Coming up on America's Heartland... A husband and wife in California's Mendocino County grow chili peppers made into a spicy yet sweet chili powder beloved by chefs around the country.

[Kristy Scommegna] And we're really growing chilies for their flavor, not necessarily for heat.

Meet farmers in Southern California who are growing green beans and other produce harvested by volunteers, then shipped to local food banks where people can shop just like they're in a regular grocery store.

[LaVal Brewer] We're going to treat you like you were... you were fully paying with your money.

Farm to Fork host Sharon Profis prepares a sweet corn polenta that she calls "summer in a bowl," complete with fresh corn, roasted tomatoes and crunchy prosciutto.

[Sharon] And it's a different way of making polenta than you're probably used to.

Tour a brand new peanut factory in Alabama owned by the peanut farmers themselves, helping ensure a global supply of this healthy and popular snack.

And head to Arkansas to meet fourth generation soybean growers using innovative ways to save water, protect the environment, and keep the soil healthy for generations to come.

It's all 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.

♪♪ About 100 miles north of San Francisco, in misty Mendocino County, lies the small town of Boonville and the Boonville Barn Collective.

The farm is owned by Krissy Scommegna and her husband, Gideon Burdick.

It's the largest producer of Espelette chile peppers outside of France.

[Krissy] Boonville is a really great place to grow specifically the Espelette chile, because we have a really similar climate to the Basque region in France, where these peppers are from.

And so, they're used to having hot heat during the day and they like that cooler night.

So, yeah, I mean, we're lucky that the weather's so good right now and it hasn't frosted yet.

So, here on the farm, um, we grow chili peppers that we dry and grind into chili powders, and that's our main crop.

We might only have three acres of peppers, and not all of that is planted in the Espelette pepper, uh, but we really work hard to create some really lovely chili powder that a lot of chefs in the U.S. choose over the French version.

It's a little sweet, a little bit spicy.

Um, in France, it's called Piment d'Espelette but we call ours "Piment d'Ville" to honor the town of Booneville that we're in.

In the same way Champagne must be called "sparkling wine" if it comes from outside the Champagne region of France, Piment d'Espelette has similar restrictions on its name.

Boonville Barn has taken its own approach to the famed pepper and created what Krissy and Gideon describe as a "farm to jar" operation.

All the chili peppers are grown from seed.

They're harvested by hand into buckets.

A tractor then takes them to a nearby greenhouse where they're dried on racks to enrich their flavor.

All the seeds and stems are removed, also by hand, before the peppers go into a dehydrator.

They're ground into chili powder and other products that are packaged and sold around the country to chefs, specialty stores and online.

Though Espelette peppers are their primary crop, Boonville Barn also grows about ten other varieties of specialty chilies that are hard to find elsewhere.

[Krissy] There's red Serrano chilies.

There's an heirloom yellow lica Chile de Árbol, a rare Mexican chili from the Veracruz Mountains called Comapeno Chile.

There's a lot.

And we're really growing chilies for their flavor, not necessarily for heat.

Um, we're not trying to be out here growing the hottest peppers that we can.

Um, we're really looking for those special chilies that add a lot of flavor to the things that people cook.

[Krissy] How big of a piece do you want?

[Gideon] Um, big.

I'm hungry.

Cooking with chili powder is something Krissy and Gideon know a lot about.

In the Basque region, people use Espelette chile powder as commonly as salt and pepper.

Krissy recommends using it anywhere you'd use black pepper to deepen flavors and foods ranging from beans and veggies to one of their favorites- avocado toast.

[Laughter] [Gideon] Cheers.

I have the joy of living with Krissy, and so my favorite way of eating it is on everything, because when you own a chili pepper farm, you tend to use chili pepper in all of your cooking.

[Krissy] Just because something is made with a chili pepper doesn't mean that it's spicy.

There's a lot of peppers out there grown for flavor, and that's really what we focus on here.

Krissy's experience cooking with Espelette chile powder came from working in the kitchen at the Boonville Hotel.

She asked her father's vineyard manager at the time, Nacho Flores, if he could try growing the peppers.

[Krissy] And so, one day in the fall, Nacho came into the kitchen while I was at work with a few bus tubs full of fresh chilies and said, "All right, Krissy, what happens next?"

And then I realized I needed to figure out how to turn these chilies into chili powder.

They've accomplished that and more, with Nacho now leading Boonville Barn's farming operations as foreman, bringing his knowledge of chilies from his native Mexico.

[Nacho] I was just born a farmer.

[Chuckles] Yeah.

Thanks to my dad.

He teach me all I know.

So- [Gideon] I love seeing our team succeed.

Uh, I think part of being a problem solver is equipping Nacho or Krissy or everyone who's working for us with the tools and the equipment they need to be able to get a really great product to market.

Although chilies are known for their love of the sun, they need water, too.

Boonville Barn is a rain-fed farm, meaning all of their water comes from rain captured in this irrigation pond.

[Krissy] We're constantly trying to figure out different ways to conserve the water we have and to make sure we're growing these chilies in... in a way that we can continue to grow them for as long as possible.

[Gideon] We've got to get them all to red before they can go into the greenhouse.

[Krissy] Yeah, so, like, these, the anchos will be nice and red, and then the mulatos will turn more like chocolate brown, purple.

It's really satisfying to grow something from seed and be able to use that on a regular basis in our own kitchen, and share that with friends, with family and other people and come together around a crop that everyone's pretty excited about.

♪♪ You are looking at a field of dreams come true.

These 40 acres of farmland thrive in the heart of highly populated Orange County, California.

It's home base to Solutions for Urban Agriculture, a nonprofit in Irvine dedicated to fighting hunger.

And on a Saturday morning, just after sunrise, this group of volunteers work side-by-side harvesting fresh vegetables.

This fertile soil is sacred to the nonprofit's founder, A.G. Kawamura.

He's a third generation farmer and former secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Now, he's working with an impressive partnership of hunger fighters to grow more than 3 million pounds of produce every year and give it all away.

[A.G.] Our group, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, we have a wonderful saying, "It'd be nice to have edible... edible landscapes everywhere, so there's hunger nowhere," and that elevator pitch, if you will, continues to be our rallying cry.

We've been able to transform all kinds of different vacant lots, vacant pieces of land, avail... available pieces of land for an integrated process of growing food for the food bank.

So the University of California, for example, steps up and helps us with the cost of rent.

The availability of, uh, volunteers has enabled us to basically plug in to a very large population of folks that just want to do good for the community.

- A huge community.

More than 4,000 people volunteer on this land each year.

Today, they are picking green beans that will be distributed to food pantries across Orange County, serving some of the neediest people living in one of the wealthiest areas of the world.

20 million Californians live within 90 miles of this farm.

More than 2 million of them live in poverty.

[Rob Stewart] What do you want people to really get?

[Claudia Keller] That food and nutritional insecurity is not a supply problem.

It's an access problem.

We have the food.

We have the land.

We have folks that are willing to address that problem.

It's that those that need it the most don't have access to it.

Claudia Keller is CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, and works closely with Solutions for Urban Agriculture.

Today, they are a mighty force.

Claudia's nonprofit partners with 300 food pantries across Orange County.

Because volunteer labor is used to harvest the crops, Second Harvest is able to purchase the vegetables from farmers at a much lower cost.

[Rob] There are people that say, "Why can't someone pull themselves up from their bootstraps?"

I've heard it.

I'd like your response to that.

[Claudia] You can't do anything unless you cover the basics of life, right?

Water and food.

Once we have that covered, we can then worry about things like shelter and clothing, and then worry about things like education and career and raising a family.

- South County Outreach also partners with Second Harvest.

This is what's called a "Client Choice Food Pantry," where recipients select their own food.

Second Harvest veggies are often first choice.

LaVal Brewer runs South County Outreach, where thousands of clients walk these aisles each month.

Many of these clients leave with more than a meal.

[LaVal] The dignity and respect that we provide someone is we're going to... we're going to treat you like you were... you were fully paying with your money.

So, as you walk in, you're going to walk into a regular experience that is a grocery experience.

The difference is when you walk out, you don't pay me anything.

With that, we're going to make sure you get fed.

We're going to make sure you have the things that you need to feed your family, and do it in a... in a way that nourishes the soul and the body, alongside of each other.

[Rob] There was a lady that when she came through the line, she looked at me and in one look, I knew exactly what she was saying.

And she just began to cry.

And she was so overwhelmed at... at the way she was treated here, like a human being, um, in the middle of being human, and it radically impacted her.

And this is- You walk in and it's an experience like you're going to... [LaVal] your local corner market.

[Rob] Or... or better.

And back to that field of dreams, that fertile soil where it all began, we found the volunteers' lives are being changed as well.

[Danae Giehl] I'm very grateful, I should say, and honored and privileged.

Anything to be a part of that.

Still ahead on America's Heartland...

Peanuts continue to grow in popularity and they've become one of Alabama's top crops.

Plus, meet a family of soybean growers in Arkansas passionate about continuing their agricultural legacy.

But first, farm to fork host Sharon Profis shows us how to make a fresh corn polenta topped with crispy prosciutto and roasted tomatoes.

♪♪ Today, we're making sweet corn polenta with roasted tomatoes and crispy proscuitto.

This recipe is like summer in a bowl.

It's perfect for when corn is at its peak, and it's a different way of making polenta than you're probably used to.

What you need for this recipe is about five ears of corn.

And I went ahead and husked most of them, but I want to show you.

When you're husking corn, what you want to do is, rather than pulling off one piece at a time, one layer at a time, you want to grab as much as you can and pull it off in one go, just like that.

To make the polenta, we need to grate all of our corn, so I've got a big bowl, my box grater here, and I'm going to go ahead and grate all of these ears of corn.

Now, when you think of polenta, you often make it from a dried grain mix.

Because we're making this polenta from fresh corn, this is a dish you can only make in the summertime when sweet corn is available.

With the corn grated, we can get started on our grape or cherry tomatoes, whatever is available.

Put that on a baking sheet with some olive oil, salt and a little red pepper.

We'll just give these a toss and they'll actually go under the broiler for about 10 minutes or until they start to pop and blister.

That's when you know that they're ready.

So, let's go ahead and move to the stove.

We'll make our polenta and get our tomatoes going.

The first thing I want to do is add a couple tablespoons of lightly salted butter.

And I want this to not just fully melt, but also start to brown just a little bit.

I find that the flavor of the browned butter really complements the sweet corn.

All right.

It's a little brown.

Now, we're going to go ahead and add the grated corn.

This dish really, when it's all said and done, is a very luxurious, almost custard-like texture that you can really only get with that fresh, sweet corn.

We'll sauté the grated corn in the butter for a couple of minutes, then we'll add three quarters of a cup of whole milk and let it cook for 10 minutes more.

At this point, you do want to stay pretty close to the stove and stir constantly.

Before we take this off the stove, I just want to give it a little taste.

Oh, my goodness.

So creamy.

Like I said, so custardy.

And we're just going to add a little bit of salt here.

OK, our polenta is ready, so now it's time to plate the dish.

To do that, you'll need your roasted tomatoes, burrata, basil, parmesan, a spice blend called za'atar and crispy prosciutto.

This is a really wonderful way to top off this dish.

Here's how you make it.

Crispy prosciutto is an addicting topping for pasta, salads, or just for snacking.

Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees.

Then, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

One by one, take a slice of prosciutto, give it a little twist and place it on the baking sheet.

That's it.

Since prosciutto already has fat and the parchment is nonstick, you don't need to use any oil.

Place the prosciutto in the oven and begin checking on it at around 7 minutes.

You want the prosciutto to be crispy but not browned.

Once it looks curled, crispy and darker in color, remove it from the oven and let it cool before adding it to your recipe or eating it right off the sheet.

For the base of our dish, of course, our creamy polenta.

Right on top of the polenta, some of our roasted tomatoes.

These definitely burst as we were broiling them.

Just so, so beautiful.

On top of that, I want to add a spice blend called za'atar.

It just adds a real punch of herbaciousness, and I think it goes so well with this dish.

And we're just going to keep building.

So, I have, uh, burrata, which is a very, very soft, uh, cousin of mozzarella cheese.

To that, we'll add our crispy prosciutto.

This will add the crunch that this dish needs.

So, I like to just take a few pieces and break them up.

And we'll grate some Parmesan right on top.

This is such a great way to finish this dish.

And this wouldn't be a corn and tomato dish if we didn't add fresh basil right at the end here.

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

♪♪ [Dirk Lindsey] Peanuts are becoming more and more important to this... to this area.

20 years ago, there wasn't many peanuts planted in southwest Alabama, and now, uh, they're probably the number two grow crops that are planted.

Peanuts is a... is a very good source of plant-based protein that's affordable, that kids like to eat.

Not only do kids like peanuts, so does just about everyone else.

Peanut consumption is at an all time high, averaging more than seven pounds of peanuts per person in 2020.

Here in the small town of Atmore, Alabama, farmers are ready to take advantage of peanuts growing popularity.

A new peanut plant opened in 2021 that can process about 600 tons of peanuts a day.

It's called Coastal Growers and it's largely owned by the peanut farmers themselves.

Coastal Growers is owned by 197 farm families at this point.

So, we've got farmers in Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Alabama and the farmers bring their peanuts to the buying point.

And then, when we get ready to shell them, we bring those peanuts in and we start shelling 'em.

And... and the good thing is any profits that we make, the farmer gets those profits back.

The peanuts processed here go into peanut butter, candy, snacks, peanut oil and other products that are sold around the world.

That's a point of pride for Justin House, a fourth generation farmer working land just 30 miles from the new plant.

[Justin] It's really neat to see that a peanut we grew, um, is going to three continents and 13 countries we're selling to right now and, uh, my friends and family and neighbors are going to be able to get a jar of peanut butter from the store, and there's a good chance that it came through Coastal Growers.

Justin says adding peanuts to the crop rotation on his family farm gave it a big boost in profits and in the health of the soil.

[Justin] A lot of people think peanuts grow on trees and they don't.

They grow in the ground.

They carpet the soil, they're a short plant.

Um, they completely cover the ground.

And when you dig 'em, it's... it's beautiful to see a golden field of peanuts turned upside down.

They leave a, uh, nitrogen in the soil, which really helps our corn rotation out the next year behind it.

So, in that rotation, peanuts really help us grow better crops the next year and the next year.

♪♪ It's not just farmers like Justin who benefit from the new peanut plant.

It's also become a major employer in this rural part of Alabama.

So far, the plant has added about 80 new jobs to the small town of Atmore.

[Christian Hawkes] This is a... is a big company that people don't have to travel far to get to.

There's so many different things to do here that, uh, if you're not very comfortable doing one thing, um, there's a lot more opportunity to do something else.

And there's plenty of room to grow.

[Quantina Brooks] It's a great place to be.

I love my job.

I've never felt about a job the way I feel about this job, ever.

Quantina Brooks works in quality control, where employees take samples of peanuts from the plant to make sure they meet USDA standards.

Before the plant opened, Quantina was driving 58 miles each way to her previous job.

[Quantina] It was a long ride, and plus, when I got there, it was 12 hour shifts.

So, it took a lot out of my day.

So, when I heard of Coastal Growers, it was like a blessing to me.

[Foster Kizer] The jobs, alone, are probably the best asset that you're bringing to the table for the city of Atmore.

Foster Kizer is with a nonprofit group called The Pride of Atmore, which is restoring a 100 year old theater downtown.

The hope is to revitalize the town center and create an arts and cultural hub.

[Foster] So, all of these organizations are pulling together to try to bring more people to Atmore, and give them a reason to want to live here and to stay here.

[Dirk] You know, farming in the United States gets harder and harder all the time, and one thing that we all got to do is eat.

You know, so, we need to make sure that farming is something that continues to happen in the United States.

And with something like this, with a company like this, it allows a farmer to get more money for their peanuts.

It allows the farmer to build equity in a company, which also allows the farmer to maybe bring their children in and have them to continue to farm.

So, it's not just what we're doing right now.

It's the future, too.

♪♪ [Dennis Haigwood] I grew up.

I was taught that you work hard all the time, and, uh, I kind of just kept that philosophy.

I just raised my boys the same way.

Dennis Haigwood still has memories and photos of his childhood growing up on his dad and uncle's Arkansas farm.

Here's Dennis at age nine, driving his first tractor.

And this is Dennis today, still farming, but now with sons Derek and Drew, daughter-in-law Shannon, grandsons Sam and Judah, and a whole slew of other relatives carrying on the tradition of hard work and family closeness, now embraced by a fourth generation of Haigwoods.

[Derek] This ground was taken care of the decades before I got a hold of it.

And I can promise you one thing, I will take care of it better than anyone else, because it means something to me.

Taking care of the ground runs through every season.

Drew and Derek look for the ideal time to harvest every soybean field, but their commitment to sustainability begins much earlier in the year, from when the seeds are planted all through the growing cycle.

That's when the precision agriculture means the ground in each field is sloped ever so slightly downward to ensure water isn't wasted and there's no runoff of precious soil additives.

[Derek] So, conservation of water is always at the forefront of my mind.

Before we plant a field, the number one thing we look at is is it ready for irrigation?

Combine that with GPS mapping to make sure just the right amount of nutrients and other inputs are applied, and that means nothing wasted, nothing escaping into the environment.

[Derek] We practiced sustainability before it was cool.

My grandfather has farmed this field, my father has farmed this field.

We've been doing that because this is the greatest legacy that I have is this farmland.

[Drew] Someone has asked me, you know, what it's like, farming, you know, with your family.

And it's... it's- One of the... the... the most rewarding things is there's a- we have a good rapport with each other, and... and I think it's made us a lot closer.

[Shannon] Just the... the closeness that you share going through the trials and then going through the happiness of the rewards at harvest.

I love being a part of a farm family.

[Derek] And so, when we talk about a "family farm," we're not just talking about our family right now.

We're talking about decades upon decades.

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... ♪♪