>> coming next on "california country," meet one couple who went from erving food to growing food, then take a trip to the school that is cooking up some of the top chefs in the world, and see how one family has been going and growing strong for more than 90 years now. plus learn some great new repes from some of our favorite chefs. that's all ahead, and it starts now. [captioning made possible by california farm bureau federation] welcome to the show. i'm your host tracy sellers. today we're in sacramento at one of the

really iconic restaurants of this city, the riverside clubhouse. you know, it's a place that's known for, well, the large cow that's atop it. kind of unique, right? that brings us to our first story. you know, in san francisco, they have more than 3,500 restaurants, and it's a number that's constantly changing because of some closing and some opening, but we found one restaurant that takes the farm-to-floor concept to an entirely different level. you may remember matthew and terces engelhart from our story a few years ago. they're the owners of the small but popular chain of restaurants in the bay area called cafe gratitude. >> it's amazing. it's delicious, amazing, beautiful.

>> you may also remember cafe gratitude because the menu was particularly unique there. none of the entrees were cooked. nothing but raw food was served, and in a town where being different and unique is embraced, the idea was a success, and so the couple recently opened another eclectic restaurant called gracias madre in san francisco. the menu is mostly vegetarian, but unlike their previous eateries, the food is cooked here, and as the name suggests, the restaurant has a latin flare that was in part actually inspired by their former restaurant. >> the employees at cafe gratitude when they didn't eat there, they got burritos, but they couldn't get an organic burrito, so we were thinking, "wow! if only we could feed them healthier mexican food." >> hola! >> hola, familia! >> hola, familia! >> como estas? >> and like their original

restaurant, this one is filled with equal amounts of love, farm fresh food, and unique flavor combination. >> this is kale that's sauteed with onions, and the white is the cashew cam cheese, it's the cashew cheese. >> this is what quality control looks like. >> quality control. >> the food's tasty, it's incredible, it's filling,ou know, and the menu has enough different items that if you get tired of something you can just mix it up, try new things, and you get a different experience eating the different meals, you know? >> just the different flavors like the butternut squash that they have, the plantains, and th mix it with everything else, and the kale. that's what i mean, like, by the freshness of it. it's something that's, like, new and i haven't had before at other places. >> gracias madre means literally "thank you, mother" in spanish, and it is both an

ode to mothers everywhere and to mother earth. you seethe couple has also branched out when it comes to where they get the majority of their produce. in addition to supporting farmers across the state, like new natives in watsonville and john dicus in nipomo, the couple now has one more place to source farm-fresh ingredies, their own farm! >> so be love farm in vacaville, where we' now living and we grow up to--did we do 50--50% of the food that we usa in all of our restaurants. so, like, right now the tomatillos, the chiles, the cilantro, the zucchini, the corn, the watermelon, the grapes--we have fresh grape juice--the figs, the peaches. >> the italian plums. >> so we--yeah. a lot of the food. we grow the fo. >> be love farm is 21 acres, and we've been here--this will

be 3 years in january. so this is our third growing season. >> located in the hills of vacaville about 60 miles east of san francisco, the couple's new farm and home is aptly named be love farm, and you don't need the myriad of signs talking about love or even matthew's tattoo to see how much this couple is loving what they do for a living now. >> we grow fruits and vegetables for our 7 cafes and restaurants in the bay area, so we have about 7 acres of fruit trees and about 7 acres of vegetables. >> they have planted almost anything and everything they could think of to see what would work and how they could use it on the menus at all of their restaurants, and their switch from cooking food to growing food has been an eye-opening one for both. >> biggest adjustment was probably the pace, you know, because you're never done. so there isn't that sense of you can make this to-do list like you might in an office job and kind of check it off. in

farming, you're never done. >> i @earned that in farming your success and your failures are there for everyone to see, and you really just have to let go of, like, looking good or having it all together and just--it's an ongoing experiment. [crunch] cucumber. we have 5 bee hives. we're bringing in some peaches that need a day or two. we're bringing in tomatillos. >> and whether cooking for family and friends at their farm or for customers at their group of restaurants, the couple is grateful to be able to bring the best food they can to people all across northern calirnia. >> i describe the farm as my canvas that i get to paint on, and you got to balance productivity with beauty, with fertility. so it's a beautiful place to work and to play.

>> i live in a state of amazement. you know, it's just--i'm always--i see something i've never seen before even though i walk the land every day, and i'm always amazed. >> there's much to berateful for, and this is a very powerful place. looks like a restaurant, but it's way more. >> in addition to sampling the produce at the restaurant, you can also sample it at home. that's because ey've set up a special csa program where you get boxes of the produce and pick it up right at the restaurant. kind of cool, huh? you can check out our web site for all the details. well, coming up next, if you're an aspiring chef, you won't want to miss our next story.

>> welcome back to "california country." you know, great chefs aren't just born overnight. they have to learn the inner workings of the kitchen. so where do they go? well, as it turns out, a place that's in our own backyard here in northern california. charlotte fadipe has the story. >> at the world-renown culinary stitute of america, trainee chefs who are learning their craft in 6 cooking and baking suites are taught several things, including the fact that their day often starts early, like 5:00 in the morning early! even before the rooster crowed, karl diehn was feeding chickens at the institute's 1 1/2-acre student-run farm in st. helena, two hours north of san francisco. >> make sure they have plenty of water. we usually change it twice--at least twice a day.

>> then it's time to harvest the potatoes he planted a few months ago. >> last year, we had a lot of different crops, but we didn't have potatoes, so this season, it was definitely something that i wanted to try. >> he came to the institute from the east coast, hoping to become a chef, never realizing he'd end up laboring on a farm, learning firsthand all about farming and growing local produce like squash. these colorful blossoms are harvested, as well, even if they're not fully open. >> we have a dish. it's a squash blossom risotto, and with the open ones, we just kind of stir it into the risotto at the last minute so that it kind of wilts and it swirls around. >> he's one of about 72 students getting an associate degree at the culinary institute, which claims to be the world's premier culinary college. steve ells, who founded the chain chipotle, graduated from the cia in 1990, and cat cora, known internationally as the only female iron chef on the food network's "iron chef america," also graduated from here in

1995. the grstone branch campus opened in st. helena in 1995 and has been continuously proding top-notch chefs. >> coming here to napa, california, there's fresh, almost any kind of ingredient, produce that you would want, fresh herbs. the herb garden here at cia is amazing. >> here students cultivate edible flowers, vegetables, and fresh herbs. >> it's learning how to plant, what to plant, when to plant it. i live about 1,000 miles up right now, so it's a little colder, and you have to realize, like, i can't plant tomatoes when they're planting tomatoes down here. it's just understanding the seasons and understanding when things want to grow and then they're gonna grow the best. >> students feel and i feel that by producing our own

ingredients we can become better chefs. we'll get to learn a little bit about our food systems and how we interact with our food systems. we're in a unique position to do that. >> people come from all over the world, studying at the institute in the heart of the lush napa valley, getting an opportunity to learn how to grow, harvest, and market the produce. much of this early morning's harvest wi be sold at the local farmers' market. students run the greystone green thumb stand themselves, although they are supervised by professor chris loss. he's got a doctorate in food science and believes it's important for students to learn the relationship between the farm and the table. >> food--this is our medium. the example i give some of my students when i get sort of talking about this and get sort of technical about some of the science behind our food or why do we need to know this, i give them the example of vincent van gogh, who to understand--his medium was paints and canvas

and brushes. he wanted to express his ideas through his medium of paints and painting, a very creative process. in order to do that, he created his own paints, he made his own canvases, he created his own brushes. he said if he could have bought the stuff himself he would have been even happier, but that's whatt's all about is really understanding the medium, and if you understand the medium, you can better express your ideas through it. >> sales at the stand are pretty brisk, and whatever doesn't sell is donated to local food banks. meanwhile back at the institute, classes start around 8:00, and karl diehn, now in his traditional chef's uniform, is cooking some of those squash blossoms he harvested about two hours ago, using them in a mussel and prawn dish. the meal is visually stunning and will be served at the institute's wine spectator greystone restaurant. >> it takes a tremendous amount of energy and strength, not just physical strength but also emotional strength, to maintain the kind of hours and lifestyle

of a chef, and i often wondered to myself as i was getting older was, like, "well, what am i going to do? what am i going too?" and i was very fortunate to be able to come here to the cia and teach. i've been here for 11 years. i've had my time inhe sun, as it were, and now it's time for me to help other people get there. >> it's a meal that's cooked, grown, and harvested by students practicing sustainable culinary methods. in napa valley, charlotte fadipe for "california country tv." >> thanks, charlotte. the cia is a great place to visit, and one more reason to visit it-- th just opened a flavor bar, where you can taste different flavors and ingredients just like a chef does. kind of cool, huh? well, coming up next, we're visiting a farm that has withstood the test of time and is stronger than ever. that's next. >> welcome back to "california

country." you know, there are a lot of longtime farming families in the state, but very few of them have quite the story as our next family. here in california, the landscape is dotted with farmers that have stories of courage, dedication, and perseverance in the face of adversity. however, none have quite the history of the ikeda family, but to see how far they have come, you first have to see where they've been. in the early part of the 20th century, many of the hills above the arroyo grande area were farmed by japanese families, who planted a variety of crops each spring. together they banded together to form pove, the pismo oceano vegetable exchange, which was highly successful until world events hit this small coastal community in the 1940s. >> before the war, there was

probably between 40 and 45 members of pismo oceano vegetable exchange. during the war, all the japanese families got shipped off to iernment camps further inland, mainly to utah and arizona, and during that time, there was an alien exclusion act in which aliens couldn't own land, so you either had to buy land through a child who was a citizen or have some other citizen buy the land you and leased it from them, and so not a lot of people owned land back then. >> the family was forced to give up their land, but today, tom ikeda actually farms the same land his ancestors did back in the 1920s. how? well, it's all due in large part to the strong community ties this family had, including the ones with the loomis family, who despite persecution from some, took care and looked after the

ikeda's farm while they were gone. gordon bennett, a cousin of the loomis family, still lives in the area and takes great pride in remembering what his family did. >> and we found in the end result of it everything paid off. we did the right thing, and we were on the right track to begin with. >> especially during that time where there was a lot of fear of the war and there was a lot of prejudice--you know, prior to world war ii, there was a lot of prejudice against the asians in general, and so for a local family to step up like that against a lot of the community was very brave of them. >> today the whole ikeda family takes great satisfaction in the fact that they farm across the same fields their ancestors did nearly 90 years ago, and today,

they have grown so large that they estimate that nearly 35 million people are eating pove produce annually. they farm everything to bok choy to lettuce to spinach, but they're best known internationally for napa cabbage. in fact, they are now the largest grower and shipper of it in the world. >> napa cabbage, we started growing that back in the fifties, and it's really taken off in popularity, especially with the larger asian population in the more recent years, but also with the popularity of ethnic foods. so a lot of those oriental vegetables have become more mainstream. it's a versatile oriental crop. the koreans pickle it for kimchi. japanese, they use it in stir fry. you can use it in salads. >> so while they have seen many changes in arroyo grande over the years, there has remained

one constant here, the ikeda family. by forming deep agricultural roots and by equally balancing a commitment to their community and to their family, the ikedas have proven the true test of time rests on values that despite adversity don't change either and won't any time soon if this farming family has anything to say about it. >> but we don't want to let our parents down, we don't want to let our family down, and since they struggled to build the business up, if we fail, that's like letting our family down, and so i think in that respect it's real important that we try tg keep this business viable. >> hi. this is chef josh korn from paul martin's american bistro here in roseville, california, and today we're gonna be preparing our butter lettuce salad for you. this is an extremely easy salad that anybody could prepare at home, all easily accessible ingredients from a supermarket, and we're gonna go ahead and

throw this together for you. so what we have here is butter lettuce, also known as boston lettuce or bibb lettuce. what you want to do is take this and just give it a quick tear so that the leaves aren't too big when you're ready to eat it. also have a little bit of fresh organic arugula here. that goes in, as well, adds a nice peppery element. and just a tiny pinch of sea salt just to boost the favor of everything. right here we ve a really nice cider maple vinaigrette. that gets lightly drizzled over the top. you don't want to drown the salad. just enough to coat all the leaves. you can use a couple of slices of apple. you can use fuji, braeburn, whatever type of apple you like. adds a nice flavor and a nice crunch. slice that down. a couple of pieces of apple in the bowl. gonna ahead and toss that real gently. you'll notice i'm using my hand to toss the salad. what we find is that the tongs will bruise your lettuce and really beaup the salad. so this allows you to be really gentle and keep this nice, light, fluffy lettuce nice, light, and fluffy. so we

put all the greens right there on the plate. want to make sure that your apple slices are visible. on top of that, we add a little bit of these california candied walnuts that we make in house. and a little bit of crumbled point reyes blue cheese. so you'll notice that this is a very local salad. this is lettuce grown in california, blue cheese produced in point reyes california, and local california walnuts, and there you have it, our butter lettuce salad. point reyes blue cheese, sliced apples, and candied california walnuts. >> that salad looked great, and if you liked the recipe, you can visit our web site at californiacountry.org, and stay tuned for more "california country" coming up next.

>> at his placer county ranch, john schwartzler remembers every one of his 19 cream draft horses by name and can tell each of these magnificent animals apart. >> this is bucky. he's the youngster. >> the cream draft horses seem almost regal. although they were historically used for farming and hauling freight, john believes they can be traced back to the royal hanoverian horses used by the britisroyal family. but there's no fancy castle or palace for these horses. home is 60 acres of open pasture at greenwood ranch just a few miles away from auburn. royal blood or not, 22-year-old ben made sure we knew that he was a media star, and he kept interrupting our interview to make sure we gohis good side on camera. >> heh heh. we have a hambone here. he's a--he's a camera hog. >> good-looking and good-natured, the cream draft horse is believed to be the only draft breed native to america, and these horses, which are more

than 5 feet tall, or 17 hands, are surprisingly hard to startle. no wonder they've been dazzling crowds in hundreds of parades and shows across california and the u.s. >> we've even had 'em at the indianapolis car races, and they've--they handled that well. they even had a car go by 'em at 150 miles an hour, uh--and-- and stood up to all of that. and they handle helicopters, sirens, uh, air horns. uh, they're very solid horses. >> john, who grew up on a farm, has been raising draft horses for about 30 years. >> we were looking for a--some new horse to work with in the future, and we'd read about the american cream draft horse, and the pro--the only problem was everybody said phey were extinct, there weren't any left. so i spent about a year looking and finally found a horse up in oregon. they are doing well. we have about 500 horses in the breed right now, uh, and the

numbers are on the rise, so, uh, when we get around 1,000 horses, we're gonna feel very secure. the breed, uh, what's unique about 'em is the eye color. look at the eyes on the horse. they're amber eyes, like a signal light, and iãunique to the breed. uh, the entire breed has amber eyes. >> [cheering] >> well, they're beautiful. they really are, and to be that large and, uh--it's quite a--a thing. >> we like to get out and use our horses in the public, driving, and--'cause it's the best way to--to showheir talents and--and their use. >> getting the horses ready for each public event is @ike a well-rehearsed, choreographed dance" there's a small army of

volunteers ensuring everything is polished and buffed and the horses are brushed and groomed immaculately. john says it's ibcredibly rewarding to know he'sensuring that these cream draft horses, an important part of american farm history, will be seen and enjoyed by tens of thousands of people in many parades around the country for a long, long time. in greenwood, charlotte fadipe for "california country tv." >> hello. steve mcshane from mcshane's nursery. did you know that herbs are one of the longest cultivated plants on the planet for human consumption? that's right--thousands of years. some key things that i can say about

growing great herbs--build your soil. i studied soil science at cal poly for 5 years, and that's cne thing i learned, it's one thing i'm passionate about. get a good soil builder like this gold rush right here that's got a good balance of chicken manure, organic compost, well-blended, well-composted. once you get that in your soil, a few additives would help, as well. this alfalfa meal is a great source of organic nitrogen that does a lot for soil microbiology. as well, kelp meal, the same type of idea. if you feed your soil, your soil will feed your plant. now remember, herbs and vegetables require full sun. that's 6 to 8 hours minimum a day. in the addition to that, i always like to tell people t@ consider planting the two side by side. get the herbs right next to your leafy greens, your tomatoes, or whatever else. what will end up happening is the herbs can drive away pests and also things like dogs, deer, and you name it. that kind of coexistence really works well for your garden.

make sure you' balanced properly and you invest in the soil, and the garden will take care of itself after that. the last thing i'd say is that don't forget to feed. vegetables and herbs prefer feeding every 4 to 6 weeks during the growing season. feed small amounts over a longer period, and you'll see the results. now it's time to reap the rewards of an edible gardening expert. nothing like some great cheese, some fresh herbs out of my garden, some crackers, and some locally produced white wine. cheers! here's to the success! let's get gardening! >> well, that is gonna do it for the show today. if you have questions about any of the stories or the recipes y've seen on the show, be sure to check out our web site at californiacountry.org, and we will see you again next week on "california country." [captioning made possible by california farm bureau federation] [captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--]

>> and now i have the pleasure to introduce to you the may year of the great city of san francisco, the honorable edwin lee, followed by the executive director of the interfaith