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

Learn why Washington is home to the world's most productive potato fields and farmers by visiting potatoes.com.

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

Whether it's a combine, a tractor, or a plane like this one, our Washington farmers use all sorts of technology to grow the best food in the world.

We're gonna take a close-up look and get a bird's-eye view of technology in farming.

Tomás is racing to pick pears at Bland Orchards.

- Time, time.

[group laughing] Think we ran outta time.

You have to stop picking now.

- And I'm making apple crisp cookies at Twenty-Seventh Heaven Bakery in Spokane.

- So good.

- This is like a good breakfast cookie or something.

- Yeah.

- Or lunch or dessert.

- Snacks.

- Snacks.

- Anytime.

[Kristi laughing] - Then I'm taking a look at the Palouse from above.

Here we go.

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

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

- Flavorcation.

[Kristi laughing] - And I'm just gonna hold on.

[Tim laughing] - You got 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.

- Yes, we are.

- Wow.

I got work to do.

- Yeah, you do.

- All right, let's go.

[mellow music] - Nestled into downtown Spokane, there's a little place that's perfectly named, Twenty-Seventh Heaven Scratch Bake Shop feels like walking into grandma's kitchen with wonderful baked goods, hot and ready.

Owner Lydia Cowles is taking Washington grown ingredients and turning them into something magical that keeps people hooked.

- She puts more than just ingredients in her bakery.

- You can definitely tell that it's made with care and love.

- I haven't had a store bagel since, because I can't.

- Owning a bakery is not for wimps.

- No.

- Right?

- Not even a little bit.

[laughing] I have one helper and she helps me with my bread dough, but then everything else is me.

- She's got a great personality and she's such a hard worker.

- I get here about 4:30 every day.

- Yeah.

- And then I'm lucky if I'm getting home by 4:00 in the afternoon.

- But all that hard work pays off.

Her dedicated customers flock to the door to make sure they get their favorites every day.

- I really like the pretzel knots.

Those are delicious.

- Peanut butter cookies.

The best I've ever had in my entire life.

- You know, they're all so good.

- Thursdays, we do pretzel knots that we take our scraps of all of our different bread dough and mix it together, and then we make these little knots.

This past week they sold out by 9:00.

So you have to get in early for them.

- That must make you feel good, right?

Like- - Yeah.

- When things are selling out.

- It does.

- My favorite bagel is the jalapeño cheddar.

Our office fights for it every single time.

You've been warned.

We will get it first, but it's amazing.

- Stay tuned because later in the episode, Lydia and I are making special apple crisp cookies.

- You're not leaving much.

- Do you need me to put some back on there for you, Kristi?

- Yeah.

Thank you.

- There you go.

[Kristi laughing] [upbeat music] - The Wenatchee Valley is said to be the best place in the world to grow pears.

And I think the product pretty much speaks for itself.

Here at Bland Orchards in Cashmere, there's an awesome and enthusiastic family working day and night to make sure their fruit lives up to its reputation.

I caught up with Vince and Lisa Bland and their daughter Erica McConnell as they were gearing up for harvest.

How close are these to being harvested?

- Well, tomorrow.

- As soon as tomorrow.

- Tomorrow.

- Tomorrow, okay.

So they get one more day to grow.

- Yeah.

One more, yeah.

- Do you like green pears?

- Yeah.

I like 'em firm.

[group clamoring] I like 'em firm.

- We need to educate people though on what is a ripe pear.

You go by the pressure of the stem.

So you take your thumb and you press.

As you feel right now, it's hard.

Okay?

- Yeah.

- So that'll tell you it's not ripe at all.

Don't go by color.

If you wait until this thing is totally yellow, it'll be rotten.

So you've gotta go by the pressure of around the stem here and the softer, the more ripe it will be.

And then you'll find where you like your pear.

- Talk to me a little bit about the irrigation process of keeping these pears fed with water.

Where does that come from and how does it get here?

- Well, it starts with a good snow pack.

We always do the snowpack dance every winter.

It's flowing down to us.

- I see.

Okay.

- So, through the ditches that are miles long.

- It's like playing the lottery, you know?

- Right.

- You never know if you're gonna win the mega million.

- That's right.

- I tell people, we don't go gambling because we gamble every day.

- That is your life, isn't it?

- Yeah, we don't need a casino to get our thrills.

[family laughing] - Just wake up every morning.

- We just need a snow pack enough to roll in the dice, though.

- That is the rule.

Yeah.

- I don't think people realize, they go in a grocery store.

They want to pick a pear, but they are so dependent on what snow falls in the mountain in order for these pears to get the water they need.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I mean, nothing would grow without the water.

- Nothing?

- We were nervous this year because we got, what, two days of snow last winter, I think.

- That's it?.

- And it wasn't enough to do- - Not until like January.

- But they did get late snow.

They did get late snow in the mountains, which helped us.

- Right.

- Now Erica and I are gonna go head-to-head in a pear picking competition.

Let's do this.

Just set me up for success, okay?

- Well- - It's competitive.

Our family's competitive.

She's gonna set herself up to win.

[family laughing] - I noticed that, like there's a big bunch over there.

You're giving me these little scrawny ones.

90 seconds.

I'm a novice.

You're a pro.

- Whoa.

- Let's just see.

- I drive tractor now, so.

- Okay.

- I would say not on the pro spectrum.

But- - So I would take this tree 'cause it looks like it has more pears.

You're gonna take that tree.

- Okay.

- And we're gonna start the timer and see how I do, okay?

- Okay.

- All right?

- Lemme think about this.

Okay, go.

- All right, go.

- Oh, she's already moving.

- Oh, she's already moving.

- Adjustment.

Adjustment.

- Wait a minute, where're all my pears?

- Hey, you complain about this tree.

- Oh, and I dropped one.

- You'll get billed for that.

It's fine.

- Okay.

Time, time, time.

[group laughing] I think we ran outta time.

You have to stop picking now.

I just wanted to tell you, you gotta stop picking.

I can already tell.

[Erica laughing] Your bag is pretty full.

Look at this.

Hey, hey.

hey.

Some of mine rolled over there.

We're on a hill.

- It was like that.

- Yeah.

So some of mine rolled over to her side.

I think mine have a better quality than yours, so maybe I edged you.

Good.

Nice work.

- Good job.

[all laughing] - I don't think either one of us are hired.

- Right, let's stick to our day jobs.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- We had fun picking, but picking is a hard job.

- Yes.

- And if you're doing that up and down a ladder all day long- - All day long.

- Seven hours.

- That's tough work.

So the next time we're eating pears at a grocery store, we better be thankful.

- I like doing stuff like this because it does remind you why you're doing it.

Sometimes you get stuck in the every day of just getting up, trying to do the best you can.

And then when you finally stop and look around, you're like, look at this place.

- Yeah.

- Like, this is amazing.

- Well, at the end of the day, all I could say is beautiful land.

A beautiful product, and most importantly, what a beautiful family.

You guys are awesome.

- Thanks Thomas.

And we didn't even pay you to say that.

[family laughing] [upbeat music] The Pacific Northwest is responsible for growing the majority of the pears for the US.

- How many varieties do we grow?

We will have the answer after the break.

- Coming up, I'm making apple crisp cookies at Twenty-Seventh Heaven Bakery in Spokane.

You're not leaving much.

- Do you need me to put some back on there for you, Kristi?

- Yeah.

Thank you.

- There you go.

[upbeat music continues] [both laughing] - And we're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest trying Chef Laurent's special apple beignet.

[mellow music continues] - In the US, we grow 10 varieties of pears and that's why we got fresh pears all year round.

- We're back at Twenty-Seventh Heaven Bake Shop in Spokane.

Here, owner Lydia Cowles is using Washington grown ingredients to make something magical.

Turns out nothing's better than Washington ingredients in the hands of a skilled baker.

- She gets the flavor just spot on.

She's always super friendly and warm and it's always nice talking to her.

- The best, the best.

- While I was active duty in the Navy, I actually looked up a vanilla cupcake recipe online, made that and was like, wow.

The flavor of that is just phenomenal.

So I was like, okay.

And I'm hooked.

I spent that next year-ish making stuff for my sailors.

- You got hooked.

- Yeah.

- You got hooked.

- It's more than just a shop.

It's like a little home.

A little place to go and experience energy and stories and a whole lot of good stuff.

- What did your sailors think of your creations?

- They were always asking me, ma'am, when are you bringing more cupcakes?

[Kristi laughing] Well, when are you gonna pay for them?

- Yeah, exactly.

[Lydia laughing] So what are we gonna make today?

We're gonna make apple crisp cookies.

- Awesome.

- So it's kind of a spin on an oatmeal raisin cookie.

- Okay.

- Delicious.

[both laughing] [calming music] - Apple crisp was like one of my favorite desserts.

- I love Apple Crisp.

I love apples.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

We've actually never made cookies before on "Washington Grown," so, here we go.

- I like to go for simple.

So, here we go.

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Yeah.

- What do we need to do first?

For our dry ingredients, we start with salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

Then add cake flour and rolled oats.

- And this is her recipe.

It's written on parchment paper in pencil.

I love it.

Any kind of cookie with oats in it seems to be like my favorite.

[Lydia laughing] I don't know what it is.

- Something makes them feel more like fall, maybe?

I don't know.

- So what kind of apples are we using today?

- Honeycrisps.

- Honeycrisp.

- They are my favorites.

So.

- They're so good.

- I think back in the day, all the grandma's are like, no, we have to use Granny Smith for everything.

I disagree.

I feel like you should use your favorite apples in your recipes.

- Yeah.

Use your favorite apple.

- I used to work on an apple orchard, so I'm very picky about my apples.

- Next, Lydia takes some butter and combines it with brown sugar, adds an egg and stirs it up.

- And I always crack my eggs into something that's clear because then, look in the bottom and you'll see the shell.

And actually the best way to get the shell out is with more shell.

Sounds crazy, but.

- Okay.

- Use the big chunk of shell to get it out.

- Oh, okay.

- It can, will kind of just stick to it.

- Yeah.

I'll have to try that this time because I always like, trying- - Use a your spoon or my finger, yeah.

- Your fingers, or?

- And it's like sliding around.

Next we had apples that have been soaking with brown sugar and cinnamon, stir it up, then add our dry ingredients.

- Now this is the part your mom would let you, you had to fight with your siblings if you had any, who got to lick this.

- I know.

You're not leaving much.

- Do you need need me to put some back on there for you, Kristi?

- Yeah, thank you.

- There you go.

[Lydia laughing] You can see those big chunks of apple in there.

- Oh, yeah.

- You can smell the brown sugar and the cinnamon.

- Well, the dough is really good, so I can't wait for the finished product.

- We put them in the oven for about eight minutes, then rotate them and put them back in for eight more.

[mellow music continues] - Cinnamony.

- And they're really nice and soft inside.

The apples are amazing.

- That's why it matters what apples you put in there.

Put in your favorite apples.

So good.

- This is like a good breakfast cookie or something.

- Yeah.

- Right?

- Totally.

- Or lunch.

Or dessert.

- Snacks.

- Snacks.

- Anytime.

[Kristi laughing] Wake up in the middle of the night.

- Exactly.

[Lydia laughing] Anytime of day or night.

- To get the recipe for Twenty-Seventh Heaven's Apple Crisp Cookies, visit us at wagrown.com.

[upbeat music] In order to keep our farms productive, it's important to make sure the crop is clean and healthy.

That means that sometimes growers need to apply pesticides or fertilizers to the crop.

Here in Ellensburg, companies like Airoterra are helping growers do that safely, effectively, and efficiently.

- We are able to apply different agricultural products, pesticides, seeds, and fertilizer to increase their production.

- Eric Meador is the president of Airoterra.

Alongside regular application, they're looking to new drone technology to help them apply products in tricky places.

- Agriculture's a tough business.

And to make it, going forward, many farmers are realizing they have to embrace the proper technologies to maximize their profitability.

- It started out with ground application and then saw this as a way forward.

- Quinton Hufford is the operations manager for Airoterra.

As one of the pilots, he knows how important preparation is for something like this.

- It flies mostly autonomous, so, once you've got all your planning and your parameters set, pretty much hit go and it goes out and it'll fly the mission.

When it runs out, it comes back and lands back where it took off.

We refill it and it goes again.

We can also take over pretty much any time if there is an obstacle.

If something comes into the airspace, shut off the sprayer, land it, bring it back to us if there's an obstacle or a problem.

- I promise I won't touch it.

- No, you're fine.

- I really wanna touch it.

Can I touch it?

- Oh, yeah.

You're welcome to touch it.

It's very durable.

- Yeah, I would imagine so.

It's big.

- It is, yeah.

This is the tank here that we fill.

And then this drone has two nozzles on the back side there.

So what that actually does is it spins as the liquid comes out.

And then we can control that depending on the product you're applying, depending on the conditions, you may want a larger or smaller droplet.

And so we can control that on the fly with the controller, which gives us a lot of flexibility there.

- How much does this hold?

- So this model here holds about 10 and a half gallons.

There's always pressure to reduce pesticide use.

With drones, your rate control is adjusted by speed and GPS, no excessive overlaps, no over-application when you slow down, it's really just a great tool to both minimize inputs as well as maximize the time window when you can actually get out there and manage the land.

- It kind of seems like there's room for all of the different types of application.

- That's definitely true.

I don't think drones gonna be taking over for manned aircraft or anything.

I mean, there's things that they do better and there's things that manned aircraft does better and there's things that ground rigs do better.

So I think they're not gonna be a solution for everything, but I think they'll have their place.

- Coming up, I'm taking a look at the Palouse from above.

And I'm just gonna hold on.

[Tim laughing] [uplifting music continues] [upbeat music] - Step aside, grocery store donuts, because Hello Sugar in Spokane has elevated your typical donut to the next level.

- Mm, yum.

[Tomás laughing] - Yum?

Will your brother like the cherry one?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

You take it to him.

Here at Hello Sugar, sharing is caring, and owner Amy Staton is making something special, not only for the taste buds, but for the eyes as well.

- When you have mini donuts, you kind of get to try lots of bites.

And I think that's really fun.

- I mean, these definitely could be eaten by the mouthful, for sure.

Today we're making a special donut with, you guessed it, Washington Apples.

- We have our bowl of fresh warm donuts.

So this is the face of a donut and then this is the butt of the donut.

- Okay.

- So, this side is not as pretty.

So we always say, "Butts up."

[Tomás laughing] - Butts up.

- And then you're going to lift it straight up.

This is the secret sauce of Hello Sugar.

- Okay.

This is it.

- Yep.

So this is our edible glitter.

You're gonna pretend that you're shaking some dice and you're gonna just gently bring it over the donut.

- It is quite a presentation.

It just kind of catches your eye a little bit.

- Cheers.

- Cheers, indeed.

Easy.

It reminds me of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios.

- Yeah, it totally does.

- Yeah.

I would need a big box of these.

Yeah, we couldn't just stop with one.

So now we're making an Apple Beer Donut.

That too much?

- I mean, no, not... [Tomás laughing] Can there be too much?

- Yeah, that's a good call.

[lively music] As soon as I bit into it, that butterscotch hits me.

- Yeah.

- And then the apple comes in.

Let's see which one is the customer's favorite?

First up, the pressed cider.

Okay?

- That one's very good.

- Apple-y?

Mm-hm, yeah.

- Okay.

- Not too overpowering.

I can really taste the apple.

I really like it.

- And now the apple beer.

- That one's my favorite right there.

[laughing] - That one's your favorite, okay.

- That' where it's at.

- Tastes like apple pie.

- Tart apple.

- Now I think it's time to bring in producer, Dave, to see what our very own self-proclaimed professional donut connoisseur thinks is the best one.

- The best donut I've ever had has actually been an apple fritter.

Oh, I like Pressed Cider, Green Bluff in the fall, right?

- That's what this is all about.

[lively music continues] - Immediately, you can taste the apple.

It's so good.

And the donut, though, is crispy.

- I know.

- That's gonna be hard to beat.

- Okay, well let's- - That's really good.

- Let's try the Apple Beer, see what you think.

- Okay, we'll go for it.

This is a really tough call, but I have to say I'm sort of a donut purist.

[Tomás laughing] And although this one is just amazing, I prefer the- - Okay.

- The first one.

- He's going with the Pressed Cider.

- The Pressed Cider.

- That means it's two to one in favor of the Apple Beer.

So we do have a winner.

You know, you got some love for the Pressed Cider, but the apple beer, this is the one that stands out tall.

Come down to Hello Sugar soon and get yourself one of these.

[mellow music] - Over the years, we've seen hundreds of farms of all types, from dryland wheat in eastern Washington, to irrigated potatoes in the Columbia Basin, orchards up north, and berries out west, our farmers do an amazing job at anything they grow.

- What makes a Washington farmer great is their adaptability.

- Tim Cobb owns Farmland company.

They use a somewhat unusual tool to manage farmland for absentee tenants around the Northwest.

- We take care of collecting the rent, making sure the insurance is there, doing the maintenance, working with the farm tenant.

- How does the plane come into play?

- So, we affectionately call it the Farmland FOX.

Some of these farms are in areas that they're kind of hard to get to.

And so I was looking for an aircraft that we could actually use and land in the field and not need an airport.

- Yeah.

- And this is the aircraft for that.

The most graceful way to get in.

I'm just gonna show you once.

- Graceful is good.

- You don't want to hit your head.

- Okay.

And then just scooch?

- And then you just kind of scoot in.

- Okay.

Where's my head going?

- Yep.

- You go.

yep.

And push.

- And then push.

- There you go, you did it.

- I did it.

- I'm reaching.

- Yeah, we don't want me falling out.

- Don't fall out.

Okay.

And then here's your headset, okay?

- Okay.

I feel so official.

[Tim laughing] [mellow music continues] [upbeat music] - We're rolling onto the runway here.

We're gonna be departing to the south, Spangle area traffic.

- And I'm just gonna hold on.

[Tim laughing] [upbeat music continues] There's nothing to hold on to.

You got this, you got this up here if you need to.

- I mean, you could grab onto my arm, whatever.

Whatever you need.

- Here we go.

Oh, this is so pretty.

- You're from viewpoint though, right?

- Oh, it's gorgeous.

- It really is.

So what's going on, obviously the dark green below us is a winter wheat.

The light green below us is a spring planted wheat, typically, the stuff that you can see there, it doesn't even look like there's anything planted there, that's likely a garbanzo bean because they're really small.

- Okay.

- Or maybe a canola.

Wheat is king.

Right behind that is canola and lentils and other pulse crops.

The soils are just perfect for holding water long enough to be there for the plant.

It's just an incredible area to farm.

So this aircraft, the Kitfox, is definitely in the light sport, what we would call bush plane category.

It's capable of taking off fast.

It's capable of landing slow.

I mean, we're going right now 85 miles an hour, right?

And that allows us the ability to see things slowly, to take things slowly, to be safe.

This is one way to manage farms.

- Yeah.

It's so cool.

- Yeah.

- Technology is amazing.

- Technology is amazing.

- Where are we at right now?

- Right now we're almost to Malden, is what it's called.

We actually manage a farm right over here.

- Oh, okay.

So you get to meet lots of great farmers.

- Yes.

Yeah.

Some of the best parts of my job is just working with the farmers of Washington.

They're the best, they're just- - They are the best.

- They're the best.

I know we may be biased in this little cockpit, but you know what?

- A little bit.

- We're flying over Washington and that's where we're from.

And so we can be biased.

- You love your job, don't you?

- I really, really do.

You know, as far as creature comforts, you know, the beverage service is terrible, okay?

There's no lavatory.

- No.

- Right?

Yeah.

[Tim laughing] - Here's our airport over here.

Back to Spangle.

- That's where we started.

- That's where we started.

And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna slow the aircraft down.

- It's been great.

- Thanks for being here today.

- Yeah, thanks for piloting.

- Yes, absolutely.

[Kristi laughing] Oh, we're gonna bounce.

Hang on.

- We're good.

- All good.

[Tim laughing] Hey, welcome back to Earth.

- Yeah.

We made it.

- Yes.

We certainly made it.

[hands clap] - That was awesome.

- Oh, that was so good.

I'm glad you came.

[Kristi laughing] [uplifting guitar music] - We're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest and I'm hanging out with the gang today.

[group clamoring] I love this part.

I love this part.

So we have Val and Tomás and Chef Laurent Zirotti.

Thank you.

- Yes.

Oh, thanks.

- I know, we just have a lot of fun, don't we?

- We do, we do.

- Yeah.

It was a lot of fun going up in that little prop plane.

- Yeah.

- It was called, a funny story about that.

It was called the Farmland FOX, right?

And it had the name written down on the plane.

And I had posted a picture of me in the plane and one of my friends says, oh, it was nice of them to name the plane after you.

[group laughing] So I am the farmland fox.

- There you go.

- Oh, okay.

They might drum up more business if you were the pilot.

- There we go.

[Tomás laughing] - So you said the landing was kind of?

- The landing was fun.

- Oh, yeah.

I was shooting it.

And so I saw her come in and we saw the bounce that this plane took.

- He just says, "Hold on."

No, it was great.

I wasn't scared at all.

- I love those smaller planes, just, I just feel so much closer to nature from another view.

- And sometimes it's difficult when you have a, like, the pear orchard that I was in where sometimes it's hard to see in bird's eye view.

Sometimes a plane is helpful in those situations.

Because over there in Wenatchee and Chelan, boy, they're using those hillsides like you wouldn't believe.

And that family, you saw how much fun we had.

It was amazing.

Now that is really what it's, like, about.

- Well, one of my favorite things to eat is a beignet.

- A beignet.

Yes.

- Which is what we're going to make today.

- So we're going to do a little apple beignets.

Very traditional recipe.

I used to do that at school when I was 15, 16 years old, so 10 years ago.

[Val laughing] - Right.

- Oh, all right.

- And you know, I think it's good.

You'll see.

I hope you enjoy it.

- Okay, let's see how we'd make it.

[upbeat music] Fresh out the fryer.

- Look at that.

- Fresh out of the fryer.

- Just like I like 'em.

- Oh, my gosh.

So nice and warm.

- I honestly, this is one of my favorite food groups.

- Reminds me of an elephant ear.

It's a process, this batter.

You know, you have to whip the egg whites.

You have to incorporate it with the beignet.

So it's a little, I would say more complicated than your regular batter.

But it's lighter.

And if you have excess of batter, use your waffle maker and you can make a waffle out of that batter.

- Oh, good.

Oh yeah.

- I love the apple.

It's just, the surprise of the apple inside there.

And you can change this up just by any different kind of apple you decide to use.

- Or a pear.

- Or a pear would change the whole profile of this.

- I feel like we need a moment of silence- - While we eat.

- This is just so divine.

- The traditional way to eat it is with a jam in France.

So apricot jam was the traditional way.

- Delicious.

Oh, so many options.

- Really fun.

- So just a really good way to get creative.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Love beignets.

- Great idea.

- I ate it all.

- To get the recipe for Chef Laurent Zirotti's Apple Beignet with Chocolate Sauce, visit us at wagrown.com.

From the skies above to down here on the ground, our Washington farms look pretty darn good.

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

We'll see you next time.