The fork in the road was brought to you by.

From produce to people.

The best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times, we come together, work hard and grow strong.

When you purchase Georgia grown products, you support farmers, families and this proud state we call home.

Together, we will keep Georgia growing.

Picture Perfect hand.

Picture on the wall.

A sign.

From afar, eager to.

Oh, it feels good.

This has been.

The fascinating and ever changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bakers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more.

Straight ahead, at the fork in the road.

I came from the Palm Desert on my hands around like a.

Tree.

They're contrasting and Georgia farmers, artisans, merchants and producers.

We depend on these men and women every day of our lives through the choices we make in the food we consume.

Their strategy and approach is always shifting, but the end game remains the same.

Results and from the marshes of Glen to the deep blue sea, the coast of Georgia offers an array of fresh treasures.

There are those who catch them, those who cook them, and often those are the same ones looking after their well-being for both the present and the future.

Let's begin this adventure off the fish dock in Townsend, Georgia, where a seasoned sea captain takes us out to discover the underwater wonders of Georgia's healthy coast.

He's known in these parts as the man with the clams, many clams, in fact, Captain Charlie Phillips and the hardworking team of set below sea farms have been raising and harvesting little net clams for years along these ever changing tides of McIntosh County, Georgia.

His fan boats skim the top of this nutrient rich water, sometimes even sliding over land that was several feet underwater just hours prior.

The old sacks are harvested with mature clams inside as fresh juvenile clams are carefully laid to begin their cycle of life.

These are called hard clams.

We got started back in around 97, 98 for an extension.

Came and ask a friend of mine.

And I want to grow some clams.

We said, Sure.

And we learned how to kill a lot of clams first.

And then after that, we learned how to get up the layup.

So that's how we got started.

Sapelo Seed Farms grows and harvests the majority of clams coming out of the Georgia coast.

They're growing in land most people never knew was even here.

Four Mile Island is a massive flat of land that only appears clearly at low tide.

Where we are right now is Four Mile Island, and it's the King's grant date.

It's the only way you can own the marsh in Georgia.

So I actually own this, and it takes me about six months to get them up to a grow out clam, which is a clam about the size of your fingernail.

And then I put them in another bag with a nine millimeter hole, and they stay in that bag for about 18 months.

So my clams are roughly two years old by the time I harbors them.

Charley Sapelo Sea farm clams are a hit with chefs all over the U.S. and up into Canada.

But there's more to this man than these sacks of clams.

Captain Charlie loves his boats and adores the open sea.

Let's take a journey on his 42 foot Duffy, known as the Beagle.

To learn more about Charlie Phillips, his operation, and what it takes to be a fisherman.

In this day and age.

Heading to some underwater banks about 25 miles out.

The fog quickly cleared and the water began popping a vibrant hue of blue.

Our target fish today, red snapper, one of the most popular menu items in the world.

So harvest season is short, and Charlie's limit on what he catches is not what it used to be.

We've got a short red snapper season, so we're going to try to catch our limit of red snapper, which basically is about £75.

We might pick a Black Sea bass or to maybe a trader fish, and maybe we'll trawl for a king mackerel or something on the way.

And joining us on this voyage of the Beagle were Melissa and Chris, both bringing a set of skills and enjoyable personalities to boost what was already looking like a perfect day at sea.

For either bean shrimp and fish and doing something with seafood.

All my life I could never find anybody that would give me a job which got Miss Melissa.

Oh, you've got a Trager fish right off the bat.

And you got, you got you got Ringtail.

There you go.

All right.

This is a small red snapper, probably £2.

That's what we're after.

We can pick our limit of snapper and pick a few sea bass and some trigger to go with them.

Beautiful fish.

Pretty fish.

Good fish.

There's the red snapper.

You got the bigger hook.

I got a bigger hook.

I won't catch as many as they will, but when I get one, I should get a good one.

Yeah.

See that?

All right, so that's.

That's where it is.

That's why we're out here.

That's what we're after.

Now, these fishing reels aren't cheap, but they are worth every penny.

Depth is calculated digitally.

A motor reels in the catch and an audible signal goes through the boat when the line is out or tug, creating a more efficient catch rate until suddenly they stopped something big.

Hit Melissa's hook.

Whatever it is, it's a big one.

Oh, I think you have a shark.

Well, look, there is no.

There's not a nurse shark.

That's a big sandbar.

It's probably not snapper, too.

Oh, now we don't have to break the line.

And after this beautiful catch shook itself loose from Melissa's hook, the fish seem to notice that the area bully had gone elsewhere.

And once again began to feast on our bait.

And the variety kept getting more and more interesting.

What do you got here?

It's a toad fish.

It looks just like a toad.

And they chomp down on you.

They will not let go.

Was that grouper?

Yeah, grouper.

Wow.

Ooh, that's a gag.

That's a good fish.

There we go in a snare.

They found the spot.

What's a guy got to be thinking?

You got to be 24, and he is just.

He's 25.

Yeah, Yeah, he's just legal.

That's a beautiful fish.

Where's this fish going?

Some of it might be used at Fish Dock restaurant.

Some of it might go to Charleston that go to the for Farmer's market.

They'll buy some fish from the fresh fish.

But as a general rule, they stay local.

Yeah, we probably get about two more fish, and then we go.

We better quit so we don't go over to the limit.

What's it mean to you to be a. Fisherman out here off the coast of Georgia?

It's what you do.

It's not a job, per se.

On a good day, there's not a better office in the world.

And on a bad day, there's really not a worse office in the world being able to pull the natural resources and share them.

You know, it's important.

And teaching people what you can do with our resources and how to fish them sustainably.

And most fishermen are environmentalists because they don't want to catch all the fish in the sea.

They want their kids to catch them and things like that.

You know, and what we catch compared to, you know, getting tilapia or SWI or something from China or Indonesia.

I mean, it's not that it's necessarily a bad fish, but this is just there's just no comparison.

I mean, this is like having prime rib compared to a Big Mac.

You handled it properly and find it properly and take care of stuff is healthier and there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to do it like that big shark.

Unfortunately, that was the sandbar.

So unless you've got a special exemption permit, you can't catch that.

But I even like things like catch sharks and shark if you handle it right.

It's a really good fish.

I kid people, eat them before they eat.

You think what you got, Melissa?

So after we hit our limit, after less than 3 hours of dropping lines, it was time to head back to the fish dock.

But Captain Charlie figured since the day was going so well, we may as well do a little trolling in hopes of catching a few more Atlantic dandies.

And we did.

We got a King Arthur King.

Let's get of the day.

The most memorable.

Oh, do you really got here, Charlie?

That's a lizard fish.

Of, like, a flounder.

Is it?

Right on top.

Doesn't taste like a flounder, though.

Yeah, It's just not animal.

And joining us for our trolling trip were about a half dozen or so spotted dolphin.

We could see them hurrying towards the Beagle like a pack of Labradors.

These beautiful creatures were just looking to have a good time.

Huddling inches from the bough and just pacing our boat as we wrapped up our final few minutes of trolling.

What a beautiful way to end a perfect day.

Was a good day.

Got some fish, caught some mackerel.

Good weather.

Probably going to get rained on before we get to the dock, so it'll wash the boat off.

It's just hard to beat this.

It really is.

Thanks for having me on.

So clams are Charlie's bread and butter.

But his beautiful boats, his crew, this sea and this life on the open water is what he loves most.

Chalk up a few snapper, grouper and sea bass to the fish stock menu this week and call it a day.

Driving at the foot end of a good day.

Practice driving with my feet for many years.

It's impressive that from the fish dock we travel south from McIntosh County to Saint Simons Island in the marshes of Glen, to meet a captain and chef who takes us on a journey from the sea to the kitchen.

I've known Chef Dave Snyder for about a decade.

I've been a fan of his restaurant and overall culinary philosophy since day one.

Chef Dave is all about local.

It's all about sustainability, partnerships and loyalty between those partners.

Palisades located in the heart of Saint Simons Island, is the signature restaurant in his hall yards restaurant group, and each venue has its own style and unique menus, including his catering business.

But before we hit the grill, we must hit the water.

Let's transition from Chef Dave to Captain Dave of hooking knife charters to learn about Georgia's healthy back rivers and marshes in the tasty variety of fish that call this water home.

I love being out here.

This is just nature at its finest.

It's a special place, isn't it?

Yeah.

And you look at this water and it's it's murky, but it's not dirty.

You know, it's healthy water.

It is, absolutely.

This estuary is amazing.

There's so many rivers that come in from the rest of the state of Georgia that dump into our coastline.

You have something like 17 rivers or something within 20 miles north the south.

And it brings all this silt and all this food, which also brings all the different species of fish.

Yeah.

And it's a great healthy ecosystem right now.

And it's it's we've just got to keep it that way.

The bait on the top is like a TS one with a weight is hopefully the one that they hit.

This wasn't a picture perfect day for fishing and the adventure started a little slow.

Well, I'm gonna stay with it.

I got one.

There's one in here.

Here we go.

What we got here?

First catch of the day.

Dump it over.

Here.

First catch of the day.

That's a little bit of.

Fun right here.

It's a keeper.

Oh, you wouldn't have done that with your own fish.

We even heard over the radio that a few local charters were calling it quits.

But Captain Dave always seems to have a few spots up his sleeve.

All right, we're going to mix it up here a little bit.

But that doesn't really count.

He's not on the menu, is it?

Here we go.

And left.

Leave him in the water.

Here we go.

Yes, sir.

Nice speckled trout to go day.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Good captaining here.

Good.

13 or 14 inches.

He's a keeper.

If you want to keep him for supper, where we can let him go.

And I.

Love it.

I love it.

It's healthy water.

So before we unleashed our final cast, Captain Dave had one more trick up his sleeve.

Call it luck or even karma for doing things right.

He landed a beast.

What do we have over here?

That's a very, very big trout.

That's a very big trout.

You go very big trout from here.

Yeah, that's a nice one.

That's speckled trout.

And for here, that's a big fish.

That's big, thick fish.

Wow.

That's too big to keep.

Not legally.

You can keep it a minimum of 13.

But this is a big one that does a lot of reproducing.

So we're going to put it back.

19 inches high.

Rise above the big one.

That's big fish.

Well, nice speckled trout.

So armed with our flounder, some Georgia grown oysters and a variety of other Atlantic beauties.

Captain Dave transitioned back into Chef Day for a feast on the Sea Island Forge.

Tell me about what we got going today.

So many different varieties of fish out of Georgia waters.

And we're going to cook a few up on this.

See, on Forge Grill.

First thing we're going to cook up is some mahi mahi.

So the first thing, obviously, is a grill.

And we're going to get to frying up some flounder later.

It's great because I had a little too close to the flame so I can bring it up a little bit, but still get that.

He probably one of my favorite fish out of Georgia waters is Black Sea Bass.

And we're going to coat it with a little olive oil.

Another Georgia grown product comes out of Lakeland.

Salt and pepper and on the inside of the Black Sea bass.

I've got some onions and some time and some lemon.

And we're going to put a little bit more olive oil on top and it won't take long.

And the best part for me about cooking whole fish like that, that sea bass is the flavor of the bone as it roasts.

I think it also helps protect the meat a little bit better.

And how long you need to cook that small sea bass?

That whole sea bass like this is probably going to take about ten or 15 minutes, depending on how cold the fish is.

When we brought it out the cooler how hot your flame is.

I think that's the hardest thing, is to get that fish right.

I mean, you know, you've been doing it for years.

Remember, as far as your cooking, the fish, you can always cook it more.

So don't be afraid to check it.

You can come in and you can kind of pull up the flake a little bit and you can see it's still translucent, so it's not quite cooked yet.

And of course, the hard part for me is being is being patient.

Let the fire do its stuff, let it go to work.

And here you can see that the flavor of the shallots and the garlic and the oregano, the lemon, all that's getting right into the meat, all that flavor is going to be in there.

So with that char and the olive oil, that's just going to be delicious.

That's to me, that's the best way to eat the fish.

One thing to remember, take the gills out, take the gills off before you cook, and a lot of the blood will come out and the flavor of that into the fish when it gets cooked up is just not great.

So make sure you take that out.

You can move it off to the side so you're not working right over the flame, which is really kind of cool, but just love the flavor of the of the wood as it cooks.

And these are made right here in Georgia.

I guess these things are.

Made right here in Glen County or the Golden Isles, you know, Brunswick, Saint Simons, Jekyll.

All that that makes that up.

And we got some oysters here, another Georgia grown product up from McIntosh County.

And what's in the oysters?

We just put a little garlic butter, butter, chive parsley, salt, pepper, a little bit of shallots, some roasted garlic.

And again, I'm think it's a little cold up there.

Some we go down a little closer if we want to do some roasting, then what we can do is we just put the lid on it and that helps bring the heat up a little bit.

Okay.

So later on, what we're going to be doing is some of the fun that we caught earlier today.

We're going to pan fry.

We've got it scored and then we're going to flour it lightly and put in some oil.

Oh, and tell me what you put on the fish again.

Just a little salt and pepper.

And then we put it with rice flour.

We prefer the rice flour.

It's got out to me a better texture.

It's got a little crispier finish to it.

We've got one more thing, David, I want to put on the grill today.

We've got these beautiful Georgia white shrimp and we're going to toss it in some olive oil with some garlic shell it and seafood seasoning like an old bay man.

I love cooking shrimp whole right in the shell to me gives it a much better flavor.

It's much harder to eat.

Yes.

And it's a lot messier.

But what the heck?

Grab a towel and a cold beer.

Shipping history.

You're taking a big hit.

But what's great is so many people are proud of their heritage all up and down the coast.

And they're not just George, of course, the whole country, but especially in Georgia.

So many people want to keep the the keep the dream alive and the heritage alive.

So they continue to fish, even though there's so much competition coming from other countries where shrimp is a lot less expensive, but it just doesn't have that flavor.

Now we're just going to flip it over and get the other side cooked up.

That's skin, right?

They're not gorgeous and the oysters are just about done.

So they don't need to go long.

No.

Just enough to get them cooked up.

Oh, look at that.

Bubbling right on the right on the shell.

Just.

Wow.

Yeah, that's.

That's a great way to eat an oyster.

A great way to round off this seafood platter, huh?

We got the flounder, we got the sea bass with all the different species that Georgia has to offer.

This is just a great place to enjoy seafood paired up with all the other Georgia grown ingredients.

So we've got the fried flounder, we've got the Georgia white shrimp, we've got the sea bass and the oysters.

And here's this beautiful tilefish.

We catch Tilefish off of Georgia in about 6 to 900 feet of water.

And the fish loves blue mud.

They call it blue much.

So if the fish are making find blue mud, about 800 feet of water, they'll bring up these gorgeous tilefish.

And part of what's so important is keeping these species going and keeping them balanced with the heritage that is so important to so many different families and industries.

And that's why sustainability has to be to me and to a lot of other people in the forefront of what we're doing.

Take shrimp, for instance.

You know, we used to have over 1500 shrimping licenses and trawlers in the state of Georgia.

Now we have like 200.

Take the oyster, for instance.

We're just in the state of Georgia coming back in and giving out licenses.

And there are leases for cages for people that want to get into the oyster industry.

But at the turn of the 20th century, some hundred years ago, Georgia was number one in the country in producing oysters.

It was all the tuning that we had.

And of course, now we're actually one of the lowest states in oyster production, if not the lowest.

There's there's so many opportunities to to bring these things back and keep them going.

And again, part of the balance, though, is how do we make sure that our families that are in the business, in the industry continue to have that resource to make a living?

How can people, as recreational anglers, still have the ability to have that as a resource?

Well, it's a very complicated issue.

Then off the Georgia waters, which extend three miles off the beach, when you go out 200 miles further than that, that is where our federal waters stop and that's where a lot of these species come from.

That's where you get the sea bass, that's where you get the tail fish, all of your groupers, your snappers, your pelagic species.

Kobe is the mahi that we cooked up.

All those come from much further out and through the years, technology has gotten so great that we've become too efficient catching fish, fishing families and fishing communities.

They've got to stay alive and they can only stay alive if we keep these fish alive.

You know, we can't go through the resource and any of those federal fish that we're talking about.

If they come into a Georgia port that's considered a Georgia product, there are licenses that you have to get.

If you want to harvest fish, you can only harvest so many fish.

Those are difficult decisions that the state has to make to balance the enjoyment of people fishing and how much of the resource we need to leave in the water to make sure that our kids and our grandkids have those fish.

There's the economic side of not just the people that are fishing and harvesting and selling the but it's the restaurants.

Whether you come to halibut or shrimp, each year, you want to be able to say, Hey, what's local?

And we'd like to be able to say, hey, we've got local trial, we've got local flounder, we've got local grouper.

So it's important for us to stay competitive with other restaurants, whether they be in the panhandle of Florida or be on the on the Virginia coast.

We want to be able from an economic standpoint, to say, hey, we're serving the best that there is because this fish was harvested by Phillip Seafood not that two days ago.

And when you prepare a lot of these ingredients with so many other Georgia grown products, whether it be the olive oils or you got mushrooms growing in Brunswick or whatever other farms that that we're lucky to have in Georgia, it just makes for a better experience, whether it be for the locals or the tourists that are visiting in Georgia, keeps moving forward with things like shrimping and things like oysters and making sure that we're moving forward and helping fishermen and fishing communities to be able to gather this stuff.

And it's really great.

It's really great to see.

We live on the Georgia coast and we're very lucky.

So a fresh caught meal off Georgia's nutrient rich shores always delivers a feast for the senses.

Whether you cook up your own catch, find a restaurant that features fresh Atlantic snapper or get the freshest you can get anywhere at Captain Charlie's Fish Dock in McIntosh County, or from chef Dave Snyder's Halyard Restaurant Group.

The options are available, caught responsibly and most of all, quite tasty.

I. I'm David Zaleski.

See you at the next fork in the road.

The fork in the road was brought to you by.

From produce to people.

The best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times.

We come together, work hard and grow strong.

When you purchase Georgia grown products, you support farmers, families, and this proud state we call home.

Together, we will keep Georgia growing.

And the picture on the wall as sign from afar.

You get to meet.

Oh, it feels good.

This has been the best.