Coming up on America's Heartland... Find out why growers like using the phrase, "Endive is so nice, it's grown twice!"

See how this type of leafy vegetable is first harvested in the field, then in special cold storage rooms.

[Celina Lemus] We keep it dark and we let it grow.

Plus, meet a family of walnut growers in California with a deep commitment to sustainable and regenerative agriculture.

[Craig McNamara] The future is one of resilience, and that's what we're trying to practice here on our farm.

Farm to Fork host Sharon Profis prepares whipped goat cheese with dates and bacon.

Serve it on a crostini as a sure way to please a crowd.

[Sharon] It is a very simple appetizer, but it presents so beautifully.

Journey from a Minnesota dairy farm all the way to this cheese factory in Tennessee to see how milk is made into cheese served in thousands of restaurants.

And meet a soil scientist in Missouri who's practicing precision agriculture on her family farm to discover exactly what the soil needs for crops to thrive.

It's all coming up 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.

♪ ♪♪ This may look like a scene from a cold and foggy winter morning in London, but it's actually a step in the production of one of California's most unusual specialty crops, with roots in Belgium.

Bonjour, endive!

♪♪ These little plants live in cold storage for up to ten months on their way to your table.

It's below freezing in here.

That's cold!

But before we get too far into this unusual growing process, let's learn the name of this tasty vegetable.

It's spelled E-N-D-I-V-E, and it's pronounced... [David Moen] Endive is what we sell.

Endive is a leafy green, but they're two different things.

David Moen is sales manager for California Endive Farms in Rio Vista, California.

Endive and its cousin, endive, both come from the chicory family.

The pronunciation, "ON-deev," honors the origin of the plant in Belgium, where, almost two centuries ago, a chicory farmer found out quite by accident that long term cold storage of chicory plants would produce tender, tasty leaves.

In the U.S., an aspiring farmer named Richard Collins began growing endive in 1983.

The company he started, California Endive Farms, was sold in 2016, but it's now America's largest grower of endive with more than 5 million pounds a year.

Endives and Richard Collins were featured in one of our America's Heartland Farm to Fork cooking segments with our own chef Sharon Profis.

[Richard] Endive is really versatile in that it not only can be used for nice fresh preparations but it can be cooked.

[Sharon] So, you can grow endive year round?

[Richard] We never stop.

[Celina Lemus] People don't know what it is, um, but when... when people do get their first taste, they love it.

Celina Lemus is plant manager at California Endive Farms.

[Celina] It's such a great vegetable to have.

There's so many things you can do with it.

It's... it's just a really nice addition to a meal.

You know, you can do an appetizer, you can do a salad, you could do a soup, you could do a main dish.

Endive is all about the leaves.

White endive has pale yellow leaves.

Its sibling, red endive, makes a striking visual statement.

The leaves may look delicate, but endive survives harsh conditions of extreme heat and cold, sunshine and darkness.

It's a two-step process.

As the team at California Endive Farm says, this vegetable is... [David Moen] ...so special, it's grown twice!

♪♪ In the first step, endive has a fairly traditional growth on about 300 acres in California's hot Central Valley.

After about five months, the endive roots and plants are harvested, cut just a few inches above the root line.

[David] And from digging it, it goes into big trucks to bring it down here.

It's sorted, and then goes into bins.

[Fork lift honking] We put it in cold storage.

As many as 3 million roots stay in cold storage for up to ten months.

It's a long, cold, dark nap, complete with icicles.

Then, the plants are moved to a slightly warmer room for their second growth.

[Celina] So, we're in our forcing rooms right now.

This is the forcing of the rootstock that we've brought in from the field.

It'll stay in here for anywhere from 18 to 28 days, depending.

Um, we'll give it some water.

We keep it dark and we let it grow.

When the endive emerges from its second growth, it's ready for your table.

The most edible part of the plant is separated from the base.

Exterior leaves are discarded so that you get the crispest, tastiest inner leaves.

Then, the endive is packaged, boxed and shipped to your grocer.

♪♪ To demonstrate the versatility of endive, David Moen prepared two easy recipes, one cold, with apples, walnuts and blue cheese, and one hot, baked with olive oil, panko breadcrumbs and a little bit of fresh thyme.

And he made them both in about a half hour.

[David] You could be complex with endive, or you could be really simple.

And so, I tend to like to be simple.

Although endive has been around a long time, it's still being discovered by consumers.

The folks at California Endive Farm say their goal, like their motto, is simple.

[Celina] Eat more endive!

[David] Eat more endives.

And say it in French...

"ON-deev."

♪♪ Endive, or witloof, as it's known in Flemish, is an accidental vegetable.

The story goes that back in 1830, a Belgian farmer forgot some chicory roots that he had stored in his cellar.

The roots had sprouted white leaves, which turned out to be pretty tasty!

♪♪ Sunrise over this peaceful orchard.

Sheep contentedly graze nearby.

Quiet for now, but things are about to go... nuts!

[Loud machinery noises] Welcome to Sierra Orchards, near the northern California town of Winters.

Craig McNamara, his family, and their longtime workers have been harvesting walnuts on this 350 acre farm for more than 40 years.

California farms nearly a half million acres of walnuts and produces 99% of all the walnuts grown in the U.S., about 750,000 tons each year.

[Craig McNamara] This is a beautiful tree, if you look at the structure of it.

Each family member's ag journey is unique.

Julie got her first taste of agriculture on a dairy farm in New York's Hudson Valley.

Her love of organic farming led her to a long career in the ag department at UC Davis.

[Julie] It's just what spoke to me, what resonated with me.

I think it is a precious, precious commodity that needs to be preserved and respected and... and cherished.

After dropping out of college, Craig says he worked alongside and was inspired by subsistence farmers in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and other places.

[Craig] And they taught me, really, the purpose of life.

They taught me how to survive, how important food is.

And I realized I wanted to be a farmer, to grow something that's nutritious, healthy, that I can get to people to improve their lives.

Like so many other families, Emily and Sean explored many other career paths before returning to the farm.

Both were inspired by their parents' deep commitment to sustainable, also known as regenerative, agriculture.

[Emily] I was able to realize how, um, special of a place my parents have created and, uh, how unique and cutting-edge some of the practices they were implementing were, and have been.

[Sean] I wouldn't want to farm any other way, but a lot of my farming decisions, uh, and inspiration are honestly born just in the desire to survive in this place.

[Craig] The future is one of resilience, and that's what we're trying to practice here on our farm.

So, resilience, to us, uh, is your sustainable agriculture, and really, the... the crux of it is soil health.

That commitment to sustainability and soil health happens throughout the year.

During the summer, the farm's 200 plus sheep graze in the orchard, keeping weeds under control so no herbicides are needed.

They're followed by chickens who eat bug pests and, like the sheep, leave manure.

That acts as fertilizer, though the animals are removed several months before the harvest to ensure food safety.

Cover crops are also planted to capture carbon from the atmosphere and return healthy nitrogen to the soil.

Harvest time brings a flurry of activity.

First, a powerful shaker jostles each tree, bringing thousands of walnuts to the ground.

They're swept to the center of each row, then harvested.

The nuts are loaded into double trailers called "nut buggies" and taken for processing.

Here, sticks and other debris are removed, then the nuts get a first washing.

Then, the hulls are removed, the nuts are washed again, human sorters make sure the remaining nuts are perfect and they're off to the driers.

[Craig] So, we use propane forced air, 110 degrees, dry the walnut.

It's looking beautiful at that point.

We convey all those walnuts, through elevators, up into clean sets of double trailers.

Big trucks come and take that to the processor.

But that's not the end of the story and the hard work.

All the harvest debris- hulls, bad walnuts, water used in processing, even walnut trees past their productive lives- are allowed to decompose here for a couple of months.

[Craig] In the spring and summer, we'll load it with a... with a front-end loader into our spreader and we'll just spread it out on the orchard floor as compost.

So, it's a... a wonderful recycling of what used to be farm waste.

All the McNamaras agree the years ahead will bring new and increasing challenges.

Already, summers here are hotter and winters, often, too mild.

That can lead to smaller yields and unpredictable prices.

Craig and Julie say they're both grateful and concerned their kids are joining them as they face the future.

[Craig] I want our children's lives to be connected to this land and as enjoyable as possible.

[Emily] I don't know what it will look like, but I see just new opportunities to really become creative so we can continue farming for generations to come.

[Sean] Every year, every season is an opportunity to learn.

So, I'm excited about the accumulation of knowledge that's happening here.

[Julie] I think there is a lot of promise.

They just have to be creative.

And I think they are creative and they've got the energy, so I'm hopeful.

♪♪ Walnuts have a rich history dating back thousands of years.

Walnuts are the oldest tree food known to man, dating back to 7000 B.C..

The Romans called walnuts Jupiter's Royal Acorn.

Early history indicates that English walnuts came from ancient Persia, where they were reserved for royalty.

Thus, the walnut is often known as the Persian Walnut.

♪♪ [Sharon Profis] Today, we're making whipped goat cheese with dates and bacon.

It is a very simple appetizer, but it presents so beautifully and it's great for any winter gathering.

I have eight ounces of goat cheese right here.

And this is all going straight into the blender.

To the goat cheese, I'm going to add about six ounces of crème fraîche.

I'll add two tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Let's get this whipped.

♪♪ OK, great.

Our goat cheese is whipped and we'll transfer it to the fridge, let it chill a little bit, and in the meantime, we'll make our date and bacon topping.

Let's get started on our date and bacon topping.

I have two slices of pretty thick-cut bacon here.

Bacon and dates, for some reason, just go together so, so well.

All right, let's get our bacon in the pan.

While the bacon cooks, let's get the rest of our ingredients ready.

I have two small shallots here.

I'll just give those a nice slice.

I also have three sprigs of thyme.

For this, I'm just going to pull the leaves right off and give that a nice chop.

And then, we have a quarter cup of pecans.

I want to chop them here.

Especially for this dish, the pecans will add a really nice texture, a nice crunch.

There are many varieties of dates, with Medjool, Noor and Deglet dates being some of the most popular ones you'll see in grocery stores.

And Deglet dates are somewhere in the middle.

They hold their shape really, really nicely, which is what makes them so great for this recipe.

Let's give these a nice chop.

Doesn't have to be perfect.

By the time this dish is all set, a lot of these flavors and these ingredients will start to meld together.

Now that our bacon has rendered most of its fat, I'm going to go ahead and add our shallots and cook it right with the bacon.

You want to add the shallots when the bacon is about 70% done, not all the way done, because it will continue cooking as we add the rest of our ingredients.

And once the shallots have started to soften, we can add the rest of our ingredients.

So, in go the pecans and our thyme.

This is when things start to smell really good.

And of course, our dates.

I'll also add the tiniest pinch of salt, because bacon is already pretty salty, and a few cracks of pepper.

Once the pecans are nice and crispy and the shallots have really softened up, add just about a teaspoon of honey.

The dates definitely add a lot of sweetness, but the honey makes sure that everything in here gets coated with sweetness.

The last thing that we want to do is balance out all that sweetness and that richness from the bacon with a little splash of red wine or sherry vinegar.

I'll turn off the heat.

Now, let me show you how to make crostini to go with this dish.

Crostini is the perfect vehicle for our spread, but it's also a staple for any cheese plate, charcuterie plate, or dip.

All you need is a fresh baguette and olive oil.

To get started, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Then, slice the baguette on a slight diagonal and arrange the slices on a baking sheet in a single layer.

The diagonal slices means more surface area for toppings.

Now, slightly brush both sides of the bread slices with olive oil.

Transfer the baking sheet to the middle rack of your oven and bake for five to ten minutes, or until the crostini is nice and golden.

At this point, you can sprinkle the slices with a little salt or serve them as is.

Once the whipped goat cheese has chilled, what I'll do is make a little well in the middle.

And that is where we'll add our date and bacon topping.

It smells so good.

I can smell the smokiness, the sweetness.

Beautiful.

And so, we have our crostini to go with it.

You grab your crostini, grab a nice scoop of that bacon and goat cheese, and you have yourself a beautiful winter appetizer.

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

♪♪ Still ahead on America's Heartland, soybean growers in Missouri are finding new ways to grow better by using science and technology to make the soil healthier and more productive.

But first, discover how milk is transformed into cheese at this factory in Tennessee.

♪♪ [Christine Leonard] Our family has been farming here for over 150 years.

I am a sixth generation dairy farmer.

Uh, my family and I milk 45 registered Holstein cows, about 45 minutes west of Minneapolis.

We farm right around 200 acres, um, and most of what we grow we use to help feed our cows.

When the milk leaves our farm, it actually goes to Bongards Creameries, um, where it gets turned into cheese.

Christine Leonard is one of 300 dairy farmers who are part of Bongards Creameries, a co-operative founded in 1908 in Bongards, Minnesota.

Bongards now produces cheese products sold across the United States and around the world.

[Evan Carlson] Our objective is, number one, to ensure that there's a place for our... our farmers' milk to go, making sure that they can always sell their product.

[Christine] I think one of my favorite parts about being a farmer is really getting to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

You can really taste the quality of milk that's coming from local family farms like mine and turning into this awesome, delicious product, um, that's, you know, full of protein, full of lots of other vitamins and nutrients.

Bongards expanded beyond its Minnesota roots in 2010 when they saw an opportunity to purchase a plant in the small town of Humboldt, Tennessee.

[Marvin] We got 8,500 people.

This city's ten square miles.

One of our number one products in this county is agriculture.

We are in the agriculture belt of West Tennessee.

Lots of cotton, corn, soybeans.

And now, Humboldt can add cheese to that list.

[Evan] And for us, it was just a great town.

We had the... the building, the facility and we knew that the... the employee base was here.

♪♪ Milk from the farmer's cows is turned into cheese, a process that can happen as quickly as 12 hours after the milk arrives at the plant.

[Evan] So, in this facility, we produce primarily processed slice and proce... processed loaf products.

And so, barrels come in from our... our Perham plant up in Minnesota, and they'll get ground up, additional ingredients will be added to that product.

It's mixed up.

It's pasteurized.

And then, it goes into either a carton for a loaf or, in the case of processed cheese, it's actually distributed across the belt.

So, as it comes off the belt, you see the individual ribbons of product layering up and going down the line.

And it's just a really- It's a unique thing to see.

We sell through the food service industry, K-through-12 schools, restaurants.

We sell to a lot of chain restaurants that many people have probably eaten Bongards cheese and not even known it.

The Humboldt plant not only brought a new commodity to town, it also brought much needed jobs.

[Marvin] It's awesome to say, hey, there's a bunch of people from Minnesota wants to come down here and open a cheese plant up in Humboldt, Tennessee.

[Christine] I really trust that they're also taking, a... a, you know, a good step forward to make sure that we're both able to be in business for years to come.

♪♪ [Meagan Kaiser] I mean, when we talk about feeding the world, we're talking about nourishing the world.

Meagan Kaiser spends a lot of time thinking about better ways to feed the world.

That's why you'll often find this soil scientist out in the soybean fields, taking dozens of samples on her family's fifth generation farm, or on her husband Marc's fourth generation family farm down the road.

[Meagan] So, you... you have to start with nutrition somewhere.

And if you don't have it at the beginning, you're going to have to add it in somewhere else along the line.

But the most efficient way to do it is to make sure that our soil is... is firing on all cylinders.

That focus on soil health starts in the field, but it continues a long way from here.

Those samples and thousands of others sent in by farmers across the U.S. end up at the Perry Agricultural Laboratory.

Started by Meagan's parents in 1982, this testing facility helps farmers discover exactly what their soil needs to grow the biggest, healthiest crops.

It's part of an overall strategy called "precision agriculture."

[Marc Kaiser] In... in our instance, uh, precision farming means tracking what we're putting into the soil, what we're taking out, um, making decisions, overlaying maps to try to figure out, um, yields, what worked, what didn't, and just making sure we're just economically and... and en... environmentally friendly.

[Meagan] And then 50?

[Marc] ...alternating.

Correct.

All that precision means a lot of work and a lot of data, with sophisticated equipment analyzing what's in every soil sample and GPS mapping that can analyze every square foot of land.

The results help farmers know, down to the centimeter, what every field needs, all while making sure inputs aren't overapplied.

[Meagan] We can look at productivity of our crop, um, and then we can look at our water management, our fuel usage, um, all of our inputs, and we can layer that data to then extract out what was the most profitable and most efficient things that we did, and we can replicate that across the farm.

Ag technology helps make that happen.

The data can be sent right out to a farmer in the field, and modern equipment applies farm inputs, like fertilizer or the chemicals that protect crops from pests, exactly and only where they're needed in precise amounts.

But old-fashioned techniques also improve sustainability and soil health.

Using cover crops and no-till farming aerates and enriches the soil with healthy microbes and nutrients, and captures or sequesters carbon, preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere.

And let's not forget how soy-based fuels, like biodiesel, can reduce air pollution when they're blended with fossil fuels.

[Meagan] So, the thought that the soybeans in our... our fields were producing biodiesel to create better air for children in New York City made me think about my children in rural Missouri and how we have that shared purpose.

[Marc] We just want to maintain what we have and take what we have and make it better for the next generations to come.

We want, um, healthy air, healthy water, uh, and healthy food choices for them.

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... ♪♪