(gentle upbeat music) - [David] From the soil of our family farms to your table, there's something special about Georgia, something you can taste in every bite.

Fresh flavors, local farms, unforgettable experiences, Georgia has it all.

Support local, taste the difference, and make memories along the way.

Look for the Georgia Grown logo wherever you shop or visit GeorgiaGrown.com.

(upbeat bright music) - [Narrator] Community, learning, working, playing, celebrating, doing life is always better together.

At GPB, we aim to provide you with the tools to be able to do life together well.

Our mission to educate, inform, and entertain inspires everything from our wide range of programming to our stimulating radio conversations to our fun in-person events.

We've got something for everyone.

Visit gpb.org/community to learn more about our upcoming events, - 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 "A Fork in the Road".

(singers harmonizing) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ - [David] 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.

(gentle upbeat music) (upbeat music) This week we explore two Georgia businesses that in different ways have become a beloved part of their surrounding communities.

One, through the world of coffee and the other through barbecue.

Be it high-tech roasting of beans gathered from farming communities around the globe, or smoking slow and low, and then topped with a locally produced homemade glaze to sweeten things up to perfection, both businesses do it well and do it right.

We begin this week in Americus to explore a coffee business that believes in the work of the farmer so much that it's in the name Campesino.

(gentle upbeat music) If this old bus station could talk, oh, the stories it could share.

Stories of civil rights, stories of the blues, stories of a Georgia town that continues to thrive in different ways.

Today, this bus station has been renovated and reinvented as a coffee shop and roasting house for Campesino Organic Coffee, a business born in the late nineties with a vision to make the world a better place through human connections, conscious consumption, and of course, extraordinary coffee.

- Cafe Campesino based in Americus, Georgia got started, because Habitat for Humanity also started in Americus, Georgia.

We went with Habitat down to Guatemala 26 years ago, 27 years ago, and coincidentally, we're building houses for coffee farmers and had a moment on the site where we realized that these coffee farmers were making virtually no money off their crop.

And a lot of it was because they were selling their crop locally and had no idea of what it was worth once it got out into the world market.

So, these farmers were receiving Habitat houses, they were pretty poor.

So, it just really hit me how much the little bit of cash they were gonna get for the coffee meant to 'em.

And when we did the calculations and figured out how little it actually was, couldn't get that thought outta my mind.

And about six months later decided I wanted to go back down to Guatemala and really understand that supply chain for coffee.

And then a year later we bought a container of coffee and imported it and started selling coffee with the idea of cutting out the middleman and being able to pay the farmers better prices.

We were going to get the coffee and then we would sell it to coffee roasters around the states.

And then we quickly evolved into other things that could help pay the bills.

So, that's when Cafe Campesino started roasting coffee.

My brother got involved shortly thereafter as our roaster.

Tripp got involved helped us get the company organized to really give a professional management twist to all these ideas.

(gentle upbeat music) - As the founder, Bill set in motion a chain of events, a chain of relationships that has brought together tens of thousands of people who might not have ever been connected.

So, the idea of building a business model that delivers more and the appropriate compensation to the farmers for their coffee is called fair trade.

That's social entrepreneurialism at its best.

The idea of creating viable financial, economic models, business models that can deliver a better quality of life to people that can help to make a more equitable relationship between people, whether it be housing, eliminating poverty housing.

In our case, helping deliver more value and proper payment to those farmers.

(upbeat music) So, you had small-scale coffee farmers who had been organizing into cooperatives based on the principles of cooperation, solidarity, fair trade, the idea of supporting not just individual farmers, but groups of farmers and their communities to raise the quality of life together.

And then using a business model to kind of bring it all together.

And in order for small-scale farmers to be able to sell directly into the international market, they have to be able to fill a container.

- Yeah.

- And so, the farmers come together based on a principled approach to how they want to have trading relationships based on being able to fill a 40,000-pound shipping container.

And what I really love about what Bill did take the farmer's lead, the farmer-owned cooperative model lead, and apply it to a small group of roasters.

Us plus six said, let's band together under the principles of fair trade and transparency, solidarity of a co-op, and let's combine.

Let's pool our demand so that we can buy that container directly from the small-scale coffee farmers.

And it really does pay a lot of tribute, in my opinion, it's the highest form of honoring the hard work of the farmers, coffee farmers.

And today, here we are so many years later, right?

And it's exciting being able to talk to you about it, you know, really 25, 27 years after it all began.

- [David] In the 20 years between 1998 and 2018, the owners and employees of Cafe Campesino visited coffee farmer partners over 55 times, bought 2.6 million pounds of fair trade and organic coffee, hosted over a dozen farmer visits to Americus, and donated tens of thousands of dollars to programs that support farmers through technical training and sustainability projects.

- We named the company Cafe Campesino, meaning in Spanish coffee of the small farmer.

- [Tripp] You won't go to these places.

It's a continued relationship and that's important.

- We pinch ourselves that we get to go to these places, and as a part of work.

And Tripp, just got back from Laos and Sumatra, and I was down in Guatemala in April.

I'll be back latter part of the year.

We've got a lot of friends there.

We've watched kids grow up in the co-ops that now are coffee farmers.

That's where you get the energy.

When you go down there, you come back and you know, it's just a good reminder of why you're doing this.

(upbeat jazz music) - [David] The Campesina Organic Coffee Company has been roasting their own coffee for years.

And after much effort, this new state-of-the-art coffee roasting facility in Americus located right next to the old bus station and new cafe is underway.

Tripp took me through.

- This is a building a little over 5,000 square feet that we renovated, moved up from our old quonset hut, which is down on the Miller Fuller Boulevard, which we occupied for our first 25 years.

We've got a great crew.

It was raining in here a year ago.

We've had a lot of help from local vendors, local contractors to help us whip this thing into shape.

This is where we roast.

That is Jonathan, who's been our roaster for three years.

He's loading a 75-pound batch of Nicaragua from a cooperative called Las Segovias.

This was built by Roaster Dynamics, essentially a one-man shop in Tampa, Florida.

Takes a vacuum loader, pulls it up to the hopper, drops it in.

This is a natural gas drum roaster, so it'll roast its profile based on time and temperature and properly developing the oils and the sugars based on the bean.

The beans in Nicaragua, for example, in Las Segovias are gonna be a little less dense, different terroir than let's say a higher altitude Peru.

It's an aromatic coffee, and you can roast it light.

I actually, enjoy it for a morning cup of coffee.

So, this is Esme Hernandez, she is our assistant COO just slash general manager.

And Esme, you run the show here.

How long have we been working together?

- [Esme] Almost nine years.

- Right?

This is Kay, one of our production leads here.

And you are, what are you bagging up?

- Guatemala.

- Guatemala, great.

A lot of coffee is still one bag at a time, whether it's a 12 ounce, one pound, two pound, or five pound.

We try to do mostly whole bean, but we've got a lot of customers who need it ground, no problem.

There aren't shelves lined with pre-roasted, pre-bagged coffee.

Why?

Because we try to keep the coffee as fresh as possible.

There's no coffee that's going out that is older than five to seven business days, just to keep it super fresh.

So, by the end of the day, that shelf will be filled and then emptied to fulfill the orders going out the door.

Today is Tuesday, so tomorrow is our Atlanta delivery and our driver will head out bright and early and hit a load of customers up in the Atlanta area and then be back tomorrow by supper time.

We do deliveries up to Islands, North Carolina, and we do it out to Savannah too.

- [David] When opening the new Cafe Campesino Community Coffeehouse, Tripp and Bill knew it was important to find the right partner, someone with the overall vision.

And better yet, someone who shared that vision and was local.

Lee Pinnell was just that guy.

(gentle upbeat music) - So we have a great partnership.

I've always been friends with Bill and Tripp most of my life.

Grew up with their original coffee house, bringing my children here, raising 'em playing chess and drinking coffee.

We see eye to eye on things that we care about.

They care about taking care of farmers, they care about providing good coffee.

So, when they approach me about opening this coffee house, it was a easy yes.

We've toyed around with several locations.

In this bus house, it's the original bus station for Americus.

It has a lot of history here, but we love the idea of honoring the past and renovating of building downtown that brings new life back to an edge of downtown that wasn't in the greatest shape.

- [David] The company and coffee house have been a part of this community for years, but this old bus station had a story and they had a vision for saving it in a respectful way, preserving its history, telling these stories, and serving great coffee.

♪ In a town far away ♪ ♪ There was someone who was old and gray ♪ - Curly Brown has a great history here.

He would hop on a bus and ride up to Macon, Georgia and play the blues on the streets.

Legend has it that he even taught the Allman Brothers how to play the steel guitar when they heard him on the street.

So, he would hop on a bus right here and take it up out of town and go play his blues wherever he went.

- We have a large space that we've renovated, two thirds of which is the new coffee house.

But we've got this third section, which if we understand correctly, what was called the Colored Waiting Room where African Americans purchased tickets and waited for the bus before boarding.

And we haven't developed this space yet for a few reasons.

One, we want to be very intentional about the use of this space.

And we need and are going to be working with our partners at the Americus Sumpter County Movement Members Committee, one of the main local civil rights groups, and other members of our community to understand this space and find a way to reopen it so that it is an extension of the coffee house, but also honors the past and the reality of the past, but also provides a way for people to come together to communicate and collaborate constructively about moving forward together.

It's important to us.

- I think it means a lot for the community that's why we had the great idea of putting the word community in the coffee house.

It's a place where people can bring their kids and play board games.

It's a place for Bible studies to happen in our back room or reading clubs.

People come and play music.

It's just a place to gather where ideas can be formed, where friendships can be formed with each other.

And that's to me what a community coffee house is all about.

- We still have a lot to learn, but we still are super passionate about what we do.

There's no shortage of need for us to improve this business.

Make sure that we're doing right by our trading partners with fellow members of our co-op and with our staff to make sure that we honor the principles, honor the practices, but also meet this need to really grow it and have the biggest positive impact that we possibly can on our farmer partners, you know?

Yeah.

- Yep.

- We still can't believe we get paid to do this.

(Bill chuckling) - [David] Tripp, Bill, Lee, and the entire Campesino team continuously strive to help the farmer tell their story, build a sense of community, both at farms around the world and in their hometown of Americus, Georgia, while at the same time appreciating the past and of course, making a darn fine cup of coffee.

(singers harmonizing) And now that we've had our coffee, it's time to eat.

And for that, we take the slow and low route to Tifton for some sweet Georgia barbecue.

(gentle upbeat music) Eric Wisham took what his dad taught him through the years, put his own sweet twist on it, and has turned it into a business, doing what he loves making sweet jams and jellies for the masses and cooking some of the best barbecue sandwiches and ribs you'll find anywhere.

Let's take a peek inside Wisham's barbecue food truck and learn how it all came together.

- Yeah.

So my dad, Francis Wisham, I grew up cooking with him smoking whole hogs for parties and different things.

He didn't want any money for it.

He just enjoyed doing it, and I grew up around him doing that.

And he's retired now.

Say he's retired, he is helping me cook and do, but he enjoys it just as much as I do.

- [David] Great.

He's not just telling you what you're doing wrong, right?

- Right.

(Francis chuckling) This has always been his passion, was having a food truck and you know, cooking himself.

And now that I'm doing it, he jumps on here with me from time to time and we work, you know, two or three hours together, but he enjoys it and I enjoy his company.

- [David] How about the logo here?

Does that actually happen?

(Eric chuckling) - No.

No, but we can make it happen.

This has always been a crowd favorite riding the pig.

Get your glaze on, which is our saying, meaning use our jellies as a last minute glaze when grilling and cooking.

- [David] I'm gonna be doing that.

My cooking needs help.

- Yeah.

We'll be getting our glaze on here pretty soon on these ribs.

- [David] All right, tell me about these jellies.

How'd this all get started?

- I started growing peppers at age of about 18, 19, and then late twenties I had a huge pepper farm.

I had jalapenos, habaneros, all kinds of different strains of peppers.

And I went off of an old family recipe and I wanted to make something with a little kick.

So, this is our first flavor is Fire, and made it in 2012.

So, I said, what the heck, I'll just start making some flavors.

So, I added pineapple, and I made a pineapple, then I made a mango, went on to peach, and then made Strawlapeno, and then we got our Blazing Blueberry.

We've got Wild Mayhaw.

This is our spring flavor, flavor of Georgia winter in 2016.

And then Applefig, flavor of Georgia winter 2020.

- [David] Now, I see Thanksgiving era, don't it?

- That's right, it is.

We recommend that on turkey sandwiches, turkey and dressing.

I use 'em all as a glaze for grilling and cooking.

And they're great for the appetizers, for smoked cream cheese or regular cream cheese and crackers.

(upbeat music) All right, what we got here is a rack of St. Louis style ribs.

St. Louis is just cut off the spare.

- Prepping it now?

- Yes, sir.

I'd like to get the membrane off.

The easiest way to do it.

Let's get a piece going here and grab some paper towel.

Grab it, pull it.

Comes right off.

Makes it a little tender.

Then I just hit, not much very little mustard.

That's just a binder to hold the rub.

I do both sides.

I do the bone side very light.

Actually, both sides pretty light.

Just rubbed that in there pretty good.

- [David] Yellow mustard, the best for this?

- That's right.

Olive oil, there's several things you could use.

I prefer the mustard it.

It doesn't give it a mustard taste.

It just helps hold this rub.

On the bone side, we're using our all purpose rub here.

I just like to hit it lightly on the bone side.

(upbeat music) This meat side, we like a pretty good helping on it.

And then take that, rub it into it.

I like to massage it into the meat.

Now, let that sit five, 10 minutes.

Let that season get into it pretty good.

And then they'll be ready for the smoker here before long and we'll go out there and pop it on there.

Got here is a block of cream cheese, and we're going to do our smoked cream cheese with our all purpose rub.

- [David] That goes on everything.

- That's right, everything, all sides.

We use our rub and it pairs well with our pepper jelly.

We smoke it at 240 degrees for about an hour and it doesn't melt it just softens up just enough.

It's also one of my main ingredients that we use in our smoked mac and cheese.

- [David] So, now these have been going for how long?

- These have only been on here a couple hours.

You know, cooking barbecue and everybody's low and slow and I like to crank it up.

I like to cook at 250, 275, and let it go.

I mean, low and slow is good, but cooking high heat is a way to go as well.

With these lanes you can't beat it.

See where we're at.

I always like to look at the bone and see how much of that bone showing.

Starting to show, I like for it to show good inch, inch and a half.

Just looking at 'em, they're good.

Give 'em by another hour, hour and a half they'll be ready for the peach glaze.

- [David] Well, what were we doing here?

- About to glaze 'em with our peachy peach glaze.

It's our peach pepper jelly.

And I got a vinegar mustard based sauce that I make that I put with it.

This is called Get Your Glaze On.

So, we'll turn 'em into candy now.

(gentle upbeat music) This should be perfect.

Pull these butts that's been resting now for a good hour and a half.

Got a nice bark on 'em.

Just falling apart.

- [David] That's the color you want on the edges, right?

- That's correct.

Still a little warm, I take it, I just break it in my hands.

I also like to get a little bark in there with that.

You know it was really smoked on a smoker and not straight out of the oven.

This is the big version of the pepper jelly, our blueberry pepper jelly.

But the other thing is too, is I go ahead and mix my other concoction in here, which is a sweet sauce that we make and blend with the pepper jelly.

- [David] Yeah, there's some secrets in there, right?

- Correct.

Get a spoon, dab a little bit.

I don't like to over sauce it, 'cause I still want you to taste the meat, because the smoke and everything.

I generally, like to put eight to 10 good scoops in here.

All right, so once we got some sauce in here, back to the hand.

I take this and I massage that sauce into that meat.

Like I said, it's not heavy sauced.

Eight or 10 decent scoops.

- [David] You're adding some sweet to the smoke, right?

- [Eric] That's right.

A little bit of heat too.

A little bite, nothing crazy.

And this is our blazing blueberry barbecue now.

- [David] How long does it sit in here before you serve it?

- That's good to go.

(gentle upbeat music) As you can tell, it's not heavy soft, but you can see the color.

- [David] Were you sharing a piece?

- Oh yeah.

- All right.

Keep it right in front of the camera there.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

(upbeat music) Oh that's perfect.

You've done this before?

- I have.

So, you get the sweet, you get a hand of the blueberry, and you get the smoke and then the tenderness of the meat.

- [David] Oh, I tastes the blueberry.

That's awesome.

- Yeah, it is not overly, like I said, it's not overly sauce, it's not overpowered.

I feel like it's the great combination of Georgia grown pepper jelly with pulled pork here.

- [David] Wholeheartedly agree.

(upbeat music) - Call this our blazing blueberry barbecue sandwich.

Brown bag barbecue special.

Bag of chips and a pickle, $10.

- [David] you're rolling the sandwiches.

You don't know how many customers are coming.

- Nope.

We going to prep about 50 today.

See what happens.

- [David] All right, what's happening now?

This looks incredible.

- So, this is our smoked cream cheese.

This is one of the main ingredients to our smoked mac and cheese, which is what I tell people.

So, it's not really a secret.

Throw that in there like this, and then take it, and work that right into that mac and cheese.

- [David] Do I see some jalapenos in there?

- You do.

Smoked jalapeno mac with a Wisham's twist.

(upbeat music) - [David] During my visit to Tifton, Eric parked the food truck at a Tifton event space known as Collins run by his friend, MJ Hall.

- We've been buddies for a while now and we always like to collaborate and do things together.

He's got this awesome event space down here on South 41 here in Tipton, Georgia.

We decided we'd get together, partner up and come down here and set up and cook and serve some good food and have everyone come by and check out his nice event space.

- This is an old grocery store.

It's been based around food for a long time and just creating great memories.

So, this is what we're here to do today.

And Wisham's got some great barbecue for these folks to try out and taste and show 'em what he's here for to create us some great barbecue.

- [David] It's all about coming together and cooking and doing and getting the community involved and letting everyone know what you have to offer.

- [David] Absolutely.

You had his mac and cheese yet?

- Yeah, I had that mac and cheese.

I love it.

- Best barbecue in town.

I don't know what's best than this.

I know what type of barbecue business.

- [All] Wisham's!

- [David] So, it's proud family MC's spread the word of Wisham's food truck flavored with Eric's own Wisham's handmade pepper jelly.

The Tipton locals got to reap the rewards and I have to add that since this day on the truck, I've been slow cooking my own brisket, ribs and barbecue with Wisham's sweet jelly glaze on top.

I do it all right, but Wisham does it better.

(upbeat music) So, from community coffee to community que, these two very different operations have a knack for doing things right on so many different levels.

Be it a perfectly smoked rack of ribs to a darn good cup of coffee directly from the farmer to this roaster and into your cup.

I'm David Zelski, see you at the next "Fork in the Road".

(upbeat music) "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by.

- [Narrator] Community, learning, working, playing, celebrating.

Doing life is always better together.

At GPB, we aim to provide you with the tools to be able to do life together well.

Our mission to educate, inform, and entertain inspires everything from our wide range of programming to our stimulating radio conversations to our fun in-person events, we've got something for everyone.

Visit gpb.org/community to learn more about our upcoming events.

(gentle upbeat music) - [David] From the soil of our family farms to your table, there's something special about Georgia.

Something you can taste in every bite.

Fresh flavors, local farms, unforgettable experiences, Georgia has it all.

Support local, taste the difference, and make memories along the way.

Look for the Georgia Grown logo wherever you shop or visit GeorgiaGrown.com.