing a great job, man.

And just a few miles away, I met up with Taylor Scott to see what conservation projects she's working on.

- I am coordinating a lot of projects right now.

- Okay.

- A lot of them having to do with water quality.

For this specific location, we're looking at fecal coliform levels.

- So in layman's terms, what is fecal coliform?

- Poop.

- It's just poop.

Okay, so we're talking about the levels of fecal matter in the water.

- Yes, yes.

- Okay.

And so that's specifically your realm of expertise, that's what you focus on doing?

Or do you like- - Yeah, I'm an expert in poop, yeah.

- Really, okay.

Well we all gotta be good at something.

- So the idea behind this is to get a solar panel pump and essentially run it through a UV filter and see if the water that is then pumped into the pond has less fecal coliform or hopefully no fecal coliform.

- And so based on your results of this experiment, then you might be able to take these and implement 'em throughout the state.

- Exactly, exactly.

- All right, so here we are.

It's the next day, and we are getting to install this big experiment.

- Yes, we are, yep.

Check that thing out.

- Wow.

- The UV filter.

- This is the UV filter right here.

So the water will come through this.

- Yep, up and out.

- Okay, and meanwhile, there is a UV light that is killing all the bad stuff.

- Yep.

- Well, there's a lot to do, so let's get to work.

- If this works, that'll be great.

Nope, it's working, it's working.

Yay.

- You got it.

- Fish do use this waterway.

And so I'm just putting a little fish screen on here to make sure that we're not gonna suck up any little babies.

- Weeks later we checked in with Taylor and found out that the initial reports from the UV system show that it's working.

The district will continue monitoring the system and hope to eventually implement it on a wider scale.

- Our river systems really coincide with our farming, and I think it's important to keep it as clean as we can.

- We all wanna have clean, healthy drinking water.

We want clean water for salmon and for other wildlife and for our shellfish farmers that are ultimately receiving all that water through drainage.

- Underneath gorgeous fields of potatoes like this one, we're talking about the most important resource in the state, soil.

Now to keep the future of Washington agriculture healthy and vibrant, we have to take care of our soils.

That's why I'm in Mount Vernon at the Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center to find out how to maintain that special resource right under our feet.

- We're looking at opportunities for ways to protect and improve our soil health.

- Chris Benedict is the faculty lead for the Washington State Soil Health Initiative.

As one of six sites across the state, he and his teams are testing long-term practices and how they affect soil health.

- So this is big picture stuff, it's gonna give us the ability to really look at what changes in the long term.

- Researcher Deirdre Griffin LaHue is focused on how soil can break down organic matter.

And interestingly enough, her path to soil research wasn't always this dirty.

- Well, I had a previous career in ballet and so there was a clear like transition.

- Yeah, right, it makes perfect sense.

- No, but through that I got interested in nutrition, actually realized through that I was really interested in like really where it comes from, from the soil.

- You wanted to get to the roots.

- I wanted to get to the roots, I wanted to get to the foundation, soil's the foundation of everything we do.

- Researcher Gabe LaHue works among the various plots at the site, making sure they're worked similarly to what farmers would be doing so they can learn and share that knowledge to keep soil healthy and productive across the entire state.

You're testing the soil, but will you also harvest these potatoes and use them?

- Absolutely.

So we're tracking the yield and quality of all the crops we're growing, and then every year we test the soil.

And then every four years, we come back and we do a really intensive sampling and that really helps us get a comprehensive picture.

- We're looking at how quickly the organisms in the soil can basically decompose residues that might be going in.

- Okay.

- Which is gonna play a role in nutrient availability for those crops.

- The whole reason this is a long-term experiment is because soils are slow to change.

But the exciting thing is we're already starting to see some differences.

- These differences can clearly be seen in what the researchers call the T-shirt test.

- So I have two T-shirts here that I buried in the soil.

- All right.

- One is from a field that was just left without any crops for it was heavily tilled.

And then one was from a field that had a lot of organic matter inputs that continuous crops in it.

So I buried the T-shirts for three weeks.

And you can see that, you know, actually in this- - Wow.

- Field, there was some action going on.

There's some holes in that shirt.

- Yeah.

- So they did a pretty good job breaking down.

But when we unburied the one from the other field.

- Whoa.

- This is what we found.

- Whoa, okay.

- So you can see that the organisms in that soil are just ready to break down any residues that are going in, turn it into soil organic matter, turn it into nutrients that crops can then take up and really benefit the soil.

- All right.

- So this isn't the only way that soil scientists test soil.

- All right.

- This is our trusty probe that we, you know, we use all the time.

- Okay.

- You can kind of tell where there's a layer that's a little bit more dense.

You can see that the top is a little drier and there's some roots there.

And then we hit this layer if you feel that with your finger.

- Oh wow.

- Yeah.

And you know, we are on the edge of the plot, which could be influencing that.

But you can imagine what might happen if water is moving down and then hitting that.

- So at the end of the day, it's learning as much as you can about this so you know how to use it.

- Yeah, and how to manage it well so that it can, you know, get the best crop you can, but also how you can protect it.

- Our ecosystems rely on soil.

Our food systems rely on soils.

You know, something that's happening within this little piece of soil can have an impact on the globe.

[upbeat music] - We are here at Second Harvest in The Kitchen and the gang is all here.

- All here this time.

- All here.

I love it.

- I'm here, I'm here.

- Val is joining us.

Tomás and of course Chef Laurent Zirotti.

Thanks for being here.

- So good to see you all.

- Today, we're talking about Washington potatoes.

- Yeah.

- And how beautiful and lovely and- - Delicious.

- They are.

And we were just in the Skagit, which is one of the most beautiful places.

- Yeah, it's as far as potatoes go.

Like you just get up there and you see those fields and they're so pristine and beautiful and green and wonderful.

And then you pull up those potatoes and you actually kinda go, wow, wow.

- It's magical.

- They have like the best soil for potatoes.

- Yeah, so we believe a lot about that in France, about the terroir.

What actually, you know, the ground and the soil has so much importance in the food we produce.

- I think we all need to say terroir.

- Terroir.

- Terroir.

- Can't say it.

But what are we gonna make today?

- Today, we're gonna make a frittata.

It's the name of in Italian, but it's more known in Spain as a tortilla.

It's not tortilla like in Mexico.

- Sure.

- But it's an omelet, a baked omelet with potatoes.

- Potato - Is delicious.

- Frittata.

- Frittata.

You can eat it warm, cold.

It's gorgeous, it's easy to make.

Everybody has a cast iron pan at home, so it's a no brainer.

- Okay, so we're gonna see how this potato, Washington grown potato frittata is being made and then we get to taste it.

[upbeat music] Yum.

- Yeah, I know.

It's perfect timing for breakfast.

Right.

- And look at all the, I mean, you could see the beautiful potatoes and there are other- - Yep.

Bell peppers, onions, asparagus grown in Washington.

Beautiful bacon.

And if you are vegetarian- - Beautiful bacon.

- Just remove it, don't use it.

But you can substitute with maybe a vegan sausage.

- Sure.

- Or some other, yeah.

Some other plant-based meat.

- Yeah.

Let's try it.

- Yes.

- Or not.

- Fragrance.

- Yum.

- It smells so healthy.

- How delicious.

Easy to make.

It's a one pan recipe.

You do everything in the cast iron.

- Yeah.

- It's true.

- This is amazing.

- Easy.

- I know, it's super easy.

So in Spain, they have that for breakfast.

It's not very sweet breakfast in Spain, they eat lots of savory and tortilla de patata is a very classic breakfast item.

- I see adding it to my repertoire easily.

- Yeah, yeah.

And you know, you can make it, you don't eat it all.

It's okay, just save it for the next day and you just reheat it or not, right?

- Yeah, you can eat it cold as well.

- Cold, it's fine yeah.

- In a good way, if you have veggies leftover from maybe your meal the night before.

- Perfect way to recycle.

Yep, exactly.

- Well, delicious.

Thank you Laurent.

And I think we're just gonna keep on eating our potato frittata.

- I know my plate's gonna be- - I'm here to eat.

- To get the recipe for Chef Laurent Zirotti's potato frittata, visit us at wagrown.com.

- From the soil to the water, farmers are making sure Washington is healthy and growing great food.

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

We'll see you next time.