Season 8

S8 Ep22 | 5m 28s

People who work the land come from all backgrounds, and their motives are just as varied. Meet a family that turned a hobby into a world famous business: forty years ago, Katie Carpenter decided to grow vegetables on their small plot of Arkansas land.

S8 Ep22 | 4m 38s

Farmers have long known that working together can help overcome the challenges that one faces in raising livestock or getting a crop to market. Neighbors pull together and help each other. That’s true for aquaculture as well as agriculture.

S8 Ep22 | 5m 3s

American farmers are always looking for new ways to generate revenue, while protecting their most valuable resource: their land. Tucker and Jacquie Nelson share the Montana ranching experience with visitors to their Spring Creek Ranch.

S8 Ep22 | 1m 45s

Tomatoes are, botanically, a fruit that most people consider a vegetable. Fruit or vegetable, tomatoes are popular produce. Used in spaghetti sauce, ketchup, pizza toppings and. of course, as a salad item, tomatoes have been an important part of our diet for centuries.

S8 Ep22 | 5m 20s

Cattle ranching today demands that producers keep a close eye on the bottom line. Perry Livingston and his family have seen hard times before. These days, conditions are forcing the Sundance, Wyoming family to consider how best to protect their ranching lifestyle.

S8 Ep21 | 1m 44s

Do you like a little sugar in your morning coffee? How about a sugary topping on an apple pie or something to sweeten the flavor of your soft drink? Are all sweeteners the same and what about a sugary flavor that comes from corn?

S8 Ep21 | 5m 16s

We'll take you to the “Best Show” in Northern California. It's an antique tractor celebration featuring the “Best Tractor Company” formed by C.L. Best in the 1800s. The tractor design uses track-tred instead of wheels. Aficionados gather to fire up steam engines and put the old machines to the test.

S8 Ep21 | 4m 29s

Mild, medium, and hot are three words describing the farming focus for Arizona grower Ed Curry. That’s because Ed has extensive acreage devoted entirely to chile peppers. Curry farms in Pearce, Arizona has been developing and growing chile varieties for more than thirty years.

S8 Ep21 | 5m 29s

Walnuts are one of the most versatile tree nuts around. Sharon Vaknin serves up some very special walnut recipes that you will want to try including a sweet and salty recipe for caramel coated walnuts and walnut pesto over chicken skewers.

S8 Ep21 | 5m 15s

Look around your supermarket today, and you’ll see foods labeled “gluten-free”. For some consumers with food allergies or food intolerances like celiac disease, avoiding products with gluten is important. See how this growing dietary preference is providing new opportunities for farmers like Bruce Wright.

S8 Ep20 | 5m 53s

In 2013, Todd Wagner's family is celebrating one hundred years of farming. The Wagners have a long time orchard operation in New Hampshire raising bright red apples. The family decided, however, that success could only come from diversification. So, a generation back, they added agritainment to their farming operation.

S8 Ep20 | 3m 46s

Nursery owners will tell you that the steps involved in horticulture are just as involved and demanding as raising a crop of corn, wheat, or soybeans. Alabama’s Greene Hill Nursery has been meeting the need for specific landscaping plants for more than a quarter century.

S8 Ep20 | 1m 11s

Thanks to changing tastes and demographics in the United States, beans are playing a larger role in the diets of many people. Jason Shoultz takes a look at the variety of choices when it comes to these legumes on your supermarket shelves.

S8 Ep20 | 5m 35s

John Helle is a third generation sheep rancher in Montana. Come summer, John and his crew will move thousands of sheep from one pasture area to another. The move provides new grazing land for the livestock and sets the herd in place to be shorn of their wool.

S8 Ep20 | 5m 38s

The United States is the largest producer of soybeans in the world. Arkansas’ Brantley family considers their soybean operation to be critical to the family’s farming success. The Brantleys have been working their central Arkansas land for generations with soybeans being key in their rotation of crops.

S8 Ep19 | 4m 14s

The Fornstroms have been farming and ranching several thousand acres of Wyoming farmland since Granddad began growing potatoes on the farm way back in the 1930’s. Today, the Fornstroms run three separate sheep and cattle feedlots on the property.

S8 Ep19 | 5m 49s

Most health experts today suggest that we should include more fish in our diets. These waterborne animals are not only low in calories, but provide some essential fatty acids for good health.

S8 Ep19 | 7m 55s

Salt is a critical mineral for both humans and animals. The mineral can be found around the world and is used for a variety of things including food processing, animal health, and chemical production.

S8 Ep19 | 4m 57s

Travel to the outskirts of Socorro, New Mexico and you will see some of the most unusual poultry pens in the world. Farmer Tom Delehanty and his wife Tracey have constructed large, cloth-covered and flexible pens that they move about their fields to provide feed for their chickens, turkeys and ducks.

S8 Ep19 | 4m 53s

California produces nearly five billion pounds of rice each year that gets used in various food products and exported around the globe. The rice farms that dot the landscape also sit in the Pacific Flyway which is home to millions of birds. Changes in rice farming practices have helped wildlife flourish.

S8 Ep18 | 5m 47s

In this special episode of America's Heartland we explore the cowgirl mystique. We start in the desert mountains of New Mexico where women have gathered for a photo-shoot for the magazine Dirt Road Daughters. The new magazine is designed for women who love the cowgirl and rural lifestyle.

S8 Ep18 | 6m 54s

Her path to becoming a cowgirl was indirect, but Amanda Mayfield is steady in the saddle on her New Mexico Ranch. Working the cattle with her daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and ranch hand, Amanda shows just how tough cowgirls must be to get the job done.

S8 Ep17 | 4m 55s

Annie Walker says that cranberries are one of the most important fruits in America.

S8 Ep17 | 5m 46s

Chef Sharon Vaknin shows you how to use different types of squash to create very special and spicy main dinner meals.

S8 Ep17 | 1m 24s

With so many choices at the supermarket, which is best: fresh, frozen, or canned products. In some cases, canned and frozen allow you to have summer vegetables long after the growing season is over. But fresh is the choice for others who want only produce that’s close to the way it’s grown.

S8 Ep17 | 5m 10s

The cattle sale barn is an important community asset in small towns and cities all across the heartland. Brad Haun oversees the sale barn operations in Fredonia, Kansas. Every week, ranchers will bring their stock to the barn where buyers make their bids on the cattle before them.

S8 Ep17 | 4m 58s

Annie Walker says that cranberries are one of the most important fruits in America. The cranberry is a Native American plant and was growing here long before the first settlers arrived from Europe. Annie’s family tie to cranberries dates back before the American Revolution.

S8 Ep17 | 4m 39s

Mushrooms can add interesting flavors and textures to main dish meals. Roxana Walker was so fond of mushrooms that she began growing them at home. That hobby turned into a career when she discovered that others were interested in adding mushrooms to their meals as well.

S8 Ep16 | 1m 42s

If you have a garden, you already know that a goodly amount of fruits and vegetables can come from a small plot of land. Did you ever wonder how much corn, soybeans or wheat a farmer will get when planting his fields? Stefanie Cruz gives us the measure on harvesting America’s best known crops.

S8 Ep16 | 5m 22s

L.C. Ratchford has an unusual ranch with unusual livestock. The Arkansas rancher raises buffalo. Reporter Rob Stewart heads to the pasture with L.C. to get up close with these largest of North American land animals. L.C. says the majestic buffalo is a fitting symbol for America.

S8 Ep16 | 4m 6s

Lisa Anderson manages a unique horse ranch in the rolling hills near Bozeman, Montana. Copper Springs Ranch is devoted to raising world class quarter horses and giving riders training in the specific skills necessary for horsemanship competitions.

S8 Ep16 | 5m 47s

Tom Hanson’s family recognizes that their farm is special. They live and work on land that’s been planted and harvested for almost three hundred years! The Hansons raise a variety of crops and found that they had to diversify to keep the farm profitable.

S8 Ep16 | 4m 56s

Mace Vaughn says unless we encourage native pollinators, consumers are going to see fewer food choices and higher prices. The conservationist is urging farmers and growers to add native plants to their growing areas in an effort to attract different bee species, butterflies, hummingbirds and other animals that can help in cross pollinating crops.

S8 Ep11 | 5m 13s

Adding extra flavor to one of America’s most popular vegetables.