Coming up on America's Heartland, meet a father and daughter team growing mandarins in California's Central Valley and discover why this compact fruit has become so popular.

[Heather Mulholland] They're a perfect, healthy snack.

You can grab 'em, go, throw 'em in your bag.

They're great for kids.

Plus, see what it takes to grow, harvest, and pack just about everything you'd find in a salad- from lettuce greens to parsley.

[Anthony Ratto] We might harvest this product today or tomorrow, and it'll be on the... the shelf of the grocery store the day after.

Join Farm to Fork host Sharon Profis as she prepares Spanakopita, a popular Greek pastry stuffed with spinach, feta cheese and fresh herbs.

[Sharon] And now, here's the fun part.

We'll make our triangles.

Meet Iowa farmers growing soybeans on land that's been in the family for more than 100 years.

Discover how they plan to make sure the land remains sustainable for the next generation.

And discover all the delicious treats that California's Apple Hill has to offer to visitors- from pies to pastries, all made with apples grown right here on the farm.

It's all next on America's Heartland!

America's Heartland is made possible by... ♪♪ ♪ You can 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.

♪ ♪♪ Here in Orange Cove, California, sure, you'll find plenty of oranges, but there's another fruit that loves the growing conditions created by the foothills surrounding Orange Cove- mandarins!

[Heather Mulholland] It was not until the late nineties that we really started growing mandarins in the Central Valley.

So, if you think that now, everyone knows a mandarin, a Cutie, a Halo- whatever brand it is- those really didn't start growing in the Central Valley of California until the late nineties.

[Tom Mulholland] Remarkable about the Mandarin- 20, 30 years ago, it wasn't even a... a... a common fruit.

An orange was more common at that time, but the mandarin now has become the most demanded of all of them, just for the convenience sake of it.

Convenience is just one reason people love mandarins.

Citrus grower and mother Heather Mulholland can list many more.

[Heather] I absolutely love mandarins.

They're a perfect, healthy snack.

You can grab 'em, go, throw 'em in your bag.

They're great for kids.

Um, high vitamin C, good fiber.

They're just- They're really fun.

And the mandarins are super easy to peel.

Kids can do it.

It just makes for a really readily available, healthy snack.

Heather works alongside her father, Tom Mulholland, at Mulholland Citrus.

She describes it as a "seed-to-shelf" business, starting with these trees grown in the nursery to harvest time in the groves and, finally, the packing facility.

If the Mulholland name sounds familiar, it is.

William Mulholland was the architect of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and namesake of Mulholland Drive.

His son began farming citrus in Southern California, with the next generation relocating to Orange Cove.

Tom and Heather make up the third and fourth generations.

[Tom] I got here when I was three years old with my father, so I've been on the ranch ever since.

And so, I've been learning how to grow citrus through my father and then into my own ways of doing it.

And then, here we are with my daughter coming in to do it again.

Today, Heather is the chief operating officer of the family business.

[Heather] Most times, I think women are identified as the farmer's wife, or have historically been the farmer's wife or the farmer's daughter.

And, um, I...

I'm pretty excited to break that norm.

I'm really hopeful and excited for the future of females in agriculture.

As for Tom, his passion lies in the nursery.

He's traveled the world, bringing back different mandarin varieties that have become a hit in the United States.

One of the specialty varieties that the Mulhollands grow is called the Kishu.

[Heather] So, the Kishu is a variety name.

It's K-I-S-H-U.

It's a very old variety of citrus.

It was popular in Japan a hundred years ago.

So, we... we've branded it a Kishu Kiss, and a California Citrus Candy.

So, they grow kind of in, like, bunches, almost like grapes on a tree.

They're hand-harvested.

We go through the trees multiple times.

♪♪ The Kishus require delicate handling out in the groves, as well as back at the packing facility, where they are washed and waxed, hand graded, and then packaged into small bags, bound for specialty stores and chefs who love the unique fruit.

The Mulhollands also grow more familiar varieties of mandarins, like Clementines.

They're a little more hearty, but still require more careful handling, compared to other citrus fruits.

[Tom] The care that needs to be taken with a mandarin is... is that we need to have it clipped.

Every one of them has to be clipped, and they're- and the surface of the mandarin doesn't want to be ruptured or then, you can have decay and breakdown on that.

And so, the ease of the... of the picking is really important.

Because harvesting mandarins is so labor intensive, the Mulhollands say one of their top concerns is having enough labor.

Another concern, water.

[Heather] We left ground fallow this year, because we did have shortage of water, and we'll probably continue to leave ground fallow as we look at what our water usage and availability will be in coming years.

Despite those challenges, the Mullhollands see a long future for mandarins in California.

Tom points out the navel orange has been grown in this state for 150 years, whereas the mandarin is only about 30 years into its lifetime.

[Tom] So, yeah, uniquely enough, in my lifetime, I'm getting to see this and it's time for us, you know, to... to enjoy it.

And how lucky are we now to be here with the... the- with the best mandarins in the world?

[Heather] As the next generation, I plan to keep farming and keep growing products.

And I'm going to do it in my own way, with my own flair, with my... my own style, and I'm just going to have some fun with it in the future.

Mandarins are native to tropical regions of Asia and the Philippines.

The fruit was introduced to England in 1805 by Chinese officials, offering one possible explanation as to why they were named "mandarins."

The fruit grew in popularity in the Mediterranean region before making its way to America about 40 years later.

Although many people use the terms "mandarin" and "tangerine" interchangeably, a tangerine is actually a variety of mandarin that originated in Tangier, Morocco.

♪♪ California's Central Valley, where nearly half of all the fruits, vegetables and nuts produced in the U.S. are grown.

Almost everywhere are tapestries of almond trees in full bloom, and row after row of gorgeous greens.

This is Modesto, home to Ratto Brothers, a family farm four generations strong.

It's a sprawling operation, growing 35 vegetable and herb varieties on more than 1500 acres of land.

Theirs is a story of a hard-working immigrant family that tamed and cultivated new ground to plant seeds that still thrive more than a century later.

[Frank Ratto] I always think, what would my father and his brothers and my grandfathers say today about where our business is, what we're doing and how we're doing it?

And what we're doing today, for my grandfather, would be like going to the moon to him.

And I- And that gives me chills, just to talk about it.

Frank Ratto, president of Ratto Brothers, has deep roots on this land.

He's been farming here since he was four years old, learning from his grandfather, founder Antone Ratto.

Antone's father, Giovanni Ratto, emigrated to America from Italy in 1878.

At the age of 16, young Antone traded school for a shovel, planting the family's first seeds near Oakland in 1905.

Antone was known as "the market man," delivering vegetables to customers with a horse-drawn carriage, the company's logo today.

[Frank] If Grandpa were here today, he would look at this field and say, "You know what?

We've always raised beautiful produce like this," and we're proud of that.

But I think it's what happens after the product leaves the field is what he would never ever imagine could happen.

They get to the end customer looking virtually just like this when it arrives.

It's really a- I don't...

I don't think the family or Grandpa could ever imagine how the chain of quality continues.

The family chain continues today with the fourth generation of Rattos.

Frank's two sons, Nick and Jeffrey, and nephews Anthony and Andrew oversee planting, harvesting, production and sales.

Ratto Brothers grows just about everything you'd find in a salad, from leafy greens and kale, chard and parsley.

[Rob Stewart] I've never smelled parsley that has such a... a living flavor.

I mean, this- the scent of this is just so alive.

[Anthony Ratto] It... it is.

And it's fresh.

We might harvest this product today or tomorrow, and it'll be on the... the shelf of the grocery store the day after or two days after, depending on the end destination of that.

[Rob] Wow!

And this goes all across North America.

[Anthony] Yeah.

I mean, one of the coolest experiences for me, personally, is going to a Publix market in Florida and seeing your product on the shelf, or going to Hawaii and finding parsley in Hawaii.

And we're farming in California, and it's- it shouldn't be lost on people but, uh, at times, the conditions for farming in California are... are really challenging, to put it lightly.

[Rob] And expensive.

[Anthony] Uh, without a doubt.

Very expensive to do.

Um, and so, you're trying to be as efficient as possible.

Nick Ratto is Frank's son, and in charge of all harvesting.

Before each seed is planted, both sales and growing teams must align.

[Nick] So, as you can see, a truck behind us is pulling out.

It's going to pull up to the facility, and today, it's a nice day- it's about 50 degrees out here- so the product's not too hot.

[Rob] And that's 5 minutes away.

[Nick] 5 minutes away.

But on a summer day when it's 95, this is hot, this is warm.

So, it goes through a hydro wash before it goes in the facility, which brings it down to the temperature it needs to be.

And from the time it goes through the hydro wash, it goes directly into the building at a certain temperature.

[Rob] They're headed there now.

[Nick] Headed there now, right behind us.

And it will not break that cold chain until the produce guy in whatever grocery store you go to- right?

- puts it out and puts it on the shelf.

This is Ratto's massive state-of-the-art cooling, processing and shipping facility.

It's more than 100,000 square feet, an action-packed center, where fresh vegetables are always on the go.

Nick has been on this land since he was six years old.

On this day, Nick is leading the chard harvest, the second picking of this season by hand.

Chard grows back from the roots up to three times per plant.

Knowing exactly when to harvest each crop is a big responsibility.

[Nick] But the one thing that I know is people have to eat.

Right?

That's one thing that's never going to go away.

And if you can be on the nutritional side of that, I mean, you're in a much better place.

And it's something you can be proud of.

Everybody's talking about how your body feeds off what you eat- right?

- from your toes to your mind.

Um, and to be on the positive side of that, I mean, what more could you ask for?

[Rob] It does make a tremendous difference.

[Nick] Yeah.

[Rob] This is... this is soul and cell food.

[Nick] Mind, body and soul.

[Rob] Yeah, absolutely.

Frank Ratto says they found the perfect recipe for farm family success- a lot of heart, rooted in hard work.

He says he's grateful not to be alone.

[Frank] Farmers of America today are doing that across the United States and across the globe, because making sure people get nutritious, healthy food to eat is what's most important.

♪♪ [Sharon Profis] Today, we're making a Greek dish called Spanakopita, and the star ingredient is spinach.

So, I have a pretty deep pot here.

A couple tablespoons of olive oil.

To start off the base of our filling is shallot and garlic.

And we'll sauté this until the shallots are translucent and the garlic is fragrant.

A little bit of salt.

All right, now it's time to add our spinach.

What we're doing here is wilting the spinach and, uh, cooking it down a little bit and actually getting out some of that moisture content.

And I'll start by adding about a quarter of it, let that wilt, add another quarter, and so on until we've gotten through the whole bowl.

Our spinach is ready, so let's head back and strain it.

Let's make the filling for our Spanakopita.

We have the spinach that we cooked right here.

There's also a lot of water still in these leaves, so we want to strain that out.

I'm just taking a spatula and going to town on this spinach.

We want to get all of that water out.

If we have a soggy filling, we won't have a crispy outer shell on that pastry.

You can see the spinach is a lot drier, so let's go ahead and dump this water and continue making our filling.

For the rest of the filling, we will need two tablespoons of toasted pine nuts.

We'll add to that two tablespoons of raisins.

I also have two ounces of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

That'll add a little bit of salt.

We'll do the zest of one lemon.

I have my zester here.

We have fresh oregano and fresh dill, just a nice rough chop here.

All of this dill and oregano go right in, and we'll add two eggs to this filling and we'll get these all mixed up.

And I saved the most important ingredient for last, which is our feta cheese.

This way, you get nice chunks of the feta cheese as you enjoy this dish.

And what I'll do is just break off about half inch pieces, and now I'm just gently folding it in.

I don't want to break it up too much.

And that is our filling.

So, let's set up to assemble our pastries.

To assemble the Spanakopita, we'll need phyllo dough.

And because it's so thin, what we want to do is create layers.

And the way we do that is by putting a little bit of butter between each layer of pastry, and don't worry about completely covering the pastry with butter.

So, that's one layer.

We'll do two, and then we'll add one more so that we have three layers of the phyllo.

And from here, what we want to do is portion out each pastry.

So, each one of these three-layered sheets is going to give us four pastries.

And to do that, we'll just find our fourths here.

You want, oh, maybe a quarter cup of filling in each.

And now, here's the fun part.

We'll make our triangles.

Go over like that, once more, keeping all of the filling tucked in.

And I'll just keep going.

Let's repeat the same process for the rest of these, and then we'll do another three layers of phyllo.

And the final step here is to add a little more butter to the top of each of these triangles.

And then, to that, we'll sprinkle sesame seeds.

And we're set.

I'll put this in the oven at 375 degrees, and I'll start checking on it at about 20 minutes.

We're looking for a nice golden-brown crust.

And at that point, the filling should be fully cooked through.

After about 25 minutes in the oven, the Spanakopita is ready and it is just a beautiful golden-brown color.

And let's take a little peek inside.

You can see our spinach and feta filling is just beautiful.

We got a nice big chunk of feta.

That's exactly what we want to see in this dish.

And one of the ways I love to serve it is with a side of tzatziki sauce.

Here's how you make it.

For this recipe, you'll need one cup of whole fat Greek yogurt, one grated cucumber, two tablespoons of fresh dill, two tablespoons of mint, salt, pepper, olive oil, and the juice of half a lemon.

Start by using a tea towel or your hands to squeeze out as much of the water from the cucumber as you can.

Combine the cucumber with the remaining ingredients, give it a mix and chill the tzatziki in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

After the sauce has set and the spanakopita has cooled, I just like dolloping a nice amount right on top.

And now, all that's left to do is eat!

♪♪ Still ahead on America's Heartland, take a tour of Apple Hill.

Nestled between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, this region is famous for its apples and sweet treats.

But first, meet Iowa farmers growing soybeans on land that's been in the family for more than 100 years.

Discover how they plan to make sure the land remains sustainable for the next generation.

♪♪ [Roy Bardole] We farm dirt that has become part of us.

Even the hard and unexpected task of repairing a harvester in the middle of a soybean field isn't enough to dampen Roy Bardole's love of the land and the Iowa family farm started by his great-grandfather back in 1901.

[Roy Bardole] Our roots go very deep.

They are very long.

They're very, very cherished.

Ask Roy's son, Tim, grandsons Schyler and Quill, daughter Cassie or any of the Bardoles, and "cherished" is the word commonly heard.

[Tim] I guess I feel sorry for the people that can't work with their families all the time.

You know, those... those are memories that there's... there's no way, um, to replicate really.

[Schyler] I'm very fortunate and consider myself very lucky that I get to work with my dad, my grandpa and my uncle at least six days a week, if not more.

Much has changed on this 2,000 acre farm since the early days.

Modern technology, like GPS-guided harvesters and planters, means more efficiency, with an eye toward sustainability.

Yields are double what they used to be.

Embracing what's new helped make that happen, but so is doing what's old, like cover crops- good for the soil, good for the environment.

[Tim] No-till, and especially when you add cover crops to no-till, it's as- about as close as you come to mirroring the natural, uh, environment that was here with the prairies.

Using best practices from the past, combining them with new scientific breakthroughs, like GMO seeds, means fewer herbicides and other inputs on the land.

A safer environment for all of us.

[Tim] We live out here.

If you're talking about somebody that really cares about the environment and climate, it's farmers because it's how we make our living.

♪♪ Soybeans are amazing.

I don't know of any other plant in the world that you can get so much out of.

Those higher yields also mean an increase in new, remarkable soy products- everything from more resilient vehicle tires made from soybean oil to enhanced asphalt, and a new soybean-based sealant that better preserves concrete.

Many are biodegradable and more environmentally friendly.

For the Bardoles, it's pride in their product, pride in their family's century-plus history of sustainability, and pride in the prospect of passing along a vibrant farming business to a seventh generation and perhaps beyond.

♪♪ [Schyler] I guess my hope is, whether my boys or their future children, if they want to farm, that they can.

That means making sure that I'm doing things now that enables them to have that opportunity.

[Roy] We provide a very high quality food, feed, fiber and fuel off of our ground.

I am very proud of that.

♪♪ [Rob Stewart] Fall means harvest time in Northern California and Apple Hill is definitely an exciting adventure for you to explore.

We are in Camino, just east of Placerville, home to more than 50 growers.

Let's hop inside Larsen Apple Barn.

♪♪ And they've already put me to work, and I'm glad to do it.

This is Larsen's bakeshop, and this is Lynn Larsen.

Good to see you!

[Lynn] Good to see you, too!

[Rob] And I could just say you are the queen of apples here because you run it all.

[Lynn] The customers that come, the apples that we grow, this is our life.

[Rob] Look at this.

Oh, are those hearts on there?

[Lynn] You know what?

They aren't really intended to be hearts, but that's what they turned into.

So, that's our love to you.

[Rob] Aww.

Well, there's a lot of love in here because there are two- [Lynn] About two and three quarters pounds of apples- [Rob] Almost 3 pounds in each apple pie.

Fresh- woo!

[Lynn] Hot.

[Rob] These are the fresh and hot apple dumplings.

All right, so, may I?

[Lynn] You may.

[Rob] OK, you have got to tell me what this crust is.

[Lynn] This is Grandma's crust- great-grandma's.

We don't change it.

It's an all vegetable crust.

[Rob] Look at that.

[Lynn] Brown sugar, cinnamon and butter inside the dumpling, with an ooey gooey apple, uh, cinnamon cider sauce that goes over the top.

[Rob] That is stunningly beautiful.

[Lynn] Very simple, but the flavor is totally apple.

[Rob] Let's see.

Oh!

Oh, what's this?

Is that hot?

[Lynn] No.

You can touch that.

[Rob] I want you to see this.

That... Stop it.

[Lynn] Apple strudel.

[Rob] An apple strudel.

[Lynn] I'll let you serve one to me.

[Rob] Oh, my gosh.

[Gasps] [Lynn] And then, we're going to serve that with the hot apple cinnamon cider sauce... [Rob] Oh, my gosh.

[Lynn] ...made with fresh apple juice.

[Rob] So, I'm clearly figuring out that Apple Hill is an "eat your way through" experience.

[Lynn] It's definitely.

And you can find amazing things at so many of the bake shops.

Find your favorite, wherever it is.

[Rob] And you're on your seventh generation... [Lynn] We are.

[Rob] ...now on this land.

[Lynn] That we are.

This is the most picturesque place to live.

[Rob] Yes, it is.

It's beautiful.

It's Northern California.

[Lynn] It is.

[Rob] America's playground.

[Lynn] This is the best.

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 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.

♪ America's Heartland is made possible by... ♪♪