My Travels with America's Heartland

With this being my first blog I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Tyler Bastine and I’m an Associate Producer for the America's Heartland series. I’ve been apart of AH team for over three years now and prior to working for the program I did not have any background in agriculture, so for me this has been quite an eye opening experience!

I consider myself very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel across the country (As well as overseas) to capture our stories. I would say this is ‘hands down’ the best part of my job. I’m able to meet the fine folks who work extremely hard from sun up to sun down daily. I must admit, they are some of the most down-to-earth (literally) and genuine people I've met. It takes a certain breed of individual to do what they do. All in all I’ve come away with much more respect and appreciation for the farmers that work so hard to provide food, fiber, and clothing for the rest of us. I'm very proud to be a part of a national program that celebrates all they do for this country and abroad.

News & Notes 3

Season 3, Edition 3

Welcome to the latest edition of the America’s Heartland newsletter!

We’re very excited about the impending launch of our third season. As this is being written, we’re putting the finishing touches on our fifth episode. That leaves seventeen more to go. As I may have mentioned before, this season we’re doing twenty-two half hour episodes, two more than in previous seasons.

The season 3 episodes will be available to PBS stations across the U.S. starting the week of September 3. Some stations will begin airing these new episodes right away; others may still be wrapping up their broadcasts of the season 2 programs. I’d encourage you to visit our website to check your own station’s broadcast schedule, or how to contact them directly for more information. And, don’t forget, America’s Heartland also appears on the RFD-TV cable and satellite network.

Some of the stories appearing early in season 3 include two Nevada ranch families whose future plans cover both ends of the spectrum: one is selling his land to developers, while the other is undertaking a great effort to keep his ranch for future generations. We’ll also meet a Delaware farm family that’s turning down the developers in favor of a more community-minded transaction: their property will soon become a new high school.

Also, look for a story about how two generations of an Iowa family continue a lifelong, yearly ritual of harvesting their abundant corn crop; how Michigan researchers are finding new crops to convert into biofuels; and a California farm family who returned to their Italian roots to successfully raise an ancient crop: olives.

News from our website: we’ve launched a new effort to greatly expand our recipe section, which is always popular with both viewers and web surfers. Look for many more traditional family recipes and regional specialties in the weeks to come! Please send recipes to Jennifer Iida at jiida@kvie.org for consideration.

Remember, please click on the “Watch Heartland” link on our website to see where you can catch the program, or go to your own local PBS station website for even more details. And, as always, you can always e-mail us directly via our website with your questions and comments.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you on the farm!

Seth Alspaugh
Executive Producer
America’s Heartland