man: the idea of utilizing a non-native plant such an olive is quite intriguing. it's a sign of resistance and resilience to all the oppression that the tribe has been put through over the decades and millennia. man 2: we've been here for thousands of years, and we believe in taking care of our land sustainably. and oncehe tribe started gaining enough resources to be able to purchase some ranches, it was just something that was meant to be. ma3: the tbe was conceed about water conservation, concerned about pesticide use, and wanted to grow a crop that was well-suited to these soils

anthis climate. man: our people have always been farmers, cultivating the natural plants and foliage that are around us, but to take a totally foreign entity and turn it into a product and be accepted as a purveyor of extra virgin olive oil was intriguing. man 4: as we're looking toward less water supply, warmer days, olives are really positioned to be the crop of the future. man: through sustainable farming practices, the land will give us strength to move forward in those areas to continue to protect the land. announcer: this program was made possible in part by a grant from anne ray foundation, a margaret a. cargill philanthropy. marshall mckay: this has been home to the yocha dehe wintun nation for approximately 15,000

years. we know this through research and findings of sacred sites around the area. this valley was a-bustle with actity during the spanish occupation. this was part of a spanish land holding of about 50,000 acres at one time. and that brought along a great difficulty of times because they took us away from this land and moved us to the missions and any other holdings that they had as laborers. and after that, when the u.s. calvary came in to protect the gold rush and people in san francisco, they used this valley as a transit route to lake county. so there was a lot of agitated movement. there was a disposition we couldn't stay here anymore. so life was really modified greatly when we had people coming in that weren't wintun people. i alys look at the colonization aspect and the

oppreson as a springboard. it gives me as a native american the opportunity to overcome that oppression and to say i can do something that wasn't allowed 200 years ago. and i can utilize that activity in order to benefit my people and also my neighborhood and my environment. in the mid-eighties, the tribe was given the opportunity to develop a bingo operation. we took the chance with not any kind of anticipation of success. and it was just something that we took a shot in the dark at. it did turn out to be successful. and over the years, we went from a bingo operation to a full-fledged casino resort. we're very blessed that we have clientele coming out to this very rural area.

but i think it's the attraction of the land. it's the attraction of the valley that is attractive to our customers, too. a resort business is wonderful and it's helped the tribe immensely, but we realize that that isn't the end all. what it did was provide resources for health, education, and development of other businees. [theme music playing] man: yolo county, where the mountains blend into the sacramento valley. here, farmlands flourish, irrigated by wells which tap underground water supplies and by the surface flows of cache creek. agriculture covers most of the county, spreading its checkered patterns across the land. james kinter: before the casino

was here, our families all worked on the fields. so it was just kind of a natural kind of progression. we' in an ricultural area. we believe in taking care of our land sustainably, good water practices, sustainable farming, and so that's what we decided to do. mckay: the concept of an olive mill and olive orchards came out of a discussion that i had with my tribal council at the time and farm manager here. we were looking at, what can we grow on the land that we have? and we had lack of water, sometimes the soil wasn't so good. so a discussion came up, well, what can we plant there that would work with the conditions that we have? we looked at several different kinds of crops, all didn't fit the conditions of the water and the land, but olives did. dan flynn: olive oil has been here for about 250 years in california, first brght up by spanish missionaries on their way up through mexico, and they wound up in san diego, planted

olive trees, and it was through those missions that the olive industry grew in california. about 25 years ago, the modern olive oil industry in california got off the ground. producers in the wine country areas of california who had visited europe had tasted some really great olive oil, and they wanted to produce a similar style here in california. mckay: our people have always been farmers in that sense of cultivating the natural plants and foliage that are around us. we're used to providing our own food products through acorns and other trees and other crops, but to take a totally foreign entity and turn it into a product was daunting, and it was also triguing. the university of california davis is just 25 miles south of us. and so it was natural for me to go there and look for professional help. flynn: the yocha dehes been a great partner of ours. they

attend our courses on olive growing, on sensory evaluation of olive oil, on the milling of olives for oil. mckay: in talking to the research department at uc davis, i realized that there was a lot of contamination in imported oil simply because it has to be shipped so far. so that became a quest also. we looked at the numbers for developing a mill to crush the olives close by to the fields because the mills that existed were several hundred milesway. in the end, it's fresher, has better taste if it's crushed very quickly after harvest. uc davis has given us an upper hand on development of the olive mill because th had that information at their disposal and they were willing to share it with us. and it was a great boon for our productivity. kinter: we started thinking, hey, what do we want to name this thing? what we came up with was the blue ridge mountains right here. seka means blue in our language. and so we wanted to add some of our tribal language to our brand, and

that's kind of how it spawned out, and that's where we are today. [machinery whirring] man: california has seen a huge surge in olive oil production in mainly the past 10 years, and there's a few reasons for that. one, the mechanization and the different growing techniques that have come about. but also, the consumer was starting to realize that the imported oil that they have been using forever a lot of times wasn't extra virgin, and a lot of times it wasn't even olive oil. super high density. this is the most common way to grow olives in california now. super high density means that the trees are planted very close together, and they're plantemore in a hedge row than what you would consider

to be a traditional orchard spacing. so the trees are planted 13 feet by 5 feet apart and are mechanically pruned to keep them in a compact, almost shrub-type of plant. and that is so that they can be harvested mechanically with a machine that rides up and over the top of the tree and that removes the fruit with bow rods and then places it in the tractor and ultimately in the trailer. flynn: with this modern system, you get super fresh olive oil that is harvested quickly and delivered to the mill quickly. and because this is a product that is made like a fresh fruit juice, we're pretty much getting the best quality olive oil, in that long history in california, we're getting it in our current time.

etters: olives are very well-suited to the climate here, and they use a lot less water than the nut crops that were grown here previously. flynn: we have a rainy season and then a long dry season, and that's what olives like. and then we can regulate how much water they get through irrigation. etters: one thing we have a lot here is heat. you know, 110 degrees is not uncommon in july and august. and that heat really helps intensify the flavors in our olive oil. fln: some research has shown that olive trees will be a carbon neutral crop for california. so it's--it's a very good crop for the future.

etters: olives will start to bloom around mid-may, but by late may, we can kind of get an estimate of what the size of the crop is gonna be. and then around mid-october, we'll start our harvest. we take samples of the fruit to look at the oil content and the moisture content to make sure that we're maximizing the amount of oil in the olives. we'll move the machines in, and that fruit drops onto a conveyer in the harvester and then up onto another conveyer that unloads it into a gondola pulled by the tractor. that gondola hauls the fruit out to a set of trailers on the edge of the orchard. and then the trailers take the fruit down to the mill where it's unloaded and processed into oil. once the olive is removed from the tree, it starts to break down just like any other fruit. so the key to producing very fresh and flavorful oil is to

get those olives from the field to the mill in as short an amount of time as possible. so having the seka hills olive mill in close proximity to our groves is really important for us because within sometimes 10 minutes of that fruit coming off the tree, it's being processed into oil. man: this mill, most of it is from italy. it's an italian mill. it's alfa laval. there are several rather large mills in california that will produce a million gallons or more this year. we're hoping to produce around 70 to 75,00gallons. but for the most part, everybody else is smaller, so we're in a unique position with our size.

the whole olive, the pit just get ground up. it becomes a paste. so then there's a big piston pump up there that moves the paste into the mill. and the first step is the malaxers. once in the malaxers, we try to maintain about 82 degrees fahrenheit for anywhere from 45 to 60, 70 minutes. from there, we pump out and move to the next piece, which is our horizontal centrifuge. we call it the decanter. so that's just a screw inside a housing. and by centrifugal force, it's moving 3 phases out from the paste, the pumice, the oil, and water. the last piece over there which would be our high speed separators. they'll spin about 7,200 rpm and basically polish the oil, get it as clean as possible. and once that process has taken place, everything is pumped through a one and a half inch pipe into our tank room.

mckay: frankly, i had used imported olive oil quite a lot prior to understanding the difference freshness and health qualities that a local product could provide. and it's very interesting because each year the flavors are different. this year's crush is uniquely its own. once you go extra virgin, you can't go back. etters: we have 6 different varieties of olives now in production--arbequina, arbosana, frantoio, taggiasca, picual, and coratina. and each of those varieties has a different flavor, different pungency. some, like the taggiasca, is very mild and buttery. and the picual tends to be more bitter d robust. we wanted to diversify and add different varieties so that we could offer the customers different flavors in their oil for all different source of uses. flynn: the taste is something that i think people are beginning to appreciate more and more as they recognize that this

is an oil that's made like a fresh fruit juice. and for the first time, people are starting to taste this with the modern production that we have in california. they're recognizing, "oh, i see where all the excitement is about olive oil. it really does have great flavor." etters: the uc davis olive center has been huge in ucating growers, educating the processors, and, probably mo importantly, educating the consumer on what true extra virgin olive oil should be. having uc davis so close to yocha dehe has been huge for us. flynn: the last couple of years, we've milled--the fruit that we have grown on campus, we've milled it overt yocha dehe. this is our uc davis oil that was milled at seka hills. so these are glasses that have been developed by the international olive council. the reason they're blue is so the color

doesn't influence your evaluation. you know, if it was green or yellow or whatever. it fits nice in your palm, and your palm can warm it up a little bit. so people often will swirl it around like a glass of wine. as you swirl like you would with that glass of wine with this big bowl here, you're getting the aromas to really release. so i swirled, i sniffed. [slurping] so y're getting this pungency that comes on, which is a natural part of the antioxidants of the fruit. and it almost makes you want to cough, this one. not too bitter, actually, this oil. and it's got tt kind of grassy, fresh flavor that we're looking for.

what we do, we're scientists, and we're trying to provide trusted information that helps growers evaluate their quality so it's been improving year after ar. the data that we collected on california olive oil became the foundation of the standard that we have in california, which is the toughest mandatory standard in the world. the freshest oils will have the most antioxidants in them. as the oil ages, those antioxidants start fighting off oxidation. and as they do that, they're using themselves up so you have lower antioxidants in the oil.

flynn: extra virgin olive oil doesn't have defects such as rancidity or some kind of fermentative or other oxidative defect. and when it's fresh, it's not going to get necessarily better with age. i mean, it's not like wine. a lot of people just like that super fresh, really bright flavor because they just haven't experienced it that often. and so if they really like it fresh, they want to get as early as possible in the season. i started to think of olio nuovo as released right while people are still harvesting, kind of

like beaujolais nouveau. and then you're really enjoying that really fresh, lively flavor. green: olio nuovo, new oil. basically it's coming right off the centrifuge. it's got a lot more aroma, a lot of bitterness, pungency, kind of that peppery feeling. so and people like that. it's fun. but it does disappear within a couple of months, so that's why it's special. etters: we milfor about 45 days out of the year, and the rest of the time, we just keep it nice and shiny for people to look at as they're enjoying our tasting room space. kinter: when we put this operation together, we wanted to make sure we were putting together a full-service olive mill and tasting room. been great for the valley. it's brought people together. our neighbors are able to come in here, whether they're a large grower or a small grower, and get a custom crush done. etters: custom milling is sothing that the tribe really wanted to incorporate into the facility. growers were shipping their oils sometimes hours away to other mills and sacrificing

some of the freshness and quality in their oil. mckay: it's always been the vision of the yocha dehe to be a cooperative neighbor. before the casino, resort, and olive mill, the whole valley was underserved. but now we have the ability to attract people to come here to see and feel the area and also enjoy the farms and ranches that exist here. farm to fork growth in yolo county has really lped us get excid about what can be done with the oil in a culinary aspect. chefs, restaurateurs, they're all very excited to see and taste what each year's crush is like. [indistinct chatter] man: so when we opened the restaurant, what we hoped was that we would create a space for people to come and discuss the issues of the day and

potentially invite us into those conversations. and that, over the last 13 years, has really happened. and that's really why we feel so close to the tribe, because they have been welcoming to others that are coming into their land. so when you come in the restaurant here, we think that "welcome" ithe first word you'll hear and we hope it's the feeling you ave with at the end of your meal. and the tribe has kind of done that same thing with the whole region. when you sit with marshall and those folks from the tribe and watch them look at the place where their people have been for thousands of years and they view themselves as stewards of the land, th they look at it and say, "this is the best use for this land to make the world better for my grandchildren." and the future isn'tecessarily the same as the past. so to bring in olives, right, a non-native species, as something that's gonna help sustain the tribe and sustain the land, they are continuing to be good stewards of the land while being good stewards of their workforce and being good stewards of the tribe themselves, so being

sustainable. for us, sustainability is always about how we use what comes off the land as best we can. we want to honor what comes in. we always think about the seasons, right, what's coming in. so the season changes with the way the foods change. so one of the things i love best about olive oil is that it changes, not only from year to year but from season to season or from when it was pressed or how it was held or what you're using it for. [indistinct chatter] man: mid-october in northern california, and we're getting really excited about new harvest olive oil. so this is the oil

that has just been milled. seka sent us some oil today, and it was just milled yesterday, and that oil's at its peak. we use olive oil in a lot of different ways and try and put them to things that are really textural, where flavors are fairly delicate. one thing we like to do a lot is we'll do kind of just like a little crudite of fresh vegetables and make a pairing of those and just cover them in olive oil. so the persimmons, bernie. we're gonna do a plate of this persimmons. we're gonna slice it thin. it's better if it has a little crunch to it, but not too thick. maybe like 8 slices down. season it with salt, sprinkle around the pomegranate seeds, the walnuts, the endives, and the goat cheese, and then we'll finish with the seka hills olive oil. i think there's a chance it will be a little too bitter, but we'll see. we'll taste it with the seka hills. in making dishes and coming up with things as a chef, we look at balance. the type of applications we're talking about using in oil when you're gonna want the oil there as an ingredient in a dish where it

stands out, you're really looking at how it pairwith the other things. so some oils will pair well with things that are sweet and delicate fruit and some oils will pair really poorly. sergio, the table, they're just gonna have a caesar salad and then the chicken right after the caesar salad. another area that we like to use the oils is finishing meats can be reay nice with different olive oils, particularly oils with a stronger bitterness component. we're really fortunate to have a dish that people are so enamored with. it's roasted chicken for two, and we serve it over a salad mustard greens and bread that's kind of like a bread stuffing. when it's time to put the dish together, we'll cut up the chicken and dress the salad with a really simple vinaigrette, and we always use the seka hills oil.e find that bitterness and pungency components of that oil pair really well with the drippings from the chicken

which end up in the bread salad. it's really kind of rich and it pairs really well. ok, good. let's bring it over here. man: that'll work. norris: mm-hmm. it does. it tastes really nice with the acidity of the goat cheese. man: it's not as aggressive as some of the other ones. norris: seka hills really fits that role in being a small producer, being relatively local, within a couple hundred miles of the restaurant. you know, there's environmental impacts there that can be somewhat reduced by not having to transport food from across the atlantic. woman: so we're adding the seka lls olio nuovo? norris: yeah, go ahead and add it on. that's great. i see our role in how we highlight producers, growers, ranchers on the menu that would create a platform for the food. we're very far removed from our food system, and the more we can

understand how things get to our table and what that process looks like in a holistic way, i think that's really important. mckay: the yocha dehe is keeping the connection to the land through sustainable farming practices and sustainable business practices through acquiring more land in order to protect it. we believe that the land will give us strength to move forward and to continue to protect the land. announcer: this program was made possible in part by a grant from anne ray foundation, a margaret a. cargill philanthropy.pgdki■■? d

honor this morning to get to introduce heather mcteer toney to you her keynote address is entitled climate action is the social justice issue of our time. heather is the national organizing director of moms clean air force. people heard of it. it's an organization of over a million moms and dads mobilizing to fight air pollution and climate change in order to protect children's health our communities and- climate justice