inactive activities on a glorious day! huh? let's get out there and play! yeah! sweet. whew! p-l-a-y! play! there are lots of great play ideas online.

>> coming up next on "california country," it's time to relish a sandwich favorite. then we go to one of the 4 meccas of the bay area. and they're known for their wine, but find out how the gallo family is charging into the cheese business. plus, learn how to pick springtime produce from our expert, and see how to whip it into an easy dish from one of our favorite chefs. it's all ahead, and it starts now.

welcome to "california country." i'm your host, tracy sellers. we're at subway today, home of the famous made-to-order sub sandwich. and did you know it has a special california connection in it? it does. let's go order it. come on. so, how populais the international subway chain? well, in the united states alone, subway restaurants serve nearly 2,800 sandwiches and salads every 60 seconds. and today there armore than 2 million different sandwich combinations available on the menu for us to choose from. and almost all of them will have these on them-- pickles. >> we have about 300 transactions a day, so average about 600 sandwiches a day. so that... you know, when i calculate it, it goes about 3,000 pickles a day we go through. yeah.

>> actually, if i can get some extra pickles, that would be great. i enjoy those pickles. >> and if you're eating at a subway or other quick-service restaurant like that on the west coast, you're more than likely going to be eating pickles that came from here!- kruger foods in stockton. dennis kruger is the latest in the family to helm the pickle palace along with his 3 kids--leslie, kara, and eric, who run the family business that has been going stron@ since the early 1900's. >> kruger foods is a fourth-generation, family-owned pickle and pepper, other food business. it started with my great-grandfather and my grandfather after they immigrated here, and they actually started making wine, and when prohibition hit, they basically had these barrels that they can no longer use, and they needed to make a living, and so they, at that time,

decided to use the barrels and started making pickles. >> we bought this place, we made it bigger. it's been a fun ride. and you measure a person not by what he's... how much money he has, but what he's accomplished. and as a family unit and our employees, we've done a lot for a little company. >> a little company then, but a pickling powerhouse now. they crank out more than 200 tons of pickles a day here. they crank out more than 200 tons of pickles a day here. and while they also work with they are known for their pickles, pickles that are made out of cucumbers that come from dino del carlo's farm. a fourth-generation farmer, he has a variety of crops growing on his delta farm, including cucumbers, which he started growing on a whim about 5 years ago and quickly found out

that they loved the rich soil and mild weather the delta region offers. >> what makes a good pickle... is something that's straight. the color is nice. they're not burned on any side from the sun or anything. and the size. that's about the perfect size pickle that they like to receive. >> after the cucumbers e harvested, they're trucked over to kruger foods, where they are washed, sorted, and graded by size, some being destined to be pickled whole, some sliced, and others used as relish. after grading, they are tak over to these large tanks, where they await a nice long bath. >> so what's occurring here is the cucumbers are fermenting, kind of like wine. the sugars that are naturally in the cucumbers will turn

into vinegar over time. during that process, carbon dioxide is released as a gas. so what we are doing is circulating the water very slowly, or the brine very slowly to allow that gas to bubble up, just like in a coca-cola. after it's done, it will look like this one, where it will no longer be actively doing anything. >> after anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks, the pickles are then removed from the tanks, rinsed of excess salt, and put into bulk packaging with different seasonings, which will eventually end up on a burger, hot dog, or a sandwich near you soon. >> but i would say the majority of people love them because it gives you that zest to the sandwich, that acid that everybody loves. so most people like them, yeah. >> all of the time. i'm always...always checking my...checking my hamburger or checking my sandwich, or when i go into subway, i'm checking. i look at the peppers to make sure they look like they should. and...and my kids do, too. it's just something that we do. ha ha ha!

>> and because we're all so passionate about pickles, these pickle producers will continue to produce pickle products to please even the pickiest of palates. whew. that was a mouthful. for "califora country," i'm tracy sellers. so kara kruger told me kind of a cute story of how they got their nickname, "home of the happy pickle." well, that's because her grandfather's name wahenning, but he didn't really like it. so people started calling him hap or happy. so then their nickname became kruger foods, home of the happy pickle. kind of cute, right? well, if you like food, we've got a story that's going to make you very happy. that's coming up after the break. >> welcome back to "california country." you kncw, there are a lot of great reasons to visit san francisco-- the shopping, the views,

the museums, but on top of most people's list is the food. and we found a great place to not only eat, but learn about some of the best food in california. clled the people's marketplace, the ferry plaza building serves residents and travelers alike. shops large and small celebrate food in all of its forms, offering everything from artisan cheeses to breads to chocolate. restaurants and cafes serve cuisine representing the quality and cultural diversity of some of san francisco's best chefs, and on any given day, you can find crowds of shoppers meandering back and forth between outdoor sidewalk booths and indoor gourmet stalls at this real-life food paradise.

>> mmm! oh, my god. >> that's it? "oh, my god"? >> but it wasn't always foodies that were attracted to this meal mecca. it was travelers. a century ago, the ferry building was just that-- a ferry terminal for cross-country land and rail passengers. its 240-foot-tall clock tower stood as a welcoming beacon to some 50,000 commuters a day. >> so it was really, like, the main kind of place where people traveled through to get anywhere from san francisco. whether you were going to the east coast or whether you were just taking a ferry, you came through this building. and it worked that way pretty much until the 1940's. at one point, there were more people using this building every day than the san frabcisco airport. >> that's when phe automobile took over, and the newly built bay and golden gate bridges slowly rendered the ferry building's public function

almost obsolete. the building stood deserted until it was finally dusted off in 003 and reincarnated as the ferry building marketplace. it quickly became san francisco's 7-day-a-week cathedral of local gastronomy. >> well, the idea was that it really would not be like a shopping mall, that it would be very much about san francisco. it's meant to be like the living room for san francisco and that it would be about local producers, local food, the food of california. and so the idea really was to create a way for smaller vendors and farmers to actually sell and be able to have a shop or a store in the city, which they usually can't afford. well, this was the baggage-handling area on the ground floor, and the ferries originally came up into this-- just adjacent to this space.

so the passengers came in. they saw this great skylight. and what we really wanted to do was to make sure that now that we were creating this great public market downstairs, that you'd have this experience of light, and so we cut out the floor here so that you're really connected to this beautiful grand space at this level. >> and at the center of this grand place is the food nexus known as the ferry plaza farmers market. held every tuesday and saturday, it has become a favorite among local residents and world-class efs, all looking to indulge in a little produce gluttony. >> cilantro, cherries, nectarines, strawberries.

>> one of those farmers is michelle ross, who, along with her husband brandon, operates the ella bella farm near watsonville. named after their daughter, the farm is relatively small, with only 17 acres of organic produce. and with bigger farms in the area, they found themselves unable to compete until they found a home at the ferry plaza farmers market, where customers prize the people almost as much as the produce. i get all my vegetables here every week. i come every saturday and every tuesday. >> and so it's fun when you see those connections being made and when you see the relationships because it's really fascinating. every week, you see people returning, asking the farmer, "well, how's the family doing? or "what's going on at the farm right now?" and those relationships are really important. >> a visitor to san francisco might once have left the city without his heart but now no doubt is leaving with a stomach full of scharffenberger chocolate, golden ella bella apricots, and ruby red strawberries,

all locally grown and enough to fill any heart to contention, and all thanks to a rare connection between the city and country. >> and out of nowhere, th whole, you know, farm scene springs up, and all the people come, and it's just a great interaction because you're interacting with people that you don't, you know, normally meet out on the farm or in watsonville or whatever. and so you see people from all walks of life coming, and yeah, it's great. >> it's very gratifying to come to all the markets and see just the levels of interactions and the range of customers who have connected to the farmer's markets. >> so in addition to their tuesday and saturday markets, they've also added another one on thursdays. so try and stop by on one of those days if you get the chance. coming up next, we'll visit a dairy where the cows aren't just providing the milk for the award-winning cheese, they're also providing the power to keep the plant going. that's next.

>> welcome back to "california country." did you knos that california produces more fluid milk, butter, ice cream, and yogurt than any other state in the united states? and we're also number two in cheese production. and it's all thanks to some pretty progressive and productive dairies like this next one. check it out. sure, we recognize the name gallo as being synonymous with california wine. but what goes better with wine than cheese, right? enter joseph gallo, brother to wine enepreneurs ernest and julio. joseph broke away from the family wine business in the eighties and took a handwritten recipe for making cheese and followed his dreams all the way to merced county. he remained farming there until he passed away in 2007. but now his son michael and grandson peter are working to advance joseph's dream

of sustainable farming and thus continue the gallo legacy in agriculture. >> i get to learn a lot on the farm, and my dad has a wealth of knowledge. he learned a lot from his dad. so, you know, we've been a family farm since 1946, so there's a lot of history there, and every day is a new adventure, and there's always a lot to learn. >> just like the family's wine business, which is the largest family-owned winery in the world, nothing is done small around here either. with more than $3 billion in cheese sales annually, joseph farms is one of california's largest cheese-making operations, making everything from mozzarella to pepper jack to sharp cheddar. they see the process of cheese-making from cow to curd, even growing their own feed for the herd of cows which produce the milk for their extensive line of cheeses. >> so when we got in the business, we decided, you know, we wergoing to produce a quality product, and you know, my father always told me that, you kw,

you can't make a quality product unless you put quality into it. >> they are now making 100,000 pounds of cheese a day here, which means a lot of milk from a lot of cows that also maka a lot of something else. yep, you guessed it. a lot of cow waste, shall we say. but in order to keep with joseph's beliefs of staying sustainable, the family came up with a solution. they built one of the first methane digesters in the state, which turns cow poop into power. the cow power now provides as much as 80% of the electricity needs for the cheese plant. >> the methane digester is important because it literally turns wastes into resources, and it turns something that normally would be a waste-management problem, it turns it into green energy that runs our plant, and it really makes our cheese a sustainable cheese brand, and i think beyond saving us money, it's also really great for the environment.

>> what are we walking on? >> well, it's air caught inside the digester. and it's essentially the world's largest water bed. >> it is, right? the farm is so committed to extending joseph's legacy of loving the land around him that they even donated an area around the fm to the state of california and to the u.s. fish and wildlife service to create an environmental preserve for waterfowl. it's all part of the larger pictur that joseph had when he started his venture. having grown up on a farm, he had always enjoyed the outdoors and believed that wildlife and agriculture are fully compatible and that connection should be protected for generations to come. >> the new phrase is sustainability, and it's a new phrase for something that farmers have been doing for centuries. >> and as long as people are enjoying the products they areaking on the farm, the next generation will continue joseph gallo's legacy in the world of sustainable agriculture. after all, what tastes better

than the success of knowing you've left something better than the way you found it? >> i have a lot of pride in what my family has done, and...and the business that they've created, abd iém just proud to be a part of that and help out any way i can. >> well, joseph farms is producing some really good cheeses, too. they've won over 70 medals and 45 gold medals in state and world competitions. hmm. well, coming up next, have you ever wondered how to pick the best produce when you go to the grocery store? i know i have. well, wait no longer, because our expert has some tips for you coming up after the break.

>> did you know that california is t only state in the country to commercially grow almonds? there are more than 6,000 almond farmers throughout the state, growing on more than 500,000 acres. almonds are easily one of the state's biggest crops, but down in san diego, they're getting a new life. and it's all thanks to a little help from mom. meet mama mellace. she's the face behind the newest company to utilize and expand on california's booming nut crop. the company's headed by mike mellace and mike runyon, who were living good lives in the corporate world until one day fate intervened in the form of a simple snack. >> he buys these cinnamon almonds that come in a bag. you see them at a lot of the festivals. i had never seen them before. and they're real big out on the east coast. and so we started eating them. he gives me some, i say, "oh, my goodness, these things are great." >> we went back, he bought a whole bunch, and so then we started talking about how cool it would be to have like a little thing on the side

doing fairs and festivals to make a little extra money. > they agreed on the idea, but not much else at first. with one mike from the west coast and the other from the east coast, they quickly realized they quite possibly could be the odd couple entrepreneurs of the food world. >> i'm a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. you know, he's from new york. our families are totally different, you know. but it works out good because we look--everyone thinks we're brothers. and literally today, we dressed just alike. i go, "hey, hey, i'm glad you got my phone call," you know? "hey, what are you wearing tomorrow?" but it was so funny and there are so many things that, you know, we're going, "oh, my gosh." i mean, it's almost like we were separated at birth. >> around here they call him happy mike and me serious mike. >> so the two started experimdnting and began making small batches of flavored nuts in their own garage. word quickly spread about their unique products, and it was only a matter of time before they had to find a name and face for their new company. that's when they turned to a familiar person, mike mellace's mom.

>> anybody's who ever met my mom would say food is love. i mean, she definitely expresses her her love for food. that's-- so, i mean, that's just, right or wrong, that's what she does. >> but before mama signed off on the company, they had to stick to some of her principles. first of all, a kitchen should be filled with the taste and smells of home; something that is evident the moment you step into the sweetly-scented production plant. from irish creme to butter rum to pumpkin spice, there is no flavor that is off-limits here, even if they're a little hard to tell apart. >> try that one. that's an almond. >> got that part, mike, thank you. maybe orange? >> no. >> see? what is it? >> that's amaretto. amaretto. it's amaretto. there you go.

>> well, clearly, mike, you don't know me that well. but that's all right. all right. >> ok, this one, when we first did the batch, it smelled like dirty feet. >> i gotta tell you, i got nothing on that one, either. is that the irish creme? >> no, butter rum. >> close. butter rum. >> close! >> there you go, it's an alcohol flavor, you got it. you gotta get this one for me, you gotta get this one. >> ok. onion? >> yes. >> yay, yay! >> whoo! >> nice job, look at that. look at that. >> only took me 10 pounds of nuts before i got it. another principle mama insisted on is to use only top ingredients. she insisted her name would only be on the best. so for the company's most important ingredient, nuts, they turned to one of their largest and most respected farms in the business--the stewart and jasper farm in the san joaquin valley.

>> we first started buying from them, we bought, you know, a feq hundred pounds and they used to come on ups, you know. they remember selling us a few cases. >> and one of the main reasons stewart and jasper took a chance on the small company was because they could identify with two young n coming from opposite backgrounds to start a company on a simple dream. started in 1948 by poultry farmers romain stewart and lee jasper. the farm has grown into a hugely successful integrated oper@tion involving thousands of acres of hauling, shelling, processing and marketing. the second and third generation of jaspers are running the business and finding new ways to market their nuts, including through people like mike and mike. >> you gotta start somewhere. you don't see too many people that come, want to buy a pick-up load of almonds and all of a sudden they're buying truckloads, but it's been great to see that progress. >> people like mama mallace's has made t almond industry as successful as it is.

>> today, while maintaining their own business, the company supplies mama mallace with all of their almonds. and over the years, the two companies have come together and formed a unique partnership that, yes, even a mother could love. >> so even if it ended tomorrow, the people that we've made friends with; the people that we've reached out to, the things that we've done, you know what, it's great. it really is great. >> today on "food 101," we're talking about some springtime favorites. so here to help us is greg corrigan, sior director of produce and floral for raley's. greg, good to see you again. >> you, too. >> so, asparagus. >> asparagus is one of the all-pime favorites.

absolutely. >> what are we looking for here? >> well, you definitely want a nice green stalk. hopefully it's all the way down. sometimes it's not quite all the way down. you'll sometimes see some of that light woodiness. these do look really good. so you would definitely want to see that. you want to see no feathering of the tips. if you see that, that's starting to get d and dry out. so you don't want to see any feathering of the tips. nice tight buds just like this. beautiful. this is actually really nice looking asparagus. >> perfect. i's perfect. >> of course. >> look at that. so you're saying if it's, like, white right here... >> towards the base. some people like to peel it off with a peeler, or some people will snap it actually. where it snaps, the'll throw that part out. but we definitely want to avoid any of the white woodiness on any of that asparagus. >> ok. so another one that we like... >> another great one is an artichoke. you can actually hear the squeak to it a little bit sometimes. at indicates that it's nice and fresh. you definitely want to avoid one that's spongy or soft. those are tending to dry out and dehydrate. so look for one that's nice and heavy and firm and a little bit squeaky, and artichokes are fantastic. >> and again,

always my question-- so, how long will it store in the fridge? >> you know, these will actually last up to about a week in the fridge, yeah. keep them in a nice, you know, cool, crisp drawer. they'll hold really nice in a fridge for you. >> fabulous. >> and you know, actually easier to cook than some people think. boil them up, boil them up, throw them in the microwave. absolutely. absolutely fun. and we're right here in the... castroville is the artichoke capital of the world actually. and consumption here in northern california is the highest per capita in the whole united states. >> what is peak season for artichokes usually? >> peak season--actually, they have a couple seasons. we'll get a nice season in the fall, and then in the spring again, we'll have another real good flush of some real nice, big jumbo artichokes. that's when we'll get the big 18 and the 12 counts that are just a meal in itself. >> awesome. all right. so now that we've picked a good artichoke, what do we do with them? well, chad minton has an idea for fried baby artichokes. those have got to be good, right? here you go. take it away, chad. >> the amazing thing about the artichoke is a lot of people don't really

know what the heck to do with this thing. and this is an extraordinarily simple preparation that only requires baby artichoke, buttermilk, some grilled lemons, minced garlic, and whole thyme. now, one thing to consider when dealing with these artichokes is, they put off an extraordinarily bitter oil. so you have to make sure to thoroughly wash your hands after handling these things. ditionally, everything that they touch is going to taste bitter. so it's important to really clean your work surface. now, with these things, i just peeled off the exterior, and now i'm going to cut off the top. after doing that, i'm just going to run my knife around the exterior and take off all of the green parts. it doesn't have to be beautiful, because the next step, we're just going to slice them, and into the buttermilk they go. this could be done a day ahead, if you'd like. absolutely no problem with soaking them overnight. i have a mixture here

of semolina and rice flour. rice flour actually has 3 times the starch content of conventional all-purpose flour, which is going to give us a really, really crispy baby artichoke. the ratio for this is 2 parts rice flour to one part semolina. now i'm just going to shake off this buttermilk, and in they go into the flour mixture. we'll give them a quick toss. now they go in the fryer. now, if you don't have a $60,000 professional fryolator in your home, you can certainly take a heavy-bottomed pot, fill it with your favorite oil, stick your thermometer in, and when it's at 375 degrees, you're ready to go. but it's always a good idea to test-fry one to begin with. if it comes out burnt, your oil is too hot. if it comes out soggy, the oil is not hot enough. as you can see, they're beautifully, beautifully browned now. and this is a crucial part.

as soon as they come out of the fryer, salt. we use kosher salt because of its texture. it gives you a good feel, and you can control how much you put on them. now they go into a bowl. we're going to squeeze a little bit of this grilled lemon juice on them and a little bit of minced garlic. we're just going to give them a light toss. so what i have here is a simple prepared mayonnaise, and i'm just going to add some of our grilled lemon juice and minced garlic and some fresh tme. and thyme you can just kind of crumble over the top of this, and you're going to get all the leaves and none of the sticks. and then that way, we don't need to spend the entire day

picking thyme. we're going to just stir that up. season it with a little bit of salt. and here's our lemon thyme aioli and grilled lemon. there you have it. absolutely gorgeous, super easy, appetizer, fun party food. so once again, for "california country," this is chad minton urging you to use your creativity and please keep cooking. >> thanks, chad. that recipe is great. i think i ate all those artichokes, by the way. hmm. if you want that recipe, visit our website at californiacountry.org, or you can go to our facebook site if you have a chance, too. let us know what you think. and we'll see you again next week on "california country."