- I started cooking because of my grandmother.
She was born in Sweden when Sweden was a very poor country,
but that didn't mean we didn't eat well,
we just ate rustic, all the bread were whole grain.
It's better for you nutritionally.
It's better for your digestive system
and it tastes much better.
- All over the world obesity is a problem
and diabetes is a problem.
People are getting too much sugar
and whole grain is a solution to a lot of those problems.
- Heritage grains is definitely part of the past
and future of great food.
I'm super excited to come here to Tehachapi
and learn from John Hammond about Heritage Grains.
- My name is Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
I live and work in New York City, in Harlem.
I have a restaurant called Red Rooster.
I was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden.
Both these cultures where bread are so important
because in Sweden it was all about whole grain rye bread.
In Ethiopia we eat one thing which is our staple,
which is Injera bread, which is made
with a heritage grain called teff.
What I think is happening in America
is we produced a lot of food for the last 60/70 years
because we wanted to create white flour,
or white sugar based on color,
not based what was healthy for us.
Our taste buds and the way we thought was good food
is completely wrong.
- People need to be aware that some labeling is misleading.
You can call bread whole grain if you've just put
a small amount of the bran that's been removed back in.
Consumers need to be more educated
and they need to pick up a package before they buy it
and look at the ingredient list
and look at the top two ingredients.
You want to look for whole grain.
Human health is more significant
than the stock price of your multi national company.
It's incumbent upon them to try
and serve wholesome food
at as reasonable a price as possible
and not placing profit margins ahead of human health.
My family first came here in 1898.
They got this farm in 1921.
I was raise here, I've lived here all my life.
The way we farm is more like
a throwback to earlier centuries really of farming.
It's all part of a wholistic approach to life
and to farming.
When I see my daughter climbing a tree,
it's not just climbing any tree,
she's climbing the same trees
I remember climbing when I was her age.
We have some Sonora wheat that we raise
that's been cultivated for at least 400 years
and in California for more than 300 years.
Ancient grains and heritage and heirloom grains,
these terms are just used to describe grains
that predate the modern wheat breading era
and so we want to continue these,
grow 'em in the present and into the future.
- [Marcus] So what are we doing and what am I looking for?
- Okay, so you're wanting to test the grain.
We kind of grind it.
Use your palm and then blow lightly.
So this is pretty clean.
- Nice.
Snack time.
- Yeah, and then by chewing it,
then you can tell how cured it is.
As you first put it in you can taste the bran,
then you're biting through that,
and when you get the germ, you get those oils,
you go, okay now that begins to change
the consistency and the flavor.
- Beautiful.
John help me unpack whole grain.
What is it and why is it better for us?
- So the bran gives you much better digestion
and the fiber's good for you.
The germ contains most of the nutrients.
So it is more healthy and the least
nutritional part of a wheat berry
is the starchy endosperm that surrounds it
and that's what white all-purpose,
unbleached flour consists of, and if you see the difference,
once people have that, with,
they've had bread that's been baked with our wheat,
or our rye and they go I've never tasted bread so good.
That alone will convince people to eat healthier,
once they've tried it.
- And how come you focus on Heritage grains,
like where does that come from.
- Older grains have other attributes,
like they're more drought tolerant, they require less rain.
We keep focusing on sustainability.
These Heirloom grains that are more cold tolerant,
more disease resistant, are in important part of that.
So have you ever driven a tractor before?
- I haven't.
- Okay, let's check it out.
I'll have you drive a tractor.
- I'm excited man.
- Okay.
- That's really cool.
- Okay.
- All I can say is I'm far away from Harlem right now.
- That's fine, you're good.
- Alright.
- It was great teaching Marcus how to drive a tractor.
He's use to getting around in Harlem,
driving around the perimeter of a grain field
was no problem for him.
- As a chef, cooking is not something
that you've done and you've mastered, ever.
It's my job to always search more knowledge.
So by meeting John, I'm now learned more
about Heritage Grain, new nuances, new ways to use it.
- So you have this great flour here,
so let's make a flat bread.
- What we just ground there was no separation,
no removal of the bran, we didn't remove the germ.
It's all ground up together, so the flour
is much more nutritionally dense.
- So you got some fresh herbs here.
I just picked some rosemary bells.
I see that you have some fresh thyme.
Can you pick me some fresh thyme?
- Sure, sure.
- Thank you.
This is so beautiful.
So I'm just gonna add that straight on,
you know what I mean.
You have zucchini, you have thyme,
gonna add some of that cheese.
- Someone who's as highly respected as Marcus
is advocating the use of Heritage Grains
and using whole grains and recognizing their superiority
and flavor and taste and health
and so he's an ideal person to be able
to spread that message.
- All right.
Ready to eat?
It's so good.
- Yeah.
- I know it's a very honest taste.
Do you think your grandfather would approve?
- Yeah, completely.
- Marcus arrived here enthusiastic
and he became even more enthused as he learned about
how we grow our grain and how much healthier,
nutritious whole grains are and how the process works.
- I just think it's really cool and interesting
what Panera is doing, showing it's curiosity
and want to be part of the solution on making better food.
It's something we all have to participate in
and what John is doing here
at the Tehachapi Grain Project is so important.
It forces us to look in the past in order
to make better food for today, but also for the future
and now I'm gonna spread the message.
Soul Pancake.