(gentle music) - Welcome to "Oklahoma Gardening".

Just when you think the gardening season is over, join us as we take you to Greener Grounds in Sand Springs.

(bright classical music) Then we head to Guthrie to visit Wonderful to learn about their botanically infused drinks.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

- So if you're looking for an easy low-maintenance perennial.

I have two different types of flowers on one plant.

That gives the pepper its heat.

Today we are here at Greener Grounds just outside of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and joining me is the owner and operator, Victor Schultz.

Viktor, you got quite a commercial aquaponics and hydroponics operation here.

- Yes.

- Let's first start talking about the differences of aquaponics versus hydroponics.

- Yeah, different is we have fish and we have biofilter.

Everything is biology.

- Okay, and this system behind us is aquaponics that we're talking about.

- All what you see here in this building is aquaponic.

- [Casey] Okay.

So, and we've got some giant tanks back there that are holding What kind of fish?

- [Viktor] Yeah, tilapia.

- [Casey] Tilapia, okay.

- [Viktor] This is warm water fish.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Viktor] Very important for Oklahoma.

- [Casey] So they're very hardy fish.

And of course they're putting the fertilizer into the water system, right?

- [Viktor] Yes.

- [Casey] Tell us a little bit about the biology that happens then after that.

- [Viktor] Yeah, this is what we do.

We feed the fish and fish have salad and liquid.

So everything going to bio filter and first become ammonia and first things we have for the ammonia, and then- - [Casey] Which is a toxic nitrogen, right?

- [Viktor] This is toxic.

- [Casey] Yeah.

- [Viktor] And this is bad bacteria.

- [Casey] Yeah.

- [Viktor] And this bad bacteria runs through another tank to another filter.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Viktor] And this is nitrite bacteria.

So, and this nitrite bacteria is very good.

Only very bad for the plants.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Viktor] So this nitrite bacteria runs to another tank nitrate bacteria.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Viktor] And this nitrate bacteria becomes a good bacteria for plants.

- [Casey] So that bacteria then converts your bad nitrogen into your good nitrogen that's usable for the plants at that point.

- [Viktor] Yes.

- [Casey] Now I noticed there's kind of a unique component in one of those filters.

It looks like pinwheel pasta in there or something.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- Yeah, this is a tank where we have nitrate bacteria and all water that runs from the fish from ammonia nitrite to nitrate.

And this is where we have some spacer to multiply and become more from good bacteria.

- Right, okay.

- So this is, this tank is where we have this very strange plastic.

- So you need that surface area for that bacteria to really grow.

- [Viktor] Yeah.

- And of course you got oxygen, right?

Oxygen's important.

- Actually, this bacteria grows as well.

When we have it is enough oxygen and food, this nitrite bacteria.

- Right, right.

So once that good nitrogen has now been converted through the system, what happens?

How does that water then flow into individually each one of these?

Or can you talk about how it gets into these tanks behind us here?

- [Viktor] Yeah, this is, we built our system.

This is commercial and everything you cannot see, as well.

Everything runs underground.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Viktor] So only what you see, this is rafter and from the tanks, with water good bacteria runs to the plants and return again clean water to the fish.

- [Casey] Back to the fish.

The plants are actually an important component also for the fish then, right, because they're further cleaning that water.

- [Viktor] Yes, this is our filter.

Biology filter is best filter for the fish.

We have clean water.

- [Casey] Okay.

- Nice fish, no smell.

- And your fish look very healthy.

I mean, I've never seen such huge tilapia.

I kind of asked you if there is a magnifying glass on 'em 'cause they look so massive.

- Yeah, this is as important when you have aquaponic and you like good plants, healthy, nice, you have to give good food.

And this is how we feed our fish of this Purina.

- [Victor] Special for this fish.

- [Interviewer] Oh, okay.

Okay.

So even the inputs of the fish food are important to the whole system.

- [Victor] Very important.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

So, let's talk about, so the hydroponics has eliminated the fish aspect, but you still don't have any soil.

So let's talk a little bit about how those plants are growing.

What's that system of hydroponics that you're using?

- Yeah, hydroponics.

This is, a system, a dripping system and all what we need as well to support roots.

So, and this is perlite, what we use as well.

People have different system.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- [Victor] Different kind of product as what you support.

- [Interviewer] Yeah, I've seen clay, so y'all are using perlite.

Okay.

- [Victor] Yes.

And we find for us is much better, perlite, so we put, we plant as seedlings in the perlite.

And then we have also a dripping system.

This, in thirty minutes, so, five minutes drips in the system.

- Okay.

- So, and this is all of what plants need.

All fertilizer, with the water, right PH.

- Right.

- So, and then everything that you're growing too.

- Okay.

And there's trellis stuff and stuff in there.

So, I didn't see any tanks.

Where are the tanks for that water system?

- Yeah, normally, people put underground tanks.

So I'm from construction, so I decided to build a basement.

So, and I put everything in the basement and we control all our hydroponic from the basement.

- Okay.

So I know a lot of times for the home gardener we're often thinking, you know, NPK and that sort of stuff, but you also have to provide micronutrients, so does the fertilizer that you're using also provide that as well?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- So we, we put together two components and then, we, we add in the water prepare tank with all fertilizer for, for tomatoes.

- [Interviewer] Okay, all right.

So, I know one of the kind of counterintuitive things is that we know plants need oxygen in their root system also.

- Yeah.

- So how is that oxygen being provided when they're literally sitting in water, it seems like?

- [Victor] Yeah, and this is number one by aquaporin.

- Uh-huh.

- So when you put the seedlings in the floes, they die.

- Uh-huh.

- So they cannot breathe.

- Okay.

- So you have to put oxygen as well in the water.

And this is what-- - Yeah.

- You see as the, when you, so this is the bubbles.

- Oh, okay.

- And this is air stones.

We have blower, this all air blowing, kind of through the air stones, and become oxygen for, - [Interviewer] So there's a-- - [Victor] For the plants.

- [Interviewer] So even though they're sitting in water, they're still provided with enough oxygen that their roots can have that and take 'em up.

- Yeah.

When you put not enough air stones, - Yeah.

- You can see as well this waves as well in between the, the, the plants not grow.

- Oh, okay.

Okay.

- So you have to put enough air stones, enough oxygen.

- Okay.

- For, for, for the plants.

- Well, Victor, I understand it's your wife that kind of handles the plant side of it.

So if you don't mind, I'm gonna go try to find her, if that's okay.

- Yes.

We can talk to my wife.

- All right.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

(acoustic music begins) - [Interviewer] Hello, Irene.

- Oh, hello.

- I, I hear you're the plant lady.

So tell us a little bit, it looks like you were inspecting for insects.

You've got a couple of crops here, it looks like.

Do you guys have insects?

I mean, you're in a controlled system here.

- Yes, but we still have sometimes, (laughs) comes in butterflies, or we get caterpillar, and sometimes, uh, white flies, and.

- Okay.

- Thrips, so.

- Yeah, so you get insect pressure too.

Um, let's talk a little bit about the two crops that you're growing here.

Tomatoes and lettuce, but there's some varieties in here.

Can you share with us some of those different varieties that you're growing?

- Yes.

In, in the tomatoes we have two varieties.

We have the beefsteak tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes, but different kinds of cherry tomatoes.

So we have a variety, like heirloom tomatoes for them, - [Interviewer] Oh, okay.

- [Irene] because they're all mixed.

Yellow, red, and-- - Oh, very nice.

- Different kinds of, yeah.

- Makes your salad, colorful, right?

- Yes.

And yeah, the children like, very much, them.

- So, and on the lettuce side of things, what all are you growing over there?

- We have, every week we are seeding six varieties and five of them, they're changing.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- [Irene] Constantly, some of them.

But we are seeding every week about three to four thousand lettuce seeds.

And then, they grow up for a week.

They're standing in there.

- [Irene] A seedling room with controlled environment so they have enough heat or warm.

- [Host] Right.

- [Irene] And humidity so they sprout there.

- [Host] Okay.

- And then we put them out into the base.

First in 120 holes so it's not so much space taking away, and then we put them after a week again out into the bigger, all the other rafters.

- Yeah, so just like we would have to kind of up pot, you know, a transplant, right?

- Yes, transplanting, yes.

- We would have to move it to give it more room to grow.

- Yes.

- You're basically doing that on the floats to give them a little more spacing on there too.

- Yes, exactly.

Yes.

- So how long are they in production from when you start the lettuce seed through the finished product?

- So usually it's about six weeks.

Some of them like romaine have a little bit longer, for five to six days.

- Okay.

So you've got romaine, you've got red and green leaf.

- Butter, yeah.

Butterheads and crunchy.

- Tell us a little bit about how you've organized those floats to make harvest a little bit easier.

- So we plant on the one side and put in the... And then we just push them forward and as they grow up, we harvest in front.

And so the next one comes again, we wash the rafters and disinfect them.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Irene] And put them with the next plants again in.

- [Host] So you're literally able to take your harvesting right down the center of your greenhouse as they both come towards you.

- [Irene] Exactly, yes, yes, yes.

- That's pretty neat.

So obviously these tomatoes are completely different and I mean, if anybody doubted that tomatoes was a vine, you can see it for sure here.

It looks like mainly indeterminate tomatoes that you're growing.

- Yes.

- So tell us about this unique system of, it almost looks like yarn you've got tucked all around here.

- Yes.

- Tell us a little bit about it.

- Yeah, we are growing them for 10 months up to one year, depends on the variety.

And we lower them every week four foot down and lean them to the side as we prune them and raise them.

- [Host] Yeah, so I won't have to reach up there.

By the time those are ripe, they're gonna be further down here, right?

- [Irene] Exactly.

We harvest just down here and as they grow and ripen we just harvest on this area here, down there.

- [Host] So again, you got the ripe product coming down to you.

- Yes.

- So this particular plant like we're looking at is not necessarily to this or that bucket, it's to maybe several buckets down the way.

- Yes, yes.

It depends how long it grows, so it can up to 30 feet we have to... - [Host] Okay.

- [Irene] Trails.

- Yup, that's fantastic.

Well, they look very happy and healthy.

Can you tell me a little bit, like are you harvesting this stuff daily, weekly, and where is it going?

We are harvesting two times of the week on the tomatoes, and we give them to a union school, are buying them for the children and also food bank.

And the cherry tomatoes, they are going to Resource stores.

We sell them in the Resource.

- Oh, that's fantastic.

Okay.

So we can get fresh fruit at our Resource grocery store here.

- Yes, yes.

- Well, Irene, thank you both to you and your husband for allowing us to come visit you guys today.

- Thank you, this is my pleasure.

- Thanks.

- Thank you.

(upbeat instrumental music) - As we continue our series From Garden to Glass, we are in downtown Guthrie to visit the state's first distiller to learn how Wander Folk is adding botanicals into their liquor.

(upbeat instrumental music) Hello, Jeffrey.

- Hello.

So I hear you're the head distiller and head of spirits here.

Maybe you can help me understand a little bit about some of the products that y'all supply and the botanicals that go into 'em.

- I'd love to.

- So tell me first what you guys do here at Wander Folk.

- Well, here at Wander Folk we distill.

We are a distillery first and foremost.

So distilling, you're making ethanol, right?

- [Host] Mm-hm.

- [Jeffrey] So ethanol based beverages like vodka and gin, various types of whiskey, basically here in Oklahoma we make anything we can from grain.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Jeffrey] Yep.

- And you're making some of that from Oklahoma grain, or?

- Yeah, that's correct.

Yeah, yeah.

So we use rye sourced from here in Oklahoma as well as barley right now and also some corn.

- Okay, very good.

- Yeah.

- So what really brought us here was the fact that you're infusing botanicals into some of your liquors.

Can you tell us a little bit about how that came about?

- Totally, yeah.

So sort of as a matter of course for a distillery, we have to make money and so we need to sell things that don't take a lot of time to... - To rest like a whiskey takes years and years and years, and so in the meantime, what we like to do is sell products that don't require aging, such as vodka, but we also make gin, as you alluded to.

So gin does require some botanicals to give it some flavors, some character in a house style.

So we have various botanicals that we use and the training...

The types of gin that we make are classic and then modern styles as well and then training, the education, is the best in the world that we can get.

- Awesome, so I know kind of, I always thought, gin comes from juniper and vodka comes from potatoes.

Is that true or not?

- So yes, you are required to use juniper in gin.

So if you don't like juniper, gin you might have trouble with.

But on vodka, no, you don't have to use potatoes.

That's probably a great marketing campaign from somebody in Eastern Europe, but vodka can be made from anything.

So our vodka is made from 100% corn.

Obviously that's a staple crop for United States, so it makes sense, but it can be made from anything from fruit or any other type of grain.

And then juniper, as you alluded to- I'm sorry, gin, as you alluded to, has to be made from juniper, but we can also throw in some other botanicals.

And so the juniper can be a huge part of that ingredient list or it can be reduced to just a small portion.

And then you can throw all these other botanicals in there, maybe a lot of citrus or floral aspects.

Things to almost go with the juniper that might make it taste almost not like juniper at all.

- Okay, and all of those go through the same kind of distilling process that beer goes through initially, is that correct?

- So, beer doesn't get distilled.

- Okay.

- Beer is fermented.

- Okay.

- Okay, sorry.

- But distillates are also fermented, just like beer is.

So all distillates start out as a beer or a wine, in the instance of brandy.

So we just want a sugar source.

We're gonna throw some yeast at it.

The yeast eats the sugar and you have alcohol, CO2, and heat as a byproduct.

And as distillers, our job is to concentrate those ethanols, that alcohol, and separate it away from the solids and the color.

And so what we're doing is an end distilling.

Just in a very, very brief synopsis here, we take beer, we put it into a pot, we heat it up, and then we collect the hot vapor that is expelled.

Similar to like a tea kettle ejecting steam out of the little whistle, we collect the steam and we allow it to condense into a liquid which is a higher concentration of ethanol and some flavor.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right, and so then at what point, do the botanicals go into this process?

- So after we do that first distillation, where all the grain and everything is separated from the actual concentrated alcohol, we'll take the alcohol and blend it with some botanicals at about like a- It'll be like a 50% alcohol, 50% water, and then we'll actually put the botanicals, allow them to steep for about 24 hours, and then we'll redistill that again.

And so you're essentially making essential oils that are solvent-based or they're with an ethanol solvent.

- Okay.

- If that makes sense.

- And so there's a whole recipe I would imagine, just with the botanicals.

Walk us through that process of how you came up with some of your different recipes.

- You got it.

So as we said earlier, Gin you have to use juniper.

And so it was only a question of how much juniper do we want to use?

And at what part of the process in distilling do we want to add the juniper?

And so we throw the juniper into the recipe.

We'll say like a for Garden Society, right?

- Uh huh, yeah.

- So for Garden Society gin, we wanted to make an American-style gin, or what we call a contemporary gin, something that's not as in your face with the juniper.

So we reduced the juniper to about 10% of the total ingredients list.

And I wanted to throw some things in there that I really kind of personally liked.

So I like black pepper in my distillate.

And so I found a pepper, it's grown in Tasmania, it's called mountain pepper.

It's very, very interesting.

It's not been used in distillates that I know of.

We had to get FDA approval to actually use it even.

- [Casey] Does it smell?

Can I smell it?

- It does, it does.

But actually you might want to crush up little, crush it up a little bit to actually get a really nice smell.

And I'm gonna grab a couple others here too- - [Casey] But it just looks like peppercorns, so... - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So in Tasmania, this is almost like a black pepper substitute for them.

We don't think it's cultivated.

I'm pretty sure it's all harvested wild right now.

I don't know that it's even been attempted to cultivate it.

- Okay.

- But also we use some citrus notes.

So for our citrus, we wanted to use orange peel, lemon peel, and yuzu powder.

- Okay, yuzu powder, is that what this is here?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So these, you can see these are dried peels of lemon and orange.

And then this is a powdered peel of yuzu.

And yuzu is like a Japanese citrus.

So has a nice like floral note to it.

I don't really know how to describe it other, it just smells like dessert, smells like a lemon bar.

It's really, really nice.

- Yeah, it has kinda of a lemon cake smell to it or something.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

- And, of course, you know, orange and lemon.

So all three of those like make this really nice example of citrus in a gin.

And that's the Garden Society gin is a very citrus-y gin.

- Okay.

- And then we'll also use... Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier, but this is actually lavender that was harvested and grown here in Oklahoma.

So this lavender was actually, this is this year's crop.

So this comes from the Paul's Valley area.

Really, really nice stuff.

- Very nice, yeah.

- So the floral, the citrus, the pepper in with your traditional gin flavor, that's really what makes Garden Society.

- Okay.

- That's that style, if that makes sense.

- So kind of a fresh summer flavor I would think with all the citrus.

- Absolutely, yeah.

So there's not as much like baking spice in that one.

- Right.

- But the other gin that we make - Okay.

- Set these to the side, if that's okay.

- So the other gin we make is called Prairie Wolf and so we've been making Prairie Wolf for 10 years.

This has been something that we've been producing for quite some time.

But this one was actually recently adjusted, the botanicals were adjusted, we included an additional baking spice element, so this is more of like a traditional, a lot of juniper in there, but the juniper, it's the best juniper we can buy in the world.

It's from northern Italy, from Tuscany.

We use cardamom.

If you're familiar with cardamom, it's got this really nice, light menthol note to it, and then coriander, tons and tons of coriander, so for a coriander, citrus note, and then licorice root and angelica root.

- So a little more hit ya.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Hit ya with your flavors.

- Yeah, a little bit more punchy.

But, yeah, the juniper berries, which I haven't brought it down yet, I don't know why, but these juniper berries, what you're looking for, for a juniper berries, you want consistency of color, which we have throughout the batch here and then we're looking for them to just kind of break apart really easily with your fingers and on the inside you can see there's a little bit of like a shiny, sap substance, that tells you you have a good moisture content.

They were picked fairly freshly.

That's what you have to have for good gin.

- So that's the oils in there that are gonna be steeped out and then distilled out through that process.

- Totally, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you are making basically alcohol essential oils, so it's almost like a perfume you can drink.

- Okay, all right.

Do you have a third one with you?

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

So we also, for the folks that aren't super into Juniper, I made this gin that's not a gin.

- Okay.

- So there's no juniper, no juniper was harmed in the making of this.

But we use a California lime peel, a lot of this Tasmanian pepperberry again and then lemon verbena, which I'm sure you're familiar with lemon verbena, but it's one of my favorite things to distill with.

It really doesn't take much and I who- - So it's the leaves that you're using there.

- Yeah, it's just the leaves.

It's one of my favorite things.

Anyway, so very, very simple recipe for this and it's fantastic.

It goes, any cocktail you would put gin, you can just replace it with us.

- Well, Jeffery thank you so much for sharing this with us.

I think it's fascinating how you're using Oklahoma products through the fermentation and this distilling to create an Oklahoma product right here in Guthrie.

Thank you all for sharing this with us.

- Thanks for coming and visiting.

(lively classical music) - There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

(lively classical music continues) Join us next week as we wrap up another season of "Oklahoma Gardening."

Well, Victor, I would love to talk to your... Should I just say?

(indistinct) to using Oklahoma products in the process to get our finished product.

(blowing raspberry) Could I say products any more times?

To find out more information about show topics, as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

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"Oklahoma Gardening" is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriter, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club and the Tulsa Garden Center.

(lively classical music continues)