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(soft rhythmic music)

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- Hi, folks.

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Today we're at Urban Tilth 
Farm in Richmond, California.

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And this place is near 
and dear to my heart.

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It's about two miles 
from my medical clinic

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and we have a really interesting 
agreement with this farm

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where they are growing 
fruits and vegetables here,

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and cleaning them and 
harvesting them every week

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and packing them up 
in these paper bags.

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And they're sent two miles 
down the road to our clinic

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where we, the doctors, 
get to hand them out

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as these food prescriptions, 
these produce prescriptions.

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And we hand them out

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much like you would 
hand out a prescription

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for cholesterol medication 
or blood pressure medication.

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And it's intended to 
do the same thing,

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which is protect our patients

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from heart disease and diabetes,

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and other types of 
diet related diseases.

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These prescriptions are 
handed out each week

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in a medical group called 
the Healthy Eating Group,

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where we get together and 
we check blood pressure

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and check in on medications.

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And then, we actually 
cook together.

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And one of our 
favorite things to cook

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is something that comes from 
this farm almost every week.

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This comes from a very 
special kind of tree.

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It's a purple tree collared, 
which is a perennial plant,

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and you can harvest the leaves

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pretty much every week ongoing.

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It produces new leaves.

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And the seeds from this plant

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were thought to come 
originally from Africa.

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And it's a plant that 
actually has been propagated

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and the seeds have 
been passed down

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by the African-American 
community.

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One of the things we love 
to do in our group cooking

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is actually make salads from 
this purple tree collard.

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And you might think,

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"Wow, this looks a 
little bit too tough

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to turn into a salad."

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But the secret is to take a leaf

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and actually strip 
it off its stalk,

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and then what you 
can do is massage it.

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And what that does is it 
breaks down the tough fibers

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and makes it so 
that it's much more

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like a typical lettuce 
in terms of eating it.

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And then, you chop 
it up super fine

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as if you're making 
confetti for a parade.

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And you toss it with your 
favorite salad dressing,

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and you can add in other 
fruits and vegetables.

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Now it's not just tree collards 
or purple tree collards

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that you can massage in 
order to get this benefit

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of having them more tender.

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You can do it with pretty 
much any kind of tough green.

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This is a curly kale, which 
we also turn into salads.

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And oftentimes, I'll 
make a mixture of both

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and throw them in with 
your more standard greens

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like your romaine or even 
some iceberg lettuce.

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But the truth is 
that these greens

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have so much more 
nutrition in them.

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They have more iron and more 
vitamin C and more fiber,

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and more antioxidants 
and beta-carotene.

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So, it's actually 
a wonderful thing

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to have these in your salad.

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It's great to add them 
to the mix both for taste

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and for that very agated 
color and for your health.

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And when I cook kale, 
what I really try and do

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is cook it as 
lightly as possible.

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You don't want it to get 
overcooked and kind of mushy.

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You want it to have

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just that kind of a 
bright greenness to it.

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And if you cook it with 
a little bit of citrus

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or a little bit of vinegar,

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that's gonna actually 
help release the 
nutrients in the kale

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and so that you're able to 
better absorb them in your body.

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Thank you so much today for 
joining me at Urban Tilth,

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where we discovered 
how their food

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is literally being 
turned into medicine.

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(soft piano music)