Coming up on America's Heartland... All about olive oil.

The Mediterranean climate means California farmers produce some of the world's highest quality olive oil.

See how these olives are quickly transformed from fruit to oil at peak freshness.

[Ciriaco Chavez] We're producing these extremely high quality products and feeding America.

Meet a farm family growing everything from pistachios to figs and even kiwis, as they navigate changing consumer trends and a changing climate.

[Erik Herman] It's not like you're doing the same thing every day.

Every day is a... a different ranch and different commodities.

Plus, homemade focaccia bread fresh out of the oven.

Farm to fork host Sharon Profis demonstrates how to make this crunchy bread with green olives, goat cheese and flavorful seasoning.

And we'll visit a cattle ranch in South Dakota, where the younger generation is using innovative ranching techniques to improve their livestock and their land.

[Drew Gaugler] For me, it's doing what's right for the land, but also doing what keeps you in business.

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.

♪ ♪♪ [Ciriaco Chavez] So, we're in the heart of YOLO County, uh, in the Sacramento Valley.

Beautiful area, one of the premier locations to plant olives.

We're actually in the Dunnigan Hills in YOLO County.

Um, so, it's characterized by these nice rolling hills.

Fantastic location for growing olives.

Olives are one of the oldest cultivated tree crops known to humankind.

Researchers believe the origins of these beautiful trees could date back as far as 8,000 years, beginning in the Eastern Mediterranean.

To this day, the olive branch is a symbol of peace.

This day is action packed with a high-tech harvest running 24 hours a day for two months.

[Rob Stewart] They're so lush and packed.

[Ciriaco] Yeah, they're beautiful.

Yeah, yeah, It's... it's... it's a really fantastic year so far... Ciriaco Chavez oversees the harvest and is the VP of Agriculture at Cobram Estate based in Woodland, California.

He says California olives rival the best in the world.

[Ciriaco] At Cobram Estate, we're pioneering in California, the high density planting system which is sort of the spacing that you see here.

Trees further spaced out.

It allows us to plant any variety we want to plant.

These varieties, Picual, Coratina, Mission olives, which is another unique variety, um, that's unique to California.

We're bringing it back to life really.

It's a variety that was originally planted in California hundreds of years ago, the mission variety, which is the only uniquely Californian variety.

We won the world's healthiest olive oil with Mission variety olives.

Great soil, water and weather create the perfect growing conditions for this bountiful harvest and the production of extra virgin olive oil.

Cobram Estate has a quarter million trees on thousands of acres of land in the Sacramento Valley.

Every single olive tree will pass through the giant mouth of the Colossus XL, a million-dollar machine and the only one of its kind in North America.

The machine has 750 picking rods that rotate and spin, which causes the olives to fall on conveyors and into a harvest trailer.

The speed of each row is calculated based on the number of olives per tree, stripping the branches of more than 90% of the ripe green fruit.

After the field harvest, it's a race against the clock.

The dangers for extra virgin olive oil are time and heat.

The faster these olives are off to the processing plant and into the mill just minutes from the field, the higher the quality of extra virgin olive oil.

The transformation from fruit to oil must happen within four to six hours.

Leandro Rivetti is co-CEO and Chief Oil Maker.

[Leandro] The... the olives that are picked directly from the tree with our harvesters get delivered to this mill.

The fruit arrives.

We just remove the leaves.

We blow the leaves away, clean the fruit, and then the fruit is crushed and turned into tapenade, like an olive paste, within a stainless-steel hammer crusher.

That olive paste is then mixed very gently and slowly for about an hour.

And that process that we call the malaxation process, um, allows the little droplets of oil that were present in the flesh of a fruit to merge and to form a larger oil phase that then will make the separation through a centrifuge much, much easier.

So that's it.

You know, that's the entire process.

There's no chemicals, there's no heat that- nothing added to it.

The extra virgin olive oil is stored inside these stainless-steel temperature-controlled tanks, locking in the freshness and the flavor until it's bottled, shipped and sold.

Each of these tanks holds one million dollars' worth of extra virgin olive oil, among the healthiest cooking oils available.

[Leandro] Probably, when it comes down to the prevention and... and the- let's call it treatment or management of chronic disease like, um, diabetes or cardiovascular disease, or even cognitive disease like Alzheimer's, there's no other food that comes even close to extra virgin olive oil in terms of the amount of medical evidence to support its use and... and its relevance within the context of the Mediterranean diet.

Normally, a doctor will refer to olive oil from the health perspective, they are really talking about extra virgin olive oil.

And when chefs talk about the fantastic flavors of olive oil, they actually are really talking about extra virgin olive oil.

Just in time to tempt your taste buds, pizza is coming out of this wood fire oven.

The recipe calls for a heavy drizzle of fresh extra virgin olive oil.

It's a savory delight and another version of California gold.

[Ciriaco] It's an important industry to be a part of.

It's an important industry because it's feeding America.

I'm really proud to say that I am working in an area, in a farm, especially in California, where we produce such a breadth of crops, from nuts to melons, to artichokes to extra virgin olive oil.

We're producing these extremely high-quality products and feeding America.

♪♪ Let's give you some olive knowledge.

All olives start out green and then turn black or dark purple as they ripen.

And olive trees have long lives.

Olive trees have been known to live hundreds of years.

If you're thinking of making your own olive oil, you'll need to press around 11 pounds of olives to make just one quart of olive oil.

♪♪ A September morning in these orchards in California's Central Valley.

A quiet time, but not for long.

It's harvest time for pistachios, one of the state's fastest-growing specialty crops.

California grows nearly a half-million acres, and more than a billion pounds each year- 99% of all the pistachios grown in the U.S. Kevin and Diane Herman and son Erik farm 3,000 acres of pistachios.

The trees take about five years to bear their harvest and can produce nuts for a half-century or more.

But pistachios are just one of their specialty crops.

In fact, their Specialty Crop Company grows and sells a wide variety of products, including figs, pomegranates, almonds, even kiwis.

That diversification is part of the family's long-term strategy.

[Kevin Herman] This Mediterranean climate that we have, we have the ability to grow virtually anything as long as we have enough water.

Those are crops that they're under 100,000 acres grown in the United States and perhaps even less than that in the world.

Quite frankly, it provides less competition for us in the marketplace, so it makes it easier for us to sell what we grow.

[Erik Herman] It's not like you're doing the same thing every day.

Every day is a... a different, uh, a different ranch, a different commodity.

So, it's... it's... it's really fun.

[Diane Herman] Of course, there's many years where one commodity is up in price, the other is down and, you know, for- diversification, um, yeah, that... that's what saved us.

How each commodity is harvested is as different as the crops themselves.

For pistachios, a specialized shaker machine vigorously jostles each tree, sending thousands of nuts onto a catch frame with a conveyor.

They're moved to a collection cart and, when that's full, to a shuttle cart.

Another conveyor drops the nuts into a hopper truck that heads straight to a processing facility.

This facility, Primex Farms in the southern San Joaquin Valley, processes 60 million pounds of pistachios each year.

The nuts are hand-sorted to ensure there's no blemishes or imperfections.

Detailed inspections are done at a U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified laboratory right on site.

Why all this attention to detail?

Well, certain standards for flavor, food safety and quality must be met before growers can receive top prices for their products, and before these nuts can be exported to buyers and consumers in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, around the globe.

In contrast to all of the machines needed to grow and process pistachios, on the Herman's 4,000 acres of figs, it's all done by hand.

They grow four varieties, including this one called "Brown Turkey," each with its own unique flavor, and all hand-picked, packed and sent all over the world to meet the growing consumer demand for fresh, ripe fruit.

[Kevin] Per unit of measure, figs have more calcium than milk, more potassium than a banana, more fiber than a prune.

I mean, they're a really, really healthy fruit for you.

Like many other American farmers, the Hermans face significant challenges in an era of climate change and increased world competition.

Even with the use of drip irrigation, having enough water is a constant concern.

Many farmers face labor shortages, but the Hermans say their hundred-plus fulltime employees receive both competitive wages and benefits.

[Kevin] It's gratifying to see those kids of our employees that have been with us for 30-plus years coming back into the community and staying here.

Finding new products to grow and sell, using less water, demonstrating the values they share with consumers around food safety and fair labor practices- It's all part of being a specialty crop grower, along with ensuring that this land will be around for the next generation.

[Kevin] In agriculture, things change, you know, and so you're always on your toes.

And I kind of think that's, like, a fun challenge that kind of keeps you motivated to keep going and keep learning about everything that is that you do.

[Diane] I want to see us continue.

I want us to be successful, knowing that what we do, what we grow is very gratifying.

[Kevin] I can't picture myself ever doing anything other than what I'm doing now, which is being with my family and the challenges of, uh, trying to grow, uh, something bigger and better and more economical for consumers.

Um, I...

I love it.

Still ahead on America's Heartland, a family of cattle ranchers in South Dakota experiments with different methods to protect and regenerate their soil.

We'll also explore the world of fraudulent olive oil with experts from UC Davis.

But first, dive into this recipe for homemade focaccia bread with olives, enjoyed fresh out of the oven or made into sandwiches for a crowd.

♪♪ Today, we're making olive and goat cheese focaccia.

This is a bread recipe that I really think anyone can make.

So, let's get started by making the dough.

We'll start by adding two and a half cups of warm water to a large bowl.

Sprinkle the yeast right on top of this warm water.

After about 5 minutes, this is what we want to see, that the yeast looks a little bit foamy.

Now, I'll add one tablespoon of honey.

Now, we'll add our flour.

I really do prefer to use a scale when it comes to baking.

In this case, we'll need 625 grams of flour.

And to that, we'll add five teaspoons of kosher salt.

And now, we'll mix it.

What you're looking for here is this.

It's really moist because of that high water content.

And now, it's ready to rise.

So, I'm going to transfer this dough to a bowl where I've already added four tablespoons of olive oil.

This will make sure that the dough doesn't stick as it rises.

So, I'm just sort of gently coating the dough.

That's it.

You don't want to work the oil into the dough.

Just have it coated.

And now, we'll cover this bowl with a tea towel.

You can also use plastic wrap.

And it goes into the fridge to rise so that it's double in size, overnight.

After being in the fridge overnight, this is what your dough should look like.

And now, it's time for its second rise.

I'll give it about four folds.

So, I've already buttered the pan and I'm adding just a little bit more olive oil.

Slide this right in.

We don't want to leave any of this olive oil behind.

All right.

I'm just going to give it a little bit of shape here.

And now, the tea towel goes back on top.

After about 2 hours of the second rise, you can see the dough has completely transformed.

It's filled out the pan.

I'm going to add, yes, a little bit more olive oil and give the focaccia that signature dimpling that you often see it have.

And this is exactly what you want it to look like.

So, now, we can add our toppings in.

Today, we're doing olives and goat cheese.

For the olives today, I'm using Castelvetrano olives.

I'm doing, like, a loose pattern here, leaving plenty of space for the goat cheese, which we'll add next.

I have a couple of ounces of plain goat cheese.

Again, you can have fun with this, use different cheeses.

We're keeping it simple today and really letting this focaccia shine.

I like to give this a bit of a Mediterranean flair and add za'atar on top.

Again, lots of options here.

You can do Rosemary.

You can do dried oregano, um, or you can just keep it really simple with some salt and pepper.

Then we'll add flake salt.

It's so lovely to have a slice of focaccia and bite into that nice, crunchy, salty layer.

And one more time, a drizzle of olive oil.

Beautiful.

This is going into the oven at 425 degrees.

We'll start checking on it at about 15 minutes.

Could be in there for about 20 to 25 minutes.

We're looking for a nice golden exterior and by the time it's done, a crunchy outer layer.

This is the most satisfying part about making bread, when it comes out of the oven and you have yourself a fresh, homemade loaf of bread.

I'm going to go ahead and transfer it now to a cooling rack.

We want to keep that crispy exterior.

Another way I love to enjoy focaccia is by turning it into sandwiches for a crowd.

Here's how you do it.

Once the focaccia has cooled, use a bread knife to cut it in half.

Then, carefully slice each half in two.

Now it's time to build our sandwiches.

Start by spreading pesto on the bottom halves and mayo on the top.

Then, layer on roasted bell peppers, turkey, provolone, and finally arugula.

Now, reassemble the halves and slice them into your desired portions.

Serve immediately, or prepare and refrigerate these up to 12 hours in advance.

♪♪ ♪♪ There's a scam taking place right under our noses, and most of us don't even realize it.

That extra virgin olive oil you're pouring into the pan or on top of your salad, well, it may not even be olive oil.

[Dan Flynn] About two-thirds of the imported oils that we tested did not meet the extra virgin standard.

And since most of what we consume in the U.S. is imported- 95% is imported- there's a lot of not very good olive oil out on the shelf.

Dan Flynn and his small team of researchers at the UC Davis Olive Center are responsible for putting this food fraud in the international spotlight.

[Dan] What we're finding is that there's a lot of companies out there doing this, and, uh, there's really very little enforcement to make sure that the consumer is getting what they think they're paying for.

So, buyer beware, your bottle's label may say "extra virgin," but it might not be true.

[Dan] Sometimes, we're finding oil that is adulterated with oil other than olive oil.

We do find that on occasion, that there's an olive oil that might be 50% canola oil.

So, these were oils that were rancid and they had off flavors.

They just were not very good tasting.

But what we have found is that many consumers actually treat that flavor profile as a familiar one, and that's what they're used to having in their kitchens.

And a lot of people don't really realize this, but olive oil is essentially fruit juice.

And the production of olive oil is you're crushing fruit and extracting juice and the oily part of the juice is what's going in the bottle.

But not all of the olive oils are created equally.

And there are different grades of olive oil.

[Dan] What they're going to see at the supermarket are three different types.

There's "extra virgin."

There's an oil labeled as "pure," and there's an oil labeled as "light."

The "pure" and the "light" oils are primarily refined olive oils.

They don't have a lot of flavor.

You're just basically getting a fat to use for cooking.

Extra virgin, on the other hand, is the top grade of olive oil.

It, uh, doesn't go through that very involved refining process.

It's just crushing fruit and extracting the juice.

It could be very fruity and very complex, almost like a wine could be described.

In the meantime, Dan and his team still have a lot more work to do, but they hope through their research and education to one day revolutionize the olive industry.

[Dan] Our goal is to come up with faster, better and cheaper methods to evaluate the quality of olive oil, and to create the conditions where the consumer does not have to wonder about the quality of the oil on the shelf, that they're confident if it says "extra virgin," that there are no defects in the oil.

UC Davis had a huge impact on the California wine industry and really put it on the map internationally, and that's our ambition to do for olives.

♪♪ About 25 miles outside of Lemmon, South Dakota, just over the North Dakota state line, the Gaugler Farm sits on 4,000 acres of rolling hills.

In the nearly 100 years that the Gaugler family has farmed here, things have certainly changed.

Yet, they've also stayed the same.

[Drew Gaugler] A lot of what we're doing today has been done already.

I mean, it's not new, but we have some small pieces of technology that enable us to change how we're going about it.

Drew Gaugler and his sister Erin grew up on this land.

Both went away to college.

After graduating as a mechanical engineer, Drew worked in Africa, New Zealand and Australia, gaining valuable insight into farming practices around the world.

Erin is finishing up her PhD in Range Sciences.

Their parents, Jodie and Harold Gaugler, both hold master's degrees and share a passion for learning with their family.

[Harold] They both had the opportunity to... to see the world, and they've brought a lot of things that... that the United States people don't do.

They dug wells and used solar to pump them.

They planted trees to provide a windbreak for the cattle.

And they created a habitat that attracts wildlife to help foster a healthier functioning landscape.

[Harold] Those are all things that... [Jodie] from Australia.

- ...that we wouldn't have done.

Those are things that younger generations can do.

One of the new practices that Drew and Erin brought to the ranch: bale grazing.

It's a way to improve the soil on this land that has been farmed for almost a century.

[Erin] Bale grazing is really a regenerative practice.

It's how we are taking hay fields that have been, um, reaching the end of their productive period and we regenerate them back into being highly productive.

The Gauglers spread out bales in the fall that feed their livestock through the winter.

At the same time, cattle are kept in smaller areas and rotated through different pastures every week or so.

This means the manure they produce doesn't pile up and need to be hauled out.

Instead, the cattle help fertilize the land by spreading the manure, just by walking around.

[Drew] It's like mulching for a garden, but it's just on a larger scale.

[Erin] We're not spending all of that time running the tractor, burning the fuel, and the cattle are working a little bit more for us and helping us accomplish our goals.

Cattle aren't the only livestock working to improve the soil.

You'll also find another type of species- sheep.

The reason?

[Erin] Different livestock function in different ways.

The sheep forage and distribute manure differently than cattle, which improves soil health and forage production across the landscape.

The manure and runoff produced by the livestock flow into slits that the Gauglers cut into the land.

It's called keyline cultivation, and it's yet another way the family hopes to make their land more sustainable.

It's a way of farming once unfamiliar to many in this region.

[Jodie] Sometimes it takes time and input from the younger generation to say, "Hey, Ma, why are you doing that?"

And so, just taking time to stop and think why we do things.

People talk about us, and I think that's good.

They watch what we do.

Some support us, some think we're crazy.

But that's all right.

We do what we think is right, and what works for us.

[Erin] In order to stay in business, we have to consider what sustainability is and what that means on the resources that you manage.

[Drew] For me, it's doing what's right for the land, but also doing what keeps you in business, so you can continue to do what's right for the land.

[Harold] It's a place that we all call home, and... and it's really nice that it's going to be handed down to another generation and they're going to do the same thing we are and... and hopefully, take it beyond what we've done.

[Jodie] I was just going to say, they won't do it the same.

[Harold] Nope.

Maybe not the same, but the Gauglers do believe that with the practices they're implementing now, their family will be farming on this land for decades to come.

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... ♪♪