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 Kristy Gorenson and welcome to Washington Grown.

This is our tenth season and even after visiting hundreds of farms, I'm still surprised to learn about some of the things we grow in this state, and this episode is no exception.

Tomás is visiting one of the very first hazelnut farms in Washington.

- When I did research in Oregon, they said, you can't grow them here in Eastern Washington.

- So Jim, what's the secret then?

- The secret was I just did it anyway.

[both laughing] - And I'm making hazelnut cappelletti at Aerlume in Seattle.

- They hold the sauce and all the other ingredients really well.

That's the reason why we chose that size.

- They're like little buckets for all the goodness.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- Then I'm learning how researchers are making sure our hops are pest free.

- I mean, these mites will lay 200 eggs each day.

- Are these the eggs?

The black spots on them?

- No, that's poop.

- Oh, that's poop.

[both laughing] - All this and more today on Washington Grown.

[upbeat music playing] - This is my favorite part of the day.

You gave me this job just to keep me occupied, didn't you?

This is what fine dining is all about right here.

[dog barking] - I could eat these all day.

- You all make this look so simple and easy.

- Cheers to that.

- I only hang out in pretty potato fields.

- After a long day shopping at Pike Place Market, there's nothing more refreshing than a cozy meal, and if you're looking for some of the best food on the block, come on in to Aerlume, a cozy spot with sweeping views of Puget Sound paired with seasonally focused dishes, will have you rested, relaxed, and ready for dessert.

- I mean, the setting is nice.

You can't beat the view.

- You can see the ferries leaving and the sunset.

- The restaurant itself has like major wow factor.

When you walk in and you see the beautiful view, like every single time it feels special.

- Executive chef Douglas Jones designed his menu around farm to table ingredients.

Seasonal dishes keep the freshest Washington ingredients coming into the kitchen and being served with special flare.

The fun part about what we do is we're actually able to pair up with farms and they're able to plant product for us, and then we're able to use that throughout the whole season kind of as it's available.

We want to get as much out of the product as we can.

And still have some, some good fun with all of it too.

- Classic Pacific Northwest cuisine.

- There's literally not a thing on the entire menu that you can't eat, that you won't love.

- They constantly have a rotating menu, so they're only using fresh ingredients.

It always keeps it interesting.

Every time we come, it's something different, a different type of experience and it's, it's always great.

- I mean, we love their food.

- What do you like about pairing with farmers and using the local ingredients for your dishes?

- The, the diversity of it all.

You can have really great product grown just west of the mountains and then completely different stuff growing on the east side of the mountains.

- We have a lot of different tastes a lot of different products.

That's why we love Washington.

- Don't miss later in the show when Chef Douglas and I make one of Aerlume's popular dishes the hazelnut cappelletti.

This has no calories whatsoever.

[Chef Douglas laughs] I can tell by looking at it.

- I, I think there's a very famous chef who always said, "Fat is flavor."

- It is.

Fat is flavor.

[upbeat music playing] - Washington grows hundreds of amazing crops, but I'll bet you've never seen this before.

Today I'm in Wapato at Blue Sky Hazelnut Trees to find out exactly how this orchard is growing these delicious little treats for us to enjoy.

- I think it is the first place that there's a commercial hazelnut block planted in eastern Washington.

- Jim Canaday was inspired by the many hazelnut farms from our neighbors in Oregon.

With a dream and a love of hazelnuts, he decided to pioneer something new just for us here in the Evergreen state.

- We visited many farms in this area.

What do they say to Jim when they find out this guy's growing hazelnuts?

What's their reaction to that?

- They just kind of scratch their chin and go, hum.

When I did research in Oregon, they said, you can't grow them here in eastern Washington.

- So Jim, what's the secret then?

- The secret was, I just did it anyway.

Their high density is 18 by 20.

Normally we're planting six feet apart in the row and 12 feet between the rows.

So 500 trees versus their 100 trees to the acre.

- Wow.

- This variety is a variety that is almost extinct in Oregon because it's really susceptible to Eastern Filbert Blight.

That's what we focused on up here because we're dry.

Oregon has 42 inches of rain.

We have like 10 maybe at the very most.

- Yeah.

- The varieties that we have are proven old varieties that are very, very good flavorful.

If you're a big time hazelnut grower, then this is how you get into 'em.

When they're green.

- Kinda like a coconut.

- Yeah.

A lot the same.

- And there it is.

- Okay.

When it matures, this skin right here will be on the outside of it.

- Can I eat this?

- Oh yeah, you bet.

- That's, that's it.

- Tastes like coconut kind of.

- Yeah, it does.

- Even now, if you put that in the microwave.

Oh man, they're good.

I tell you what, you're gonna have trouble talking to me because boy, they get in your throat and you can't get 'em you can't get 'em out of there.

- So this is your clever idea right here, huh?

- Yeah.

Well it's, it's a idea.

The big issue that we have is harvest of course.

They fall on the ground.

You get every nut.

- Really?

- You're not gonna lose any nuts 'cause they're all inside that net.

So that's a big deal.

- That's clever.

- Yes.

Yes.

That netting right there, that test netting is the first netting in the world, I'm almost positive, that they're actually using it to collect nuts.

- Hey Tomás, I see you found the best place in the house.

- It's actually quite amazing.

This is a nice little swing right here.

- Let me show you the finished product.

- Oh, here we go.

- Here it is right here.

These I just microwaved and they get crunchy.

Those are gonna be a little chewy 'cause I just did 'em.

Oh, a little crunch going on there.

- There's the hazelnut flavor I'm used to.

- Yep.

- Now look at these.

These are gorgeous.

- That variety right there is a different variety than this.

That's why they're smaller.

- Okay.

Whoa.

- So it's a different flavor- - I like that.

- For sure.

Now is this the one I would traditionally be tasting more often than these little guys?

- No, you'd be doing the little guy.

- Well, these are great.

- I know.

I know.

Guess what?

I got three acres of 'em out here.

- Thank you for taking a chance and bucking the trend and going against the grain and say, you know what, why not?

- Exactly.

Exactly.

- Here in Washington, we're blessed with incredible natural resources like rivers, forests, mountains, and great soil to farm in.

But without careful thought toward the future, we could lose it all.

That's why today we're visiting the Spokane Conservation District.

- I wanted to be a farmer.

I've always wanted to be a farmer.

I wanna be a pig farmer of all things.

Who wants to be a pig farmer?

But I did, and this is the closest I probably got to it, but I got to be part of conservation.

- Randy James is the board chair for the Spokane Conservation District's Board of Supervisors.

Behind him is a very special piece of conservation history.

- So conservation has a really long legacy.

I think it kind of brewed out of the Dust Bowl.

We're looking at 80 years of legacy of conservation districts.

We've been involved in trying to conserve our land and do better practices on the land for a really, really long time.

- Conservation districts are still kind of like America's best kept secret and we don't wanna be that.

- Vicky Carter is the director of the Spokane Conservation District.

She and her team want to encourage the community to learn more about conservation and what organizations like this are doing for the environment.

- We wanna be a resource.

So as a whole, I wish more people understood the significance and the role of conservation districts.

Conservation is a topic, again, it's for everyone and it's about everyone.

- How many pieces of property or how many acres have we touched with our programs?

And it's right around a half a million.

500,000 acres we've assisted with with all of our programs.

That's huge.

That's something we're really proud of.

- In 2017, the conservation district began construction on a new campus.

As an old mining quarry, they felt it was the perfect place to teach people about using our natural resources in a special way.

Even using wood from torn down barns in the interiors of the buildings.

- I go back to that redevelopment, taking something that had a useful life and a useful purpose.

Right?

We can't deny that mining is important and being able to find the next use of what this could be.

That was in 2017.

We're in 2022 now.

This is our new home and we honestly couldn't be happier to be here.

- The the board is people that live right around them.

We're neighbors.

We work for free.

I volunteer for 24 years now with the conservation district.

Much of our work is behind the scenes.

We're hardworking, we're dedicated.

We love the land.

It's part of our soul, part of our being.

Trying to do better for what, what's here, what we have.

- We might not always agree on a particular practice or a particular, you know, way of doing something, but we can all agree that it's important and that it's worth having conversation over it.

- I think it'd be really nice for the community to come introduce themselves.

They really truly want to do best by the land and for the people.

[upbeat music playing] - So the question is, how old are hazelnut trees when they stop producing?

You'll find out the answer after the break.

- Coming up, I'm making hazelnut cappelletti at Aerlume in Seattle.

This has no calories whatsoever.

I can tell by looking at it.

And we're in the kitchen at Second Harvest, trying out some warm Brussels sprout salad with hazelnuts and cranberries.

[upbeat music playing] - Hazelnut trees can produce well past a hundred years.

A lot older than what I am right now.

- We're back at Aerlume near Pike Place Market.

This majestic yet cozy setting gives diners the chance to relax with delicious drinks, artful cuisine, and great company.

- We are a little bit obsessed.

We come here often, maybe like once every other week.

We love to bring like our friends and clients and colleagues here.

- This is fantastic food.

Fantastic setting.

I was like- - So the thing that we really focus on is really doing kind of farm to table cuisine.

The biggest portion that I think we try to embody is just getting really good ingredients and treating 'em really nicely.

- Executive chef Douglas Jones wants his staff to know everything about the menu.

This way servers can inform guests about the little details put into each dish so they can have the best experience possible.

- The most work, I think that goes into everything we do is product knowledge.

We wanna make sure that all of our servers know everything there is to know about the dishes so that they can then convey that to all of our guests.

- It is one of the best dining experiences I've had from just a service level.

- Every time we come here, they treat us like family.

- Just high end, but in the friendliest way possible.

- For a restaurant that is not very big, it feels very open and inviting.

The thing that I love the most about it is really just the the approachability, but it feels a lot more upscale than most places.

- Yeah.

- The view is amazing.

It's good when it's nighttime and you can't see the water.

It's amazing when you can see the water.

If it's raining, you get those spooky Pacific Northwest vibes.

We just had a ferry going by a minute ago, so if you haven't been to the city before it's the perfect spot.

- We get to make something today.

What are we gonna make?

- We're gonna make our cappelletti dish.

It's featured with hazelnuts.

We use it in the filling as well as in the cooking of the product.

- Oh, I can't wait.

Now what is cappelletti exactly?

- It's basically, I always joke and say it kind of looks like a little Pope's hat.

It's a handmade pasta that's filled with hazelnuts, goat cheese, and then we do some herbs in there as well.

- Now why do you like using hazelnuts in dishes?

- It has a really nice buttery texture as well as a nice, you know, kind of crisp flavor to it without being overbearing in any direction.

- Yeah.

We start by breaking some mushrooms into pieces and cooking them in a pot with some oil.

- Essentially the idea is were kind of oil poaching them to soften 'em up, get a really good texture for 'em, and then get a lot of flavor.

- Next we add some ingredients to flavor the mushrooms.

We start with some truffle peelings, garlic, shallots, sage, mint, and thyme.

Then we cook it down before removing everything, but the mushrooms.

Finally, we add some sherry and cook for another 20 minutes.

This is- - The mushroom conserva.

- Yeah.

And so they all just kind of got cooked down a little bit.

- Yeah, they shrink up.

They lose a lot of water through the whole process.

- Yeah, and then I see here we have our lovely pasta, our cappelletti.

They do look like Pope hats.

- They hold the sauce and all the other ingredients really well.

That's the reason why we chose that size.

- They do.

They're like little buckets almost for all the goodness.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- We basically use a little bit of the same ingredients to kind of garnish the plate.

So it's a goat cheese mix with some fresh herbs and some citrus.

- Oh, yum.

While the pasta is blanched, we add some garlic, shallots, sage, and crushed hazelnuts into a hot pan.

Then we add in our mushroom conserva and some kale.

Finally, we add in our pasta and let it cook.

Now it's time to plate the dish.

We start with some goat cheese.

Then add the kale and pasta.

It has a real rustic kind of earthiness to the whole dish.

- Absolutely.

That that's really what we try to do.

We, we love to focus on the seasons and really do a lot of fun little bits that you won't really find everywhere.

- Finally, we top the whole thing off with some brown butter sage Hollandaise.

[upbeat music playing] This has no calories whatsoever.

I can tell by looking at it.

- Well, you know, I, I think there's a very famous chef who always said, "Fat is flavor."

- It is.

Fat is flavor.

Oh, this is so good.

- Nice, light and airy but still rich at the same time.

- It is, it is.

And I can taste the hazelnuts' buttery, earthy flavor.

- And then it gets that bit of texture to it too so it's not as bland.

- That's so delicious.

I'm gonna eat some more.

- Do it.

- Thank you so much.

This is beautiful.

- My pleasure.

- For more restaurants, recipes, and more visit wagrown.com.

[upbeat music playing] - Today we are gonna talk about imperfect produce and using it in your kitchen and not just tossing it or wasting it and throwing it away.

We don't wanna do that.

We want to have less waste and be able to utilize what we've spent our money on.

Right?

So the cauliflower, you can see, how there is some browning on there, in no way does that mean that you have to just toss this and start again.

It is very, very easy to just cut these off.

So another one, my daughter loves bananas, but every now and then they will start to brown like this.

A great way to utilize these is either one, take them and make banana bread right away.

Just toss 'em in there, banana bread, everyone loves that, or you can freeze them.

Another thing too is potatoes.

Okay we got this guy right here.

You can see how it's starting to discolor a little bit there.

Again, just chop that out and the eyes.

You just kind of just peel 'em out there like this.

It's gone.

Washington grown potatoes, they're the best.

Onions a lot of times you'll start to mold on the side or they'll get a little soft or squishy.

Again, cut those off.

I usually slice down the middle and as long as the middle's fine, your onion is mostly usable.

Just cut off that bad part.

And really, truly the same thing goes for any other kind of produce you have.

Corn, if there is a a section that's not good, just slice it off and use the rest.

Very rarely is there something in your kitchen, unless it's been like in the corner, forgotten for weeks, that you're gonna have to throw the whole thing out of.

Most of the time you can salvage at least part of it.

- Coming up, I'm learning how researchers are making sure our hops are pest free.

- I mean, these mites will lay 200 eggs each day.

- Are these the eggs?

The black spots?

- No, that's poop.

- Oh that's poop.

[laughing] [upbeat music playing] - You can find a ton of great burger joints in Spokane.

And now that Ethan Stowell's Victory Burger has moved into town, there's another fantastic option to add to the list.

Chef Tariq Rahman wants his food to really sing for his customers.

- When I was coming up, food has always been an interaction of language.

This is how I communicate with people.

- Although the menu has a ton of great options, the real draw here is the dill pickle fries served with every burger.

- I can just smell- - Smell the vinegar.

- That tangy vinegar coming off of those things.

And this is a pickle aioli.

- A pickle aioli.

- All right, here we go.

Let's get into this.

The fries are perfect.

They got a nice crispness, fluffy and soft on the inside.

That is such a nice tangy bright contrast to those rich fries.

- Yeah, everything should have a reaction to what you put.

You have white vinegar powder that just seems like on its own would pucker up your lips.

- Right, too much.

- But that in the in the pickle aioli, everything comes together.

- Mellows it out and just brings it together.

Right.

I'm gonna eat a whole basket by myself.

All right.

Let's take these dill pickle fries out for a spin and see what people think.

[upbeat music playing] - Those are pretty good.

- It's very good.

- They're tangy and not too pickly.

- The dill is really quite good.

- You could taste the dill, but it's not overpowering.

The aioli is amazing.

- It mixes well with the fries.

I think it's similar to like a ranch.

- Nice and creamy.

But here's the thing, it's the crunch of the fry and then it's soft on the inside.

That's a really good fry.

- I also taste a lot of vinegar.

- That little tangy bite.

- Yeah, tangy.

That's what I, that's what I was trying to think of.

- Very good.

I'm surprised.

- That's really good.

- It's not something you would think that would work, huh?

- No, Not at all.

That's pretty good.

- Great beer can't be made without great hops.

And growing great hops means making sure that they're healthy, strong, and pest free.

Here in Granger, researchers are studying how to safely get rid of pests, like mites, to make sure our Washington beer stays delicious.

- My name is Dan Groenendale.

I work for Doug Walsh here at WSU at the IAREC.

That's the Irrigated Agricultural Research Extension Center In this yard, we're doing miticide trials where we have multiple plots that we spray.

When we go up later to our lab, the girls come out here and grab a number of leaves and they'll brush off mites and they'll count the number of mites that are present on the plant.

They'll come in three days, five days, seven days, and fourteen days later to take counts on the plants to see how well it either keeps the mites down or just removes them completely.

Or how long it takes for the mites to come back so that we can figure out the time spread in between sprays, and also, you know, what's what's controlling them the best - Here in this lab, we study all insects and mites.

- Okay.

- But on hops, mites are like the number one pest because they love the heat and they love hops.

- I mean, who doesn't, right?

- Right.

- Researchers like Tora work in the lab studying mites and other insects.

- I mean, these mites will lay 200 eggs each day.

- Are these the eggs, the black spots?

- No, that's poop.

- Oh, that's poop.

- Yeah, the little white dots are the eggs.

- Are eggs.

Black spots are poop.

And there's, there's a mite right there.

- Yeah, so that's a female.

I mean, and they love hops.

- It's amazing how many eggs there are on just a tiny little- - it's crazy.

- Yeah.

- What do mites do to the plants?

- Early on you'll just see the, mostly on the leaves, but later on they'll get into the cones and that'll affect the oils that are there, that the, the brewers are using.

So we wanna figure out how to keep that from happening.

We're always trying to look towards getting away from pesticides and the residues that they leave.

We are looking at what they consider N.C. or non-chemical solutions to keep mites down.

- So we are at a mint field outside of Granger, Washington.

- Lab and field entomologist Peter Forrence showed us this gorgeous field.

These plants may be part of a natural solution to keep mites off of hop plants.

- This is from the company called Clean Green, peppermint oil, rosemary oil, and geraniols, as well as some soaps and mineral oil and a few other ingredients.

It's done really fantastic the, the last couple of years in trial, we've had almost 100% mite control with it.

- And this is Washington Mint that's being used?

- Yes, it is.

- That's great.

It smells delicious.

I think it's lovely.

- It is very minty.

- Yeah.

- And sometimes when I'm working heavily in the field, you know, it's just my pants will be covered and my wife will know when I've been in the mint fields.

- Yeah.

[upbeat music playing] - Welcome back.

We are here at Second Harvest Food Bank in The Kitchen where we get to taste some great recipes from allrecipes.com.

I have my taste testers with me today, Tomás.

- Hello everyone.

- Yes.

It's our favorite job, right?

- Indeed it is.

- And Laurent Zirotti, our wonderful favorite chef and culinary arts instructor as well, so- - Good to be here.

Kristy and Tomás.

- Good to see you.

- And we, we love your expertise too.

- Oh, thank you.

- We are talking about hazelnuts and you actually, Tomás, got to go to a hazelnut farm and that's one of those things that you don't realize- - Exactly.

- we actually grow in Washington.

- Right.

And that's why the episode's called Who Knew?

Because when we arrived there in the Lower Valley near my hometown of Yakima, I had no idea that there was this hazelnut farm there.

And it was a very cool process to understand how these nuts just fall off the tree.

We had an opportunity to try 'em.

It was just really cool to know this was happening right here in Central Washington.

- I'm a big fan of, I don't know about you guys, but hazelnut and chocolate.

- Oh yeah.

- That nice little paste of, you know, I'm a big fan of hazelnut and chocolate.

- Yes, big fan.

- But not today.

Today we're gonna have a, a different recipes.

- We are.

It's called warm Brussels sprout salad with hazelnuts and cranberry.

That sounds- - Oh wow.

- Delicious.

So I'm excited to give this a try.

- Me too.

[upbeat music playing] - That looks delicious.

It smells delicious too.

I'm really smelling the pungent cheese.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

That's Pecorino?

- Yes definitely the Pecorino is really nice- - Yeah, I love that.

- There's a lot of fun colors in this.

- I didn't like Brussels sprouts until I was an adult.

Now, I really like kind of experimenting a little bit with how to cook them.

Whether you roast them or, I don't know.

Yeah.

All sorts of fun things.

- I like the idea of the maple syrup because I think Brussels sprouts are a little bitter and the addition of sweetness, it's always nice and it balance that bitterness.

- Yum.

- I, I love that salad.

I think, you know, to me Brussels sprouts is a, is a very fall type of vegetable and you know that would be a great salad for Thanksgiving.

- Oh, for sure.

- Absolutely.

- With the cranberry, with that spirit of- - Really pretty.

- The nuts and, and the, and the fall, the fall taste.

- And for those of you at home that are trying to figure out how to get your children to eat Brussels sprouts, this is a great salad to try.

There's so many cool sweet and tart flavors amongst this.

So it's not that it's hiding the Brussels sprouts, let's just say it's enhancing the Brussels sprouts.

- So you should try to recreate this, and if you do recreate it, make sure you post it on Facebook and tag us on social media.

We'd love to see your creations or hear about just some of the ways that maybe you switched it up.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- There's a lot.

Give 'em a try.

- Good stuff.

To get the recipe for warm Brussels sprout salad with hazelnuts and cranberries, visit wagrown.com.

It's amazing how much more there is to Washington Ag that meets the eye.

That's it for this episode of Washington Grown, we'll see you next time.