Washington Grown is made possible by funding from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

And by The Potato Farmers of Washington.

Learn why Washington is home to the world's most productive potato fields and farmers by visiting potatoes.com.

- Hi, everyone.

I'm Kristi Gorenson and welcome to "Washington Grown."

Not only does Washington grow hundreds of crops, like apples or potatoes, but we're also one of the most prolific seed-growing regions in the country.

In this episode of "Washington Grown," we're gonna take a look at those tiny seeds where it all begins.

Val's visiting a vegetable seed farm in the Skagit Valley.

- When you take it out of agriculture, it's forever.

You never see somebody pull up a parking lot or tear down a house and farm it.

- And I'm making Saigon chicken cabbage salad at Ba Bar in Seattle.

- And that's what Southeast Asian Vietnamese food is all about, sweet, sour, salty.

- And it's so fresh tasting.

- Yes.

- Then Tomás is at the WSDA Seed Lab.

- You gotta love microscopes, right?

I mean, come on.

You can look at anything under a microscope, it'd be cool.

- All this and more today on "Washington Grown."

[upbeat music] This is my favorite part of the day!

You gave me this job just to keep me occupied, didn't you?

This is what fine dining is all about right here.

[dog barking] [Tomás barking] - I could eat these all day.

- You all make this look so simple and easy.

Cheers to that!

- I only hang out in pretty potato fields.

[upbeat music] Today we're in University Village in Seattle looking for authentic Vietnamese street food at Ba Bar.

It seems we're in the right place because many have dubbed this the best pho in Seattle.

Co-owner Eric Banh let us into his kitchen and his energetic and vivid personality made us feel right at home.

I'm digging your hat, you're representing.

- And have not worn a hat during cooking for the past 20 years, no way.

I love it!

- And it looks so good on you.

Eric and his sister grew up eating street food in Saigon, giving his restaurant a special flavor that comes straight from the heart.

- It's so not only amazing looking and beautiful, it's also delicious.

- Especially when it's cold outside.

It's nice to have a steaming bowl of soup.

- Yeah, you definitely need an napkin or two.

- Growing up in Vietnam, lots of street food.

Not because they're inferior, but because they don't have enough money and they just master two, three dishes.

I know some folks do for three, four generations.

Using very inexpensive ingredient and make it taste amazing.

- Comfort food that is fresh and light and just packed full of flavor.

That's how I would describe it.

With great ambiance and crazy cool cocktails.

- You have to remember, Vietnam is hot.

Average temperature is 90.

- And so you want food that... - Very light so that it's easy to go down.

It's kind of tough to eat beef stew during 100 degree.

- 105 degree day, yes, I see what you're saying.

Stick around because later in the show Eric and I are making a special Saigon chicken cabbage salad.

- You like spicy?

- Well, I think your idea of spicy and my idea is-- - Actually I'm a wimp, I'm a wimp - I'm a wimp too.

[both laughing] [upbeat music] [upbeat music] - The magic Skagit isn't a fairytale.

There are reasons this valley is one of the elite agricultural producing counties in the US.

- It just happens to be the most unique climate that everything agrees with.

We have warm days and cool nights, but it's not too warm.

The day length is huge, especially in like spinach crops - That rare combination makes Skagit County a precious area for producing food, especially vegetable seeds.

Vegetables like beets, broccoli, cabbage, and spinach start on seed farms in the valley.

And many of these vegetable seeds can't grow anywhere else.

- This area is one of the few areas in the world that you can successfully grow some of these crops.

They've tried growing spinach in the Willamette, but it gets so hot and spinach doesn't like that kind of heat, so it doesn't do as well.

Yes, you can grow it, but you're not gonna get the yield and the consistency like we can get here.

- Annie and Dave Lohman have been growing vegetable seeds for decades.

Seeds from their farm go to supply farms in California and elsewhere who in turn grow vegetables for our grocery stores.

It is vital that these seed fields don't cross pollinate with each other, so they must be isolated, sometimes at least three miles away from each other.

- They're wind pollinated.

So it's very, very important that you don't accidentally contaminate somebody else's crop.

On the bee pollinated crops such as cabbage, it's important that you keep the bees only right here because they have a flight distance of a mile or two.

- On this plant all along here, all these little pieces are flowers.

- And they all have the potential to set a seed.

- Really?

- And you see there'd be multiple seeds in different spots.

It is very, very fragile.

Once it starts setting for seed, you try not to disturb it.

- Right, well, I'm gonna stay out here so I don't.

I don't wanna rock the seeds.

Because of these unique needs, farmers in the region work together voluntarily to rotate crops strategically.

Even sharing land in order to keep the isolation puzzle working.

This makes every inch of farmable land in this county vital for food production.

Any loss of farmland for buffers or urbanization will have negative consequences.

- 80,000 acres, and you think, "Wow, that's a tremendous amount."

But then you think about how many families are farming that, all of the different crops that are grown here, and that isn't very much.

When you take it out of agriculture, it's forever.

You never see somebody pull up a parking lot or tear down a house and farm it.

If you reduce the amount of available crop land for seed production, you're losing opportunity.

Fields become too small to practically farm.

We have all these factors that make it ideal for growing a lot of crops besides seed crops.

And it would be a tremendous shame if that opportunity goes away.

[upbeat music] - Oh zucchini, chances are you grow it or you know someone who does, and you either have an abundance or are gifted it by well-meaning friends.

So I'm gonna share today two ways to store it in the freezer to use for different kinds of dishes.

From soups to making zucchini bread in January, February.

So we're gonna take a chunk about this big and you're just gonna cut it up into sizes that you would enjoy in your soups.

Once you get the amount that you want.

I like to use Ziploc bags.

You do have the option to do something like these containers, but usually I'm running out of freezer space, especially at the end of harvest season because I have so much shoved up in there from my garden.

Chuck that in your freezer.

And you can enjoy these in stews or even smoothies.

These are also really, really good in smoothies.

Get those veggies in.

Now we are going to shred zucchini for a zucchini bread.

So we're gonna put that in there.

We're gonna take one of these mesh bags and then we're gonna squeeze it out over the sink and get all the extra moisture out, spin and spin.

And look at all of that release there.

And that makes a big difference.

And even if it's still a little crunchy, a little bit of ice in it, you can still toss it in and use it in your zucchini bread.

And there you have it.

Two different ways to use the abundance of zucchini.

You have been gifted this fall.

[upbeat music] - Beets are a super food.

We'll tell you how they help our bodies after the break.

- Coming up, I'm making a Saigon chicken cabbage salad at Ba Bar.

- You like spicy?

- I think your idea of spicy and my idea of spicy-- - I'm actually a wimp, I'm a wimp.

- I'm a wimp too.

[both laughing] And we're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest trying out some chocolate zucchini muffins.

[upbeat music] - Beets help lower our blood pressure and give us lots of energy.

- We're back at Ba Bar in University Village.

Delicious cuisine packed with all sorts of flavors compliment the decor.

Creating a unique Southeast Asian experience for anyone looking for authentic Vietnamese street food.

- It's very family friendly.

It's close to our house.

It's got a great outdoor setting.

- It's got a really good vibe.

The music, the service is really good.

And the drinks.

- At the end of the day, doesn't matter how beautiful your restaurant is, but let the food speak to the people.

- Co-owner Eric Banh uses locally grown ingredients to bring Southeast Asian flavors to the northwest.

In his eyes, the fresher the produce, the better.

- When I first came here, I love it so much.

I fell in love with it and I said, "This is where I'm gonna settle down."

The ingredient's incredible.

I mean, you look at seafood, vegetable, you name it.

We are truly farm to the table.

- That's awesome.

- Yeah.

- It's so not only amazing looking and beautiful.

It's also delicious.

- When it's cold outside it's nice to have a steaming bowl of soup.

- It's just a like a really easy place to come and have a really delicious meal.

- You and I get to do some cooking.

What are we gonna make?

- We're gonna do Saigon chicken cabbage salad.

- Awesome.

- It's sturdy, inexpensive.

It costs literally $25, you can feed a family of eight.

It's gonna be fun.

- Saigon chicken cabbage salad.

- Correct.

- I love it.

- Yes.

- First of all, cabbage is sturdy vegetable.

And Vietnam, the average temperature there is 90 degrees-- - So that's hot.

- Very hot.

- Yeah.

- So our salads are generally either cucumber or cabbage.

If you use very delicate herbs or vegetable, then it wilt really fast.

- We start by adding a chicken to some boiling water, seasoned with salt, bay leaves, and garlic for flavor.

- Vietnamese, we emphasize a lot on clarity of the soup.

So you can use a ladle and discard all the gunk and the debris.

- The stuff that comes to the top?

- Absolutely.

For Vietnamese folks, if you have cloudy soup, you don't know what you're doing.

- Okay, that's good to know.

We chop up a cabbage and soak it in water with salt and lime.

Next we chop up an onion and some carrots.

I'm not very good at knife handling, but, you know.

- Would you like to learn a tip?

- Yes, I'm always up for tips.

- When you stick out the index finger, now you stiffen up your whole forearm.

You hold like this and your fingers act as a guide.

- Okay.

- Perfect!

- There we go.

- There you go, see?

You're ready to work in the kitchen.

- For the dressing, we chop up deseeded jalapeño, chili pepper, garlic, and add some pickled leaks and tomato paste.

Finally, we add some sugar and blend it up.

Next we add fish sauce, coconut water, vinegar, and shallot oil.

When our chicken is finished cooking, we shred it into pieces.

- So we have one full-time person, literally, to-- - To de-bone chicken?

- To be in charge of chicken.

De-bone chicken, boil chicken, that's how much chicken we use.

- Time to assemble the salad.

So the beautiful part about this salad is that most of it is-- - Absolutely.

- Grown in Washington.

- Yes.

You have mint, you have cabbage, you have onion, you have carrots, you have shallot.

- We add in some mint, cilantro, and an herb called rau ram.

Then we add the dressing, top it off with the chicken, some peanuts, caramelized shallot, and chopped lime leaf.

- Magical.

[upbeat music] - We earned this!

- I always talk about food very much like music.

The caramelized shallot and the peanuts act as a base.

And then for vinaigrette, you look for the acidity.

The kick from the garlic.

And that's what Southeast Asian Vietnamese food's all about.

Sweet, sour, salty.

- And it's so fresh tasting.

Thank you so much for having me.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Looking for more Washington Grown recipes, farms, and fun?

Come visit us on YouTube.

[gentle music] - The Skagit Valley provides the perfect climate to grow amazing potatoes, berries, and flowers.

But it also allows farmers to produce something just as important, seeds.

- We are in a cabbage seed production field.

- Sierra Hartney is the senior pathology manager for Sakata Seed America.

- This is a field that will be harvested for the seed, and then that seed will be sold to a fresh market grower that will then plant it and grow ahead of cabbage.

And then that will go to your grocery store or coleslaw manufacturing location or something like that.

One of the real interesting things about the Skagit Valley is that we are growing wind pollinated crops, where the pollen floats through the wind.

And then we also have something like cabbage here that is insect, bee pollinated.

And so you gotta space these crops out.

- Crops are spaced apart in order to keep cross pollination from happening between different varieties of cabbage.

That way the seed is pure and isn't a mixture of varieties.

- So the growers and seed companies pin, and we call it pinning because it's traditionally a little push pin in a map saying my field is here, I'm gonna grow this type and it needs to be this type.

And you're gonna be two miles over here growing your type.

And so that we don't have mixtures.

- Why is every bit of land so precious?

- Here in the Skagit, it's a valley, right?

We're we're hemmed in by the ocean.

We got the mountains.

So then the acreage is set.

We have a Washington State University Extension and Research Center here in this valley.

So that shows the importance of this valley to have Washington State University here, to have a research center to support the growers here in the valley.

Where you are at here in the Skagit is amazing.

And we grow seeds that go around the world to feed people, right?

We're feeding people.

When you go to the store and and grab a salad off the shelf, there was farmers and laborers and scientists, all that to get you your bag of salad.

[gentle music] - Coming up, Tomás is at the WSDA seed lab.

- You gotta love microscopes, right?

I mean, come on.

You can look at anything under a microscope, it'd be cool.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] Hey, let's go!

Usually on "Washington Grown" I'm looking for flavorful food on wheels.

But then I heard about this walkup restaurant within another restaurant here in Seattle, and their menu is entirely plant-based.

Now with loved ones at home that are vegetarian, this definitely piqued my interest.

So let's go check out Ba Bar Green.

Chef Chris Michael isn't a vegetarian himself, but works hard to create a plant-based menu that anyone can enjoy regardless of their diet or preference.

- You know, I really like savory kind of meaty food.

Every dish that I put out, I want to be able to say, I would eat this myself.

- Today we're trying out their kimchi fried rice with a vegetarian chorizo substitute.

So look at this tiny little portion, in proportion to the restaurant size, I guess.

[laughs] - You have the plant-based egg, roasted broccoli, the house-made kimchi.

- These this meat alternatives are getting-- - Pretty close, right?

- Trickier and trickier, 'cause I wouldn't know.

- That's part of why we designed the menu the way it was, is we're trying to go after everybody and not just vegetarians.

- Right.

Okay, let's see what the people of Seattle think of this delicious and deceptive plant-based dish.

- Oh, this vegetarian?

- It is.

- I think this looks like meat.

[upbeat music] - That's good, that's better than I thought.

- That's delicious!

- It's really well seasoned.

- And I'm tasting spice.

I'm tasting a lot of really yummy texture.

It's that you don't often find in vegetarian dishes.

- The important part about chorizo is the spices that are involved and that is all there.

So it tastes, I think exactly like it should.

- It doesn't give me that um, bland, almost a dog food flavor that I get from other vegetarian fake meat.

- I gotta bring my wife in for some of this.

This is good.

- This is very good.

- For something that's-- - I'm gonna take another bite.

- By all means, you finish that!

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - Here in Yakima there's no shortage of fresh fruits and veggies, but every plant has to start somewhere.

Here at the Washington State Department of Agriculture Seed Program, they're focused on making sure that seed is just right so our produce is the best there is.

- I like to explain when to people say, "What crops do you do?"

We do everything from A to Z.

Everything from A to Z.

If it's a seed and not a tree seed, we will do it here.

- Paula Moore is the program director here at the Seed Lab.

Growers from across the area send their seed here to be tested for anything from diseases to seed vitality.

- We're eventually the third party verifier.

- That the grower and the buyer can both trust.

- Exactly, exactly.

- Gotcha.

I'm also guessing it's no coincidence that we're located in the very heart of Washington here in Yakima.

- Right, we do service the entire state for crop inspections.

And so Yakima really is very convenient.

Within three hours, you can get anywhere.

- Time to take a seed from start to finish, starting with Jolie at the divider.

This looks cool.

This is not a coffee maker I don't think, right?

- No, no.

You're not gonna get your latte out of there and it's not gonna grind any coffee beans.

This is a divider and the first step of the process is to make sure we have a true representation of what's in the sample that's been provided.

- So when they ship the sample and it comes in, sometimes heavier seed will settle to the bottom and then our inert will rise to the top.

So this way when we divide it, we're mixing it and then also breaking it down into the required amounts that it needs for the test.

- Okay, Alright.

- Yep.

- After the seed has been mixed and divided, we take it over to Maryanne, the analyst who will separate the seed from the debris.

- You're basically cleaning it out to get that pure seed.

- Just one little grain at a time, and you better hope you're not allergic to that 'cause if you sneeze your sample's done.

- It's happened, it's happened.

[both laughing] - So now that we've got the purity all taken care of, we're gonna take these little seeds over to viability and see what we can learn, alright?

Check it out.

In viability they plant the seeds onto moist paper using a special vacuum head with tiny holes in it.

- I have a little pedal down here under the floor, and I push on it and you hear it suction.

We sprinkle the seed in here and then-- - Clever!

- Shake it around, shake it around.

- Because the seeds are so small, sometimes the vacuum picks up two at a time.

My job is to pick off all the extra seeds.

Oh, see, and then I dropped a seed, so I'll just replace it.

It's one of those little pieces of the world that you're thankful that there's people out there that do this sort of thing.

I mean, this is not an easy task.

And they're doing it so we can enjoy all the crops that we enjoy every day when we go to the store.

And I'm sure Paula is watching me going, "Oh my gosh, will you hurry up?"

[both laughing] - Okay, so then the tricky part is to make sure you let the air off at the right time, or all of that falls off.

- Oh, great!

[laughs] - So you can put the lid on the top and then take your foot off the pedal and lift straight up.

There you go.

- Okay, that's rep one.

- Do that three more times.

- I got three more times.

So you guys come back next season and I'll be finished.

Okay.

[laughs] Finally, we leave them in a temperature controlled germinator to sprout.

And throughout the entire growing process, a wide variety of tests can be performed.

- This is a tetrazolium seed testing stations, and really all it is, is a staining process.

We soak the seed in the stain and the stain attaches to oxygen in live seed.

It's really just a simple live or dead.

- You gotta love microscopes, right?

I mean, come on.

You look at anything under a microscope and it'd be cool.

- Everybody thinks to be in ag, you gotta be the farmer.

You gotta own the tractor and own the land.

But this is an integral part of agriculture.

What you're planting in the ground is what you're gonna get out.

The seed does matter.

It is the start of everything.

[upbeat music] - Welcome back.

We are here in The Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane, where we get to taste some delicious recipes from allrecipes.com using some of the ingredients that we feature in our show.

And my taste testers today, we have Chef Laurent Zirotti, who is also a culinary arts instructor.

Thanks for being here.

- Good morning, Kristi.

How are you today?

- I am wonderful.

Get to taste some food.

And also Tomás, my partner in crime.

Thank you for being here.

- Good to see you Kristi and good to see you guys at home too.

- So we are going to be tasting some chocolate zucchini muffins today.

And zucchini, you're always looking for ways to get rid of your zucchini, right?

If you have a home garden and you grow zucchini, you know what I'm talking about.

So we are putting it into a muffin today.

And this was, this episode was all about vegetable seed.

And you know, I don't think a lot of people realize how much vegetable seed is grown here and then sent out to other states so they can also grow seed.

It's kind of interesting how it all works.

And you were able to go.

- Well, yeah, and I was able to go and visit the seed inspection place where, you know, farmers send them their seeds and then they sit there and go through it.

And it was an incredible experience to see how much detailed work goes in to ensure that things that are leaving Washington are of the utmost and impeccable quality.

It's awesome.

- Yeah, I love that.

So chocolate zucchini muffins.

- Cannot wait!

- Sounds pretty good to me.

[upbeat music] Alright, well, what a beautiful presentation.

- It's gorgeous.

- Don't be afraid to make a double batch, a triple batch because you have so much zucchini, right?

And you freeze it.

You scoop it, you put it on sheet pan, then you pack it when it's frozen in a Ziploc bag and you can bake them as you go.

Because I don't think you want to eat zucchini muffin every day.

So time to time.

- Well, I think I might, this is so good!

- Oh, good!

- I love the little mini chocolate chips in it.

And it's not like I'm tasting a zucchini, but it makes it really moist.

- It would be hard to know that there's zucchini in this if somebody didn't tell you.

You definitely give this to your kids or stubborn teens at home and say, "Hey, here you go."

And they think it's a chocolate muffin.

And indeed, there's a lot of zucchini in this.

This is very good.

- Really good.

- I like the touch of those little chip of chocolate on top.

I really like that touch.

- Yeah, that is delicious.

- And some of the comments, Lorna says, These turned out perfect.

They are moist, not too sweet, they're delicious.

Added some cocoa bits and coconut.

- Oh!

- Ooh.

- She says her husband loved them.

- I really like the idea of the coconut flakes.

Because it will bring some texture also to it.

Some crunchiness.

- Yeah if you wanted to toast the coconut and put it on top.

- On top, beautiful.

There we go.

- Good ideas, guys!

- Yeah, you're the chef, Tomás, here.

- I like it, yeah.

So if you want to give this recipe a try, maybe do your own take, tag us on social media, and take a picture of it, so we'd love to see it.

- Love to see it!

Thank you.

- Cheers.

To get the recipe for chocolate zucchini muffins, visit wagrown.com.

- It's incredible to know just how much time and care goes into the seeds that keep us all fed.

That's it for this edition of "Washington Grown."

We'll see you next time.