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, and welcome to Washington Grown.

I'm your host, Kristi Gorenson, and this is my new friend, Tinkerbell.

Pets and people just go better together, and pets like Tinkerbell here just bring us so much joy, laughter, and love.

That's why this episode is all about our favorite furry friends, our pets.

I'm visiting a catnip farm in Ephrata.

Do you have cats?

- No.

[Kristi laughs] - They would probably like you a lot.

- Yeah.

- And I'm making a Turkey burger with Washington apple slaw at Bark, a Rescue Pub.

That is the biggest blender I've ever seen.

And that definitely took care of it.

[chuckles] Plus, we're meeting a special dog whose nose can sniff out potato diseases.

- There's a very unique, distinct smell.

They always go to the PVY potato.

- All this and more today on Washington Grown.

[gentle uplifting music] This is my favorite part of the day.

[chef laughs] You gave me this job just to keep me occupied, didn't you?

This is what fine dining is all about right here.

[dog howls] [Tomás imitates howl] - I could eat these all day.

[chuckles] - You all make this look so simple and easy.

- Cheers to that.

[glasses clink] - I only hang out in pretty potato fields.

[laughs] [plane zooms] If you love animals as much as we do, take a walk down to Bark, a Rescue Pub in Spokane.

Aside from local brews and delicious pub style food, their partnership with the Spokane Humane Society makes this an extra special spot.

Who knows?

Maybe your furever friend is sitting in the adoption center waiting just for you.

- Good food, good service for a cause.

I mean, there's not a lot of places you can go that are like this, that actually are giving back to the dog community.

- I love dogs especially, and we were gonna go visit 'em, but I think we'll probably bring one home with us.

- We'll definitely come back again for sure.

- The pride that we have is that we have facilitated over 750 adoptions.

- Josh Wade is the co-owner of the pub.

With an adoption center on site, and part of the pub's proceeds going to support the Humane Society, you know you're supporting a good cause.

- So our goal was to be a little more elevated pub food, so we just didn't wanna have it just be a basic burger or, you know, basic chicken sandwich or anything.

Our most popular item is definitely our pretzels, because they're not just pretzels, they're shaped like a bone.

- Oh, that's so cute.

I love it.

- The food was excellent.

- And even the dog got chicken, and now she's gonna get a burger.

- It's just a really good time, yeah.

- Stay tuned for later in the show when Chef Kayleigh and I make a turkey burger with fennel and Washington apple slaw.

I need to stretch out my jaw.

Get ready.

[chuckles] [gentle uplifting music] If you have a feline friend at home, then you know that cats love catnip.

Here at Trout Lake Farm in Ephrata, this gorgeous field of flowers is quite possibly a cat's favorite place to be.

- We're probably one of the largest organic catnip growers in the world, I believe.

We haven't verified that, but we know we're the largest organic herb farm in North America.

- Phil Hintz is the farm manager here at Trout Lake Farm.

He feels fortunate to be able to bring his kitty clientele such high quality product.

- Most of our catnip you'll see in scratch pads and toys.

It's used all over the world.

If you go to any of the pet stores, you'll see all the different catnip products that there are out there.

The active in catnip is actually called nepetalactone.

The cats really get excited about that.

I've heard it affects different cats different ways.

It's like a sedative.

It's like they're high.

I'm not an expert on this, and I think it varies from cat to cat, but I think it's about a 30 minute high that they get out of it.

- They're just loving life.

- When Trout Lake Farm was formed, the original owner actually raised catnip, and we'd hear the stories about the bobcats that would come out of the mountains and follow the combines through the fields.

- Oh, jeez.

Darwin Hintz is the farm technology manager for Trout Lake Farm.

He and the team wanna make extra sure that their product is the best there is.

How do you know if you've got the premium catnip?

- We listen to our sales department.

They will have actually test cats that are actually proven performers... - That's awesome.

- at determining what is good catnip.

So if you think of it as, like wine, they know the difference.

We always do a lot of raw product grading, but then ultimately the cats are the ones that are giving us the feedback.

They're the customer.

- That's right.

[laughs] - When I go through with a combine, I'm gonna strip off a lot of these leaf and flower, and then the stem is gonna go back into the soil.

With catnip, a lot of what we're doing is we're actually adding more biomass to the soil than what we're taking out.

So it's a great soil builder for us.

- Time to hop in the combine with Luis to help with harvest.

Have you been working for this farm for a long time?

- Yeah, I started in 1992.

Right now maybe we have one month to harvest the first cutting.

- During harvest, Luis works long days driving the combine.

Although the cab is perfectly comfortable, he needs to stay focused.

- If you miss one minute, the machine, broken.

- Do you have cats?

- No.

[Kristi laughs] - They would probably like you a lot.

- Yeah.

[laughs] [bright upbeat music] - I appreciate the ride.

That was great.

It was nice to meet you, yes.

[bright upbeat music] - Hey, let's go.

I found some of my favorite food trucks at local farmer's markets, and today in Spokane, I found one that'll make our furry friends very happy.

Here at Fetch Barkery in Spokane, owner Susan Smith is taking delicious and local ingredients and using them to make your pup's new favorite treat.

- I use all human grade ingredients.

And there's no preservatives.

Absolutely no sugars of any kind.

And then I bake them fresh every morning, so it's like a real bakery.

- Okay, now when you say human grade ingredients, what does that mean exactly?

- That means there's almost a support group of people who have eaten my treats and not known the difference, okay?

You know, we try to get ingredients the most, like, hyper-local we can.

That includes our chicken, our potatoes, our carrots, blueberries.

Anything that we put in our treats all come from maybe 50 miles away.

- So I can eat this.

- Absolutely.

- All right.

I'm just gonna try this out here.

I just bit the squirrel's head off.

It's everything you said that was in it.

No, like, you can taste all those ingredients.

It's wholesome.

- It's still good.

- It's good.

Let's go see what the dogs of Spokane think about these treats.

- All right.

- I like them.

[Susan laughs] Ready?

Ready?

Ooh, ready?

Ah, that a girl.

Oh, Maggie looks like she likes this.

Would you like a little treat?

Would you like?

It's a treat.

- I love the idea.

I think all of us spoil our dogs a little bit, but we are about as bad as it gets.

So I love the thought of anything healthier than what we typically give our dogs.

[dog howls] [Tomás imitates howl] - There you go.

Oh, I just let her have the whole thing.

Good girl.

Come here.

Good girl.

Oh, nope.

No niceties here.

No pets here.

Bye-Bye.

There you go.

You like that?

You ready for some treats?

Here.

[dog owners laughing] [dog barks] [Tomás imitates bark] [Tomás laughs] - I love to support Pacific Northwest, Spokane, Washington.

Anything we can do that way to support a business and give our dog something healthy is great.

- Good job, Tilley.

Good job.

Good job.

I think Carmen agrees.

These are good.

You should try 'em yourself.

[Carmen barks] Oh, I'm sorry.

[bright upbeat music] [bright uplifting music] - Many cats love catnip.

But what else is it used for?

I'll tell you right after the break.

- Coming up, I'm making a turkey burger with fennel and Washington apple slaw at Bark, a Rescue Pub.

That is the biggest blender I've ever seen.

And that definitely took care of it.

[laughs] And we're in the kitchen at Second Harvest, checking out some homemade peanut butter and carrot dog treats.

[bright upbeat music] - What else is catnip used for?

It's used for bug repellent.

It's used for digestive issues, and it's used for herbal supplements and so much more.

- We're back at Bark, a Rescue Pub in Spokane.

Between their mission to support the Spokane Humane Society and their delicious and locally sourced brews and burgers, this pup friendly pub will keep everyone's tail wagging.

- Good food, good cause, good people.

- The patio's dog friendly.

I got to bring my little fella here.

- We were thinking about maybe making an appointment and checking it out, seeing if maybe we can take one home for ourselves.

- It really is a special moment when an animal gets adopted and finds their furever home.

- Josh Wade is the co-owner of the pub.

As we walked to the adoption center, we stopped to look at the many pictures of adoptions facilitated by the pub.

- This is our- - Hall of fame?

- Hall of fame, wall of fame.

We love taking pictures of the adoption process and all the smiles.

And we've got plenty of wall space to keep adding to it.

- Next we went into the adoption center to meet a special friend.

This is Tinkerbell, who we met earlier.

Hi, honey.

Do you remember me?

- And the great thing about it, is by the time this airs, she will already be in her furever home, which is awesome.

- She'll have found a good home.

The humans and the pets look so happy.

- Absolutely.

- They do.

- And then when you see the dog's big smile and it's, like, that dog is happy and headed home.

- He is happy.

Now it's time to head to the kitchen with Chef Kayleigh to make Bark's turkey burger with fennel and Washington apple slaw.

This is what kind of apple?

- It's a cosmic crisp apple.

- Awesome.

Why do you like cosmic crisp?

- They're crispy and sweet.

- I know.

I love 'em so much.

- I know.

- I think they're my favorite.

- That's the only apple I eat at this point.

- Chef Kayleigh starts slicing some fennel into thin strips while I cut up some apples.

Do you get to see some of the animals that are here?

- Yes.

I try to not go back there too much, 'cause I'm pretty sure I would have about 50 animals if I went back there every single day.

Yeah, I have already adopted two from here.

- Have you really?

- Yeah.

- Oh my gosh.

That's awesome.

We add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, stir it up and then let it sit for a bit.

Next we add some kale and fennel fronds into another bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper.

- And then we need to make our aioli.

So this is just mayonnaise right here.

- That's a lot of mayo.

- This is a small amount compared to what I normally do.

- Okay.

[laughs] Yeah, I bet.

- I normally do, like, the giant batches.

- Have to feed the masses, of course.

We add apple cider vinegar and caramelized onions and prepare to blend it up.

That is the biggest blender I've ever seen.

- Yeah, I know.

I feel like I maybe should have brought my little one from home.

But, you know.

You hold that and then all we have to do- - Stand by.

[blender whirs] And that definitely took care of it.

[laughs] - Yeah, now it's ready to go.

- Very easily and quickly.

Once the patty has been cooked, we're ready to assemble.

- We're just gonna start with some of that caramelized onion aioli.

- Yum.

- Top and bottom.

- I'll lick the spoon when you're done.

[laughs] - Sounds like a plan.

- Sounds like a plan.

I'm already trying to figure out how we're going to eat that.

That's so beautiful.

- And that is that.

- I need to stretch out my jaw.

- We'll smush it.

- Get ready.

[bright upbeat music] I think this is maybe a two napkin burger.

- I think so.

Get it all, like, make sure it all falls into your hands when you eat it.

- There we go.

Okay.

I love how crunchy it is.

Oh my gosh, that's so good.

I mean, it's okay to lick your fingers, right?

- Right.

- I love how the apple and the fennel kinda create a nice crunch and tanginess.

- And I love baby kale and the fennel fronds just add more of that fennel flavor.

- It is so messy.

- And of course, the aioli is nice and creamy.

- Yes, it is.

Thank you so much for letting me come in here and make a mess outta your kitchen.

- Of course.

[Kristi chuckles] - To get the recipe for Bark, a Rescue Pub's turkey burger, visit wagrown.com.

Here in central Washington, farmers produce the best potatoes in the world.

Today, these growers have gathered at Washington State University's annual Potato Field Day to figure out how to continue producing the famous tubers we all love.

- This is our report card, so to speak.

Yeah, a moment of truth.

- David Lake is a seed potato farmer for Lake Seed Company.

He grows potato seed in Montana, then brings it to Washington so we can grow potatoes for consumers.

His main challenge, diseases like Potato Virus Y.

- Once you get infection in a field, it just spreads like wildfire.

And if you have PVY in your seed stocks or your first generation, it will spread into your next crop.

- PVY is a virus that only affects plants.

There's no transmission to humans or whatever.

And what it does to the plant is it lowers the yields.

It lessens the quality of the potato.

- Chris Voigt is the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission.

He wants to support farmers so they can continue growing fantastic crops.

- It would look ugly in a McDonald's container, for example.

And so we want to try to limit the amount of potato virus that is in a potato field.

- But today there's a special guest that might be able to help.

- Hey, come on.

Good job.

So Zora was a Washington State shelter dog.

- Andrea Parish is the owner of Nose Knows Scouting.

As a dog trainer, she's taught her dogs to detect all sorts of potato viruses.

Today, she traveled from across the country to demonstrate how her dog Zora can detect PVY.

- She can't talk.

I'm sure if she could, she would tell me what it is.

But there's a very unique, distinct smell.

They always go to the PVY potato.

They can go out and smell, you know, 20,000, and tell you accurately if there's a PVY potato in there, which I think is such an asset to the farmer.

It's okay.

So if your state senator came to this event today, you would've had four teams of bomb dogs sweeping the entire area.

The US government has spent billions and billions and billions of dollars and they use bomb dogs.

I don't know what other technology can do that.

Good job.

We really keep the standards high, so they can't have been put on any other odor.

They have to wanna work all the time.

So we really are trying to keep up the the bomb dog model.

It's okay.

Is that the one?

Good job.

- Having this dog that can come out and actually sniff out the disease in the plants or in the tubers, well, we can eliminate all of the disease before it even comes to Washington state.

- If you told me that was possible without seeing it, I don't know if I would've believed it, but she is much better at the detecting virus than I will ever be.

- Getting food to your table is so more complicated and so more expensive than you could ever imagine.

And so using the dogs, I think is gonna help the farmer have another tool in their toolbox to help keep cost down, disease down, and keep them in business.

- Coming up, Tomás is visiting Scratch and Peck to see their locally sourced chicken feed.

[box rustling] - This is like the dinner bell right here.

Look at all these grubs, ladies.

[bright uplifting music] [bright upbeat music] - Let's talk herbs.

Herbs are the powerhouse, the workhorse of the kitchen.

And I'm going to show you how to take them from this to a dried form.

They are so easy to grow and use from your own backyard, and they just taste absolutely amazing.

So the best time to harvest herbs is in the morning.

This is when they have the most essential oils and flavors in them.

We're gonna take them and we're going to make sure that we keep enough stem on there so that we can hang them.

The slow drying of hanging somewhere in your house is really going to keep all those essential oil flavors in there.

And so the best way to dry is upside down.

'Cause again, you want everything to go down into the leaves.

So we're going to take these, and we're gonna take some jute or twine.

We're gonna tie them up and we're going to basically make them like this.

And we're gonna put them in indirect sunlight.

So a nice warm area by a window.

Dining rooms are really, really great.

And we're gonna hang these up for about four weeks.

It will depend on your area, how much humidity you have and how much heat you have.

Once you have your dried leaves, we're just going to break off the ends, and I'm gonna cut 'em about in half as well.

And we're going to just set them in here.

And when you're ready, so you're just gonna take a few leaves, put 'em in the mortar and pestle, grind it up, put it in your dish or your tea or whatever you're making.

And you are going to have the best dish of your life with your homegrown herbs.

- If you love fresh eggs like I do, one of the best ways to get them is by having your own backyard chickens.

Here at Scratch and Peck in Burlington, they're working hard to make sure pet chickens everywhere get high quality, locally sourced food.

- There's nothing like a backyard fresh egg.

I mean, once you have those, you just don't want to go to the grocery store again and buy them ever.

- Diana Ambauen-Meade started Scratch and Peck in her own backyard, hoping to feed her pet chickens the highest quality food possible.

- I thought for sure I could go to the store and find the product that I would really like, which for me always had to be organic and non-GMO.

But I couldn't find anything.

I said, "Well, hey, why couldn't a gal just make her own chicken feed?

It can't be rocket science.

Right?"

- Why not?

Let's give it shot.

- Let's give it a shot.

- 12 Years later, her company is providing organic chicken feed to people all over.

Along with feed, they also produce other things that chickens need to stay healthy.

Like their herb blend.

Herbs like garlic, ginger, parsley, thyme, and basil keep a chicken's digestive system healthy so we can get fresh eggs all year round.

- And it's actually part of our business motto is that you are what your animals eat.

If I'm going to eat eggs from my chickens, I want the food that they eat to be really, really nutritious, right?

- Makes sense.

Now it's time to meet with Ryan, the mill manager, to see how the whole process begins.

- I was working a dead-end job at a gas station, and a friend of mine said, "Hey, I'm working at this great place making chicken feed.

Would you like to come over and put in an application?"

And came to realize I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life until I found chicken feed.

[chuckles] - There you go.

There is something for everybody.

- There he is, man.

There really is.

- It's always cool to come into a place that's so massive and to think that this started so small.

- Yeah.

I can actually come over here and take a sample out and show you what we're cracking.

[bright upbeat music] - Oh, okay.

Look at that.

Aside from corn, Washington grains, and herbs, they also sell a few other special products.

We got a big bag of something fun here, don't we?

- Yeah, this is black soldier fly meal, also known as black soldier fly larva.

And it is dead bugs.

We love to call it chicken crack.

Chickens love this stuff.

They eat it like it's going out of style.

All you have to do is just shake the box and the whole flock will come running.

All of these grubs are created off of post-consumer waste.

- So this is food that would've gone to the landfill.

Say from grocery stores; it's past dated, it's products that they didn't sell.

They eat that, then they in turn become food for chickens.

It's, like, totally closed this loop of all this food that would've gone into the landfill put into good use.

- All right, now it's time to put the grubs to the test with some real chickens.

[box rustling] This is like the dinner bell right here.

Holy moly.

They weren't lying.

This is like chicken crack.

- What we eat matters.

The farmers that we support matter.

That is the absolute best way to know that you are getting quality food.

- Whether it's an omelet or a chicken pot pie, you are what your animals eat.

Does that mean I'm a grub?

[laughs] [bright uplifting music] - Welcome back.

We are in The Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane, where we get to taste some awesome food from folks who send in their recipes to allrecipes.com.

And my taste testers, today I have Tomás with me.

- Hello, hello, and good to see everybody at home.

- And chef and culinary arts instructor Laurent Zirotti.

- Good morning, Kristi, good morning, Tomás.

Hello, everyone.

- So this episode was all about not only Washington grown food, but our pets.

- They are special and they make us feel better, and we need to make them feel better by giving them better food.

- So speaking of good food, peanut butter and carrot dog treats.

- Ooh.

- There you go.

- I want to try it.

- W are actually going to try them.

[laughs] - You might be surprised.

You'll be surprised.

- Well, if you can cook it, you can eat it, right?

- I'm looking forward to it.

Let's see how they're made.

- All right.

[bright uplifting music] - Okay, so this is a first for me.

- Do you think a it's a second for me?

- Dog treat.

[Laurent laughs] - It's not for me.

As you can see, in the episode I already had my fill of dog treats.

So you guys are in for a treat.

- Look how pretty that is.

A bone.

It's so cute.

- I think it's important to know, that, you know, you're feeding your pets food that we would eat that's grown here in Washington.

So, all right, here it goes.

- I mean, you can taste the ingredients, and it's very similar to what I had at the Barkery.

- Woof, woof.

- There's no sugar, there's no salt.

It's just the very basic and the essence of what's in there.

- Are you a good boy?

You want another one?

- Woof, woof.

[Kristi laughs] But if you cook treats for your dog, watch for the allergens with dogs.

There's a lot of allergens for dogs.

So be careful, but that's the best way to give back to your furry pet at home, is to cook for them.

- Make them their own special treats.

- Exactly.

Like you would do for your children.

- So we're not really the experts.

- No, not on this.

- Not on this, right?

- No.

- So we wanted to hear from the experts.

So we ask folks who follow us on social media to bake these up for their furry friends, and then to get their reviews.

Let's hear what they have to say.

- They're real critics.

- Yeah.

- Hey, Scout, are you excited for a Washington Grown dog biscuit?

[bright upbeat music] [Scout barks] - What do you think, Culver?

Yeah, those are good, huh?

- Can you shake?

Oh, such a good boy, yeah.

[bright upbeat music] - I think she approves.

- That was so cute.

- There you go.

It's pretty adorable.

- Unbelievable.

[Kristi laughs] - If that doesn't wanna make you get a dog, I don't know what would.

- But, man, they love these treats.

- They're pretty good.

- And they're healthy.

- What did you think of these treats?

- I liked them.

- They're not bad, huh?

- You taste what's in there.

You taste the peanut butter.

You taste, and it's fresh food.

- Yeah, I love it.

And thank you to all of the folks who sent us those fun videos of their dogs eating these treats.

And if you wanna give it a try, you know, post your video.

We would love to see it.

Tag us on social media.

We love seeing your pets.

They're so cute.

All right, peanut butter and carrot dog treats.

- We love it.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you for that.

- Thank you.

- To get the recipe for peanut butter and carrot dog treats, visit wagrown.com.

Pets enrich our lives in so many special ways, and that's why it's important to keep them healthy and happy by using some of the best ingredients in the world grown right here in Washington state.

That's it for this episode of Washington Grown.

We'll see you next time.

[Kristi speaking to pet] [bright uplifting music]