- [Announcer] Coming up on "America's Heartland," a Native American tribe produces olive oil on land they have stewarded for generations, growing and harvesting olives that are made into extra virgin olive oil.

- And so, for us it means a little bit more than just farming it.

We're really trying to take care of it for future generations.

- [Announcer] Health expert, Dr. Daphne Miller explains why olive oil is such a healthy choice and discovers just how quickly you should use that bottle in your kitchen.

- So, it's not like wine, you're not supposed to buy it and store it, and then it just gets better over time.

- No.

It's more like fresh fruit juice.

- [Announcer] Plus, we'll show you how to put together this fresh and flavorful salad with a delicious green goddess dressing and crispy chickpeas.

And meet a group of black farmers who are working to increase opportunities for other farmers of color through an effort called the Ujamaa Farmer Collective.

- It took until I saw another person that looked like me, knowing that I didn't have to grow up in it to be a part of agriculture.

- [Announcer] We'll also visit a cattle ranch in Montana that's reeling in a whole new revenue stream by offering fly fishing to guests on their property.

It's all coming up next on "America's Heartland."

(upbeat music) "America's Heartland" is made possible by... (upbeat music) ♪ You can't see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ In America's heartland, living close to the land ♪ ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ And a pride in the brand ♪ In America's heartland, living close ♪ ♪ Close to the land (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - We're here to take care of the land.

If we take care of our land, it was told to us that it would take care of us, from our elders, and so we take that to heart.

- [Narrator] James Kinter is the Senior Advisor of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

It's a tribe that has lived for 10,000 years in what is now Northern California.

Today they're centered in Capay Valley where they own one of the most diverse farming operations in Yolo County.

They produce olive oil and other products under the Seka Hills name.

- "Seka" is "blue" in the Patwin language.

And we have these beautiful, blue mountains that are out here in the valley.

And we wanted to honor the land and we wanted to honor those mountains.

(farmers chatting) - [Narrator] Kinter says the tribe is intentional about the crops they farm.

Some crops like the elderberry that goes into their balsamic vinegar honors the tribe's use of elderberry over thousands of years.

Others, like olives, were selected, because they are drought resistant and naturally suited to California's Mediterranean climate.

- When I started with the tribe in 2003, they only owned about 1,000 acres of land.

Today we farm and ranch just over 25,000 acres.

We grow a dozen different crops.

We run about 800 head of Angus cross cattle.

- [Narrator] Jim Etters is the director of land management for the tribe.

- We grow two varieties of olives here on this ranch.

We grow arbequina and arbesana.

Arbequina tends to be a mild to medium bodied oil that's very versatile in the kitchen.

It can be used for everything from frying to finishing.

Arbesana tends to be a little more buttery, and so it's really an oil that the chefs that we sell oil to prefer.

(upbeat music) So, this style of planting is called super high density.

It's where the trees are planted very close together, 13 feet by five feet apart, and are on a trellis similar to the way you would grow grapes.

This style of growing has really allowed olives to become a viable crop again in California, because of the mechanized harvest and the mechanized pruning.

So, we use a large, over the row harvester that basically the whole tree passes through, removes the olives, and places them into a gondola pulled behind a tractor.

- We're the grower.

We grow the olives, but we also truck the olives down to our mill.

We mill them ourselves.

We separate the oil from all the different pumice and stuff ourselves, and do the whole production here on site.

And we also bottle and do everything here as well.

And we do our own marketing.

In the olive oil industry, the longer it takes for you to get the olives from the tree into the mill, and into the bottle, you lose quality.

And so, for us to be so close to our mill is one of the reasons why it's such a good product.

- From the time the fruit arrives at the mill to the time oil starts coming out the spout is about 45 minutes to an hour.

So, it's a very quick process and much more efficient than olives have been processed historically.

- [Narrator] Yocha Dehe opened a tasting room for Seka Hills in 2014.

It's a way to share their products and their story.

- Once we start talking about, you know, what the word "seka" means, people are gonna ask, "What does that mean?"

And that opens the door for conversations for us to elaborate on our culture with them and why we're doing this.

- [Narrator] It's a story that tells how their once large tribe of 25,000 people nearly disappeared.

- We flourished in this area.

We had thriving economies and we had a lot of different things here pre-contact.

And we've had a lot of struggles.

And over the time of California, and the gold rush, and different invasions that came through over those time periods, we were whittled down to under 25 people within our tribe.

We have now rebounded back to around 100 and we're continuing to grow and flourish.

- [Narrator] Flourishing also means creating new opportunities in agriculture and farming for young tribal members, opportunities that didn't exist for prior generations.

- We didn't really grow up in farming.

What we grew up in was in poverty.

The future of hope for us is that our youth would get involved in agriculture, that they'd be interested in understanding the process of food manufacturing and those type of things.

And so, for us it means a little bit more than just farming it.

We're really trying to take care of it for future generations.

So, instead of taking from the land and never giving back, we try to find crops and other items that are gonna be more sustainable.

And we want folks to know that, you know, we're here to take care of the land.

(upbeat music) - Here we are at the Seka Hills Olive Mill & Tasting Room, enjoying olive oil that's been grown and produced by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

Seka Hills is producing the highest grade of olive oil, which is extra virgin olive oil.

"Extra virgin" means that the oil was actually pressed or made from the whole olive, the pits, the olive, and all.

And it was made as close to the picking date as possible, which they're able to do here, because they have a mill on premises.

And it's made just like a juice, and you wanna get it as fresh as possible.

So, what are some of the nutritional benefits that we get from olive oil?

Well, first of all, it's very high in monounsaturated fats, which are fats that can lower our bad cholesterol, and therefore protect us from heart disease and stroke.

The Mediterranean diet is such a famous diet.

And people often ask, "What is the secret sauce "that keeps people healthy from the Mediterranean diet?"

The olive oil is the star within the Mediterranean diet.

And its biggest health benefits are two-fold.

One is that when you're using olive oil, this healthy, monounsaturated fat, you're less likely to use less healthy fats like saturated fats.

These are oils that tend to be solid or semi-solid at room temperature like palm oils, or coconut oil, or lard, or butter.

So, are saturated fats necessarily bad for you?

No, in small amounts they're probably fine.

But research shows that, if you can decrease the amount of these saturated fats in your diet and replace them with olive oil, which is rich in monounsaturated fat, that that can actually lower your levels of unhealthy cholesterol.

It's also super rich in polyphenols, which are also very protective against ourselves.

Polyphenols are nutrients in foods that protect ourselves from injury and help our cells regenerate.

And so, they lower our risk of diabetes, and heart disease, and cancer, and stroke.

So, here I am with Jim Etters of Seka Hills.

Hey, Jim, would you mind teaching me how to actually taste olive oil the right way?

- Absolutely.

So, what you want to do is pick up your cup, place it in the palm of your hand, kind of cup your palm around it and cover the top, and give it a gentle swirl.

What we're doing is warming the oil, releasing the aromas, releasing the flavors, gently warming the oil so that you can get the full experience.

So, then go ahead and take a taste.

Just kind of let it coat your tongue to the back of your mouth.

(Daphne exclaiming) - That is delicious.

But I'm definitely getting a burn in the back of my throat.

- That's right.

That bitterness and pungency, that pepperiness that you get in the back of your throat actually is the polyphenols.

So, that's the sign of a good quality olive oil.

- As a family doctor, when I hear the word polyphenol, my ears perk up, because that's actually the medicinal property of olive oil are these polyphenols.

I would love to know about storage of olive oil.

How do you make sure that it maintains its health profile as long as possible, and its delicious taste?

- Right.

So, the first thing is you want to consume it in a reasonable amount of time, usually within a month or so of the time you purchase the bottle and open it.

Also, you don't want to store it anywhere that's above room temperature.

So, you don't wanna set it right next to your range or on top of your oven.

- So, it's not like wine.

You're not supposed to buy it and store it, and then it just gets better over time.

- It's more like fresh fruit juice.

- Got it.

- In that, you know, it does degrade over time, it doesn't get better.

And some of the most freshest, most flavorful oil you can buy comes right out of the spigot at harvest time.

So, once it goes into bottle and you pop that top off, it's gonna start to lose its life.

But as long as you consume it within a month or two, it'll be fine.

- And just for folks to understand that degradation of the oil isn't only an issue for taste, it's an issue for health as well, because as oil degrades, you get more of those denatured fats that can actually raise your bad cholesterol and turn what is otherwise a really healthy food into an unhealthy food.

This was great.

I actually learned a lot today, so thank you so much for joining us, Jim.

- Well, thanks for having me, and we appreciate your time coming out here today to see everything we have going on at Seka Hills.

(upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Still ahead on "America's Heartland..." Meet a family in Montana that added a new revenue stream to their cattle ranch by welcoming visitors to go fly fishing on their property.

- [Tucker] After you're done working cattle, at the end of the day you don't wanna see another cow.

But after you're done guiding for a whole day, you do want to go fish some more.

- [Announcer] Plus, these black farmers are hoping to encourage more farmers of color to get into agriculture by providing access to land.

But first, a salad full of fresh herbs and flavor.

We'll walk you step by step through how to make this green goddess salad with chickpeas.

(upbeat music) - Today we're making a green goddess salad with crispy chickpeas.

I love this salad, because the dressing is full of herbs and it has a beautiful, bright flavor.

Let's start by making those crispy chickpeas.

This is basically a way to add some crunch and texture to your salad without necessarily using croutons.

Garbanzo beans or chickpeas have a lot of protein and their magic trick is that when you roast them, they get crispy.

So, I have already rinsed and drained one 14 ounce can of chickpeas, and transferred them to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Anytime you want an ingredient to get crispy in the oven, you wanna take a little extra time to get out any extra water, because ultimately you'll just end up steaming the ingredient, rather than letting them get crisp.

To this I will add a couple teaspoons of olive oil.

That'll definitely help them get crispy.

And I've made a little seasoning blend here of cumin, cayenne for a little spiciness, and paprika so that with every bite of the crispy chickpea, you also get some of this seasoning.

And then of course, salt.

Now we'll just get in there, make sure these are all evenly coated, spread them out evenly so they have room to breathe.

And we'll bake these in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes or until they've crisped up.

While the chickpeas are roasting, let's get started on this dressing.

The base of the dressing is Greek yogurt, which I love, because it means that it's a little bit healthier.

And to this, I will add two tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

You can also use just regular white vinegar or apple cider vinegar if that's what you have.

We're also adding half a shallot, and since we're putting it in the food processor, I'll just roughly chop it, and one clove of garlic, and in it goes.

And now for the herbs.

I've chosen to use basil, dill, parsley, and mint, but you can have a lot of fun with this recipe and try a variety of different herb combinations.

One that I never exclude is the mint.

The mint adds that brightness and makes it feel so fresh.

A tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a tablespoon of olive oil.

And as always, salt and pepper.

It's okay to be generous with your salt here, because you're adding flavor to not just the dressing itself, but all of the ingredients.

Let's give this a whirl and our dressing will be ready.

(food processor running) Okay, our dressing is ready.

The chickpeas have roasted, so let's put our salad together.

The chickpeas have roasted, and I know that they're ready, because they've taken on a darker, golden color and they've also started to kind of crack open in places.

I have one Persian cucumber here that I'm just going to slice very thinly, and I also have one avocado.

What I'll do for this avocado is just cube it.

For a green goddess salad, because the dressing is definitely on the thicker side, you want to use greens that have a crunch to them.

In this case, we're using little gems.

And what's so special about little gem lettuce is besides their very cute name, is that they're actually a cross between a romaine lettuce and butter lettuce, so they have the crisp and the crunch of romaine and the sweetness of butter lettuce.

And now we're going to add our dressing.

I'm gonna go with a couple of tablespoons to start, and we can always add more later.

So, let's just give this a toss.

Okay, this is looking good.

I always like to transfer salad to a fresh plate.

How gorgeous is that?

And we have our avocado.

There.

And, finally, let's add those crispy chickpeas.

Now I feel like the salad has officially come together with this beautiful color.

Our green goddess salad is ready with our roasted, crispy chickpeas, our little, gem lettuces, and of course our very herbaceous, green goddess dressing.

And now all that's left to do is eat.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] In the shadow of California's state capital surrounded by the big city, a half acre, urban farm appears in the middle of a food desert and it's growing not only produce, but big ideas.

Nelson Hawkins is the owner of We Grow Farms in the city of West Sacramento.

Since 2018, this farm sitting across from an elementary school adjacent to low income housing has become an important part of the community.

It's providing low cost, fresh produce to neighbors at their Friday fruit stand and offering jobs to nearby residents.

- Our vision was really to build an ecological farm in an urban area where people are not as connected or exposed to how food is grown and show it as a model of, like, what can be done, but also provide access to food and healthy, nutrient dense, wholesome fruits and vegetables, especially to communities that are financially vulnerable and struggle with access to food.

- [Announcer] But in 2022, Nelson Hawkins got word that this land is slated for construction, so We Grow Farms was given notice to find a new place to grow their crops.

In a state where land is expensive and hard to come by, many would be discouraged by this news, but Nelson Hawkins, one of a small number of black farmers, was motivated to fight for greater access to land.

- This is not just an experience that I have personally.

This is what many other farmers have and are dealing with.

- [Announcer] Hawkins says, black farmers made up about 14% of total agricultural land ownership in the early 1900s.

Then came decades of oppression, trauma, and unequal access to financial help.

Today, black farmers make up less than 2% of the country's farming population.

This reality, along with the news that the land he's leased since 2018 was no longer his to farm on, pushed Hawkins to take action.

- One, it motivated me to really go through the hurdles of the advocacy phase, but it also gave us the opportunity to be able to serve the next generation, and give them a leg up, and really level the planting field, as I like to say.

- [Announcer] Nelson Hawkins, along with Keith Hudson and another young farmer, Nathaniel Brown, from Brown Sugar Farm, created the Ujamaa Farmer Collective.

- The Ujamaa Farmer Collective is a non-profit organization that's main goal is to help young, BIPOC farmers secure land tenure.

- [Announcer] "Ujamaa" means extended family in the Swahili language, which in a sense is what this collective is trying to create.

- The vision that we're building is an opportunity for us to collectively own land, collectively share resources, and that allows farmers that are underserved or just starting out that can't afford land and can't afford equipment, to be able to share that cost and really help each other.

- It's really important to see other people like you doing what you want to do.

- [Announcer] Nathaniel Brown grew up with a grandmother who inspired him to grow crops.

And he quickly fell in love with farming, looking for unique ways to grow clean food.

He knew he wanted to work in agriculture, but not coming from a farming family or having the land, knowledge, and tools handed down, he wasn't sure how.

- It took until I saw another person that looked like me, knowing that I didn't have to grow up in it to be a part of agriculture.

- [Announcer] That's part of the reason why Ujamaa Farmer Collective became a passion for him.

- Because we don't have those families that we can lean on, we are kind of creating our own agricultural family to the next generation.

- [Announcer] At the same time, they're hoping to heal old wounds and increase the number of black farmers by providing them with knowledge to run their own farming operations.

- So, once we connect with the land, you can take a seed wherever you go, and as long as you know how to grow, how to take care of it, it empowers you.

You have the ability to produce, feed yourself, feed your family, feed your community.

- [Announcer] In 2023, the Ujamaa Farmer Collective was awarded a one and a quarter million dollars state grant to buy land for their cooperative farm in nearby Yolo County.

In 2024, they moved on to this 22 acre parcel of land just outside of Woodland, and began building their dream, creating a place where young, black farmers can learn to grow, and leveling the planting field, as they like to say.

(upbeat music) - My backyard is a test for patience and persistence, and it's incredible.

(upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Jackie Nelson's backyard is a bit different from the yard that you and I might be used to.

It includes a spring creek that's ideal for fly fishing.

(upbeat music) (water splashing) But this backyard isn't just a place for family members to catch some trout and enjoy their Montana scenery.

(cattle whining) For Jackie, her husband, Tucker, and his parents, Roger and Mary, it's also a working cattle ranch that's been in the Nelson family since the 1860s.

- We run about 500 mother cows.

500 cows sounds like quite a bit.

Nowadays, it's not that big of an operation.

And so, you need something on the side really for the ups and downs in the ag industry.

- [Announcer] The Nelsons decided that agritourism could help address those ups and downs of agriculture.

So, opening up their creek, they built a lodge, and began welcoming fly fishing enthusiasts from all around the globe.

- I'm from Yarmouth, Maine.

And I come out west about once a year to just enjoy the wonderful scenery and most especially to see if we can catch some fish on some of the gorgeous water that's out here.

(upbeat music) (fishing line reeling) - The reason people like these creeks so much is the challenge, I would say, the challenge and the quality of fishing.

- [Announcer] In addition to the naturally occurring fish populations in the ranch's waterways, the Nelsons also have a commercial fish operation, raising trout and providing fish to other locations in the West.

- Some of them go to a group of guys that are processing them, going to Yellowstone Park and to restaurants locally.

And we stock ponds around Montana that are licensed through fish and game for just private ponds.

- [Announcer] The Nelsons have also done a good deal of conservation work, fencing off cattle to protect water quality, restoring creek beds, and stabilizing banks to control erosion.

Add that to running a ranch and everyone is busy.

- [Roger] It really is a family business.

I mean, it's a lot of hard work, a lot of time spent, and we have a lot of different hats we wear.

- Sure.

When were you thinking of coming?

- [Roger] My wife pretty much takes care of the fishing lodge and my son and daughter-in-law guide the fishermen.

- [Announcer] Not only has the creek given the Nelsons an additional revenue stream, it's also given them an opportunity to share their ranching lifestyle with those who may not know much about agriculture.

- Most times you go just to fish, but here you come and you see a family, you see a family doing farming, and it's a wonderful combination of agriculture in a natural world.

- [Tucker] After you're done working cattle, at the end of the day, you don't wanna see another cow.

But after you're done guiding for a whole day, you do want to go fish some more.

- [Roger] It's a beautiful spot to live.

You just feel good about it, and you feel like you're contributing something to the better, and it just feels good.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] That's it for this edition of "America's Heartland."

For more stories, full episodes, and recipes, visit americasheartland.org or connect with us on Facebook.

♪ You can't see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ In America's heartland, living close to the land ♪ ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ And a pride in the brand ♪ In America's heartland, living close ♪ ♪ Close to the land - [Announcer] "America's Heartland" is made possible by... (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)