- I'm Tyler Harper.

As your Agriculture Commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest-working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ Hmm ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you are the star ♪ ♪ All right, baby, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feeling, pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ ♪ Da-na-na-na-na-na ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your Agriculture Commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest-working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

- 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."

(blues-rock music with vocalizing) ♪ 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 and the food we consume.

Their strategy and approach is always shifting, but the endgame remains the same, results.

(blues-rock music) (lively blues-rock music) Since the dawn of man, we've cooked with heat and fire.

But over the millennia, how we create this heat has changed.

Technology has enhanced the way we cook, how fast we cook or how slow.

Sometimes sweet and sometimes savory, this week, we fire up the grill, and even the caramel kettle, to get things cooking.

(blues-rock music with vocalizing) Let's begin this episode at Coolray Field in Gwinnett County, where Eggheads representing every state in America and from countries all around the world congregate here to celebrate a 50-year-old legendary cooker.

(upbeat rock music) - We are here today for the event of the year, the EGGtoberfest.

(upbeat rock music) This is the 26th year that Eggheads literally from around the world have gathered in one place.

Every nation needs a cathedral.

This is our cathedral.

They come together once a year.

Thousands of people are gonna be cooking over live fire over this weekend.

It's an incredible place to be.

(intense, percussive music) - Eggheads.

- Eggheads.

- [Both] Eggheads!

- It's breakfast.

- Absolutely!

Breakfast!

Why not start off at EGGtoberfest with a Bloody Mary?

- There we go!

- And not only that, Sweet & Smoky Barbecue Sauce, exactly!

- All right.

- When people will have this, they'll be like, "What's the difference in this Bloody Mary?"

Now, granted, I do a little bit more, you know, a little sriracha, horseradish, Old Bay, lemons, and limes.

But when you have a little barbecue sauce in there, it just makes it that much better.

In the morning, though, we're also doing chorizo tacos.

- OK. - So, yes, chorizo, eggs, coming out hot and fresh.

Grilling the tortillas, cast iron the chorizo, it's gonna be delicious.

- Oh, it's coming.

Oh, I love it.

It's drippin'.

- [Chef D.Mart] We're about 225, double stack.

Once these get done, we'll keep going.

We're doing about 40 pounds today.

- [David] Coming from Texas.

- Yeah, we're here to represent, and we're doing a little Frito pie this morning with our over-the-top chili.

- That's what drew me here.

I just see big old hunks of ground beef going.

I'm like, "What, are these the biggest burgers I've ever seen?"

- Yeah, we gotta do Frito pie is a Texas thing.

You know, you go to a "Friday Night Lights" football game and they're serving that up.

So we're gonna go ahead and represent Texas and do a little Frito pie there.

- All right, this is our first interview today- - Wow!

- With someone who's wearing a lederhosen.

- It is Oktoberfest time, and so we figured we'll do something a little more festive this year.

Several times cooking, so I figured I'd try something different.

And, you know, the Egg does everything, right?

I smoke on it, I grill on it.

You can bake on it.

So, you know, let's do some pretzels, and after this we'll do some bratwurst.

(blues music on electric guitar) - I am Mike Mott.

I'm with the Green Man Group.

There's about 6 to 10 of us that have been here since 2007.

- [David] What do you got going this year?

- [Mike] Well, this year, this is elk meatball.

- I love it.

I mean, it's a meatball, (Mike laughs) but it melts in your mouth.

It's soft.

It's not too tough.

- Well, I had to add a little pork to it, 'cause our elk's pretty lean, so I had to add a little fat to it.

- Yeah, yeah, I knew that.

That's why I was amazed.

- You get it in all those spices and everything else, it comes out pretty good.

- You see me holding off from eating the rest- - (laughs) I noticed!

- So we can finish this interview.

- So I got my buddy Peter, my buddy Roger, and then our kids, my daughter and his sons.

- Your daughter's selling!

- Yeah, she is.

She's working.

- Are you about to hire her?

I don't know what business for, but look at her go!

What are you putting on there?

- Alabama white sauce!

- Emily, who made the sauce?

- My dad!

(country-rock music) - We're Black Girls Grilling.

We're cooking smoked oxtail, smoked Gouda grits.

We also have a butter pound cake that'll be coming up in about 10 minutes.

- [David] All right, so tell me how you do this on the Egg without giving all your secrets away.

- We smoke them first.

The oxtails go on first, directly on the grill grate, no convector.

Get a nice smoke on 'em, about 250 degrees for about an hour, and then I do my special braising liquid.

That's what sets these oxtails apart.

Our braising liquid goes in the cast iron skillet, we got our Big Green Egg cast iron, and it goes in and it sits in there for four and a half hours until we get to this point.

- [David] Oh, so it just fits perfectly in that Egg?

- It fits perfectly in the Egg, yes, it does.

There you go.

You gotta hold on.

There you go.

Good God Almighty, yeah!

- Mr. Toad, these are your stomping grounds.

- Exactly, exactly.

I've been to all of these, 26 of 'em, and I was part of the four or five people that helped start this a number of years ago.

I bought my first Egg, my only Egg, in '96.

- [David] Your only Egg?

- My only Egg.

Hey, the Egg has backward technology.

- OK. - So anything that they make today fits my Egg.

- Oh, awesome.

- That's amazing.

That is amazing.

- That is, that is.

How have you seen this grown?

How amazing has it been?

- Yeah, it is amazing.

The meet-and-greet was six people and peanuts.

We all went out to eat.

- And you got peanuts here.

- That's right.

Nothing changes in the world.

- My name is Darrell Roberts and I'm The Jerk Man.

- Yeah, but you seem like such a nice guy.

(David and Darrell laugh) - So I've been cooking on the Big Green Egg for 12 years.

I'm here today, this is my first Eggfest.

- Mmm!

- You like?

- There you go!

Oh, the spice hits after.

Oh, yeah!

- It's that back spice.

- Oh, y'all are gonna like this.

(bluegrass music) So we've been talking about barbecue, so I can only assume in here are... - Ah, bacon-wrapped Oreos.

- Of course!

- Because who doesn't make bacon-wrapped Oreos on the Big Green Egg?

So check this out.

So we took our Oreos, we wrapped 'em.

We've got Double Stufs, we have single stuffs, we've got blonde Oreos.

They say bacon is the duct tape of life.

- [David] That smell!

It's the the sweet and savory.

That is the definition.

- And we totally took it savory, because we're also using Savory Pecan rub.

So we've got the Oreo, we've got the bacon, thin bacon, and then we hit it with Savory Pecan rub there.

- Oh, this is gorgeous!

- Not too shabby, right?

So we're gonna feed- - A few thousand.

- We're gonna feed a few thousand people.

We wanna make 'em happy.

- The reason that I like all of this, it's the people.

It's the people.

It's the same people, it's the new people.

- It's gotta be fun for you to see.

You know, the Egg's part of your family now.

The folks with the Big Green Egg are part of your family.

It's gotta be great to see it grow like this.

- They are.

You walk in the store and somebody says, "Hello, Mr. Toad," or, "It's Mr. Toad over there," And I like that.

I like that.

It makes me feel special.

- Well, you are special.

- Well, thank you!

- And let's start with the best pilgrimage ever!

(bluegrass music ends) (blues-rock music with vocalizing) - [David] Let's now journey from Gwinnett County down to Savannah, to an old family-run candy kitchen that continues cooking world-famous candy concoctions, generation after generation.

(blues-rock music) From this old copper kettle where the caramel churns, to this steampunk-era taffy-making machine that seems straight from the mind of Willy Wonka himself, Rhett Strickland and his team at the Candy Kitchen keep the time-honored Southern recipes coming, day after day and year after year.

- We've been here on the river since 1973.

My father had a few failed business attempts.

We were in the Christmas store business.

We were in the furniture business.

And finally, something took ahold, and it was his mother's recipes of pralines that we actually sold right in the storefront.

A lady came in and went to go purchase some pralines.

None of the pralines would come off the marble slab.

They stuck up.

And she told my dad, she said, "Mister, if you put butter underneath that, those pralines'll come right up."

And sure enough, the next batch he did, we put butter under it, they sold, and we've been doing it ever since.

And he told me, it's like, "Son, if I could find that lady, I'd kiss her on the mouth, 'cause she is the reason we're in the candy business today."

I was very young when we were still a small mom-and-pop.

And as the decades came and and passed, we went from where we had to pay rent for $50 to be down here and just trying to make it, to now, we're handling 1.2 million customers a year.

And it's a huge blessing, because this is part of what my dad's created, and it's a way for us to have our feather in history and part of Savannah's history as well.

(lively, percussive music) We're actually in our caramel facility room right now.

So where we actually make our Gopher turtle is right here in this room.

So our Gopher turtle is a 45-year-old caramel recipe that my dad started.

Caramel is something that was originally made to be a homemade delicacy product, and that's what we got here.

We got the real-deal caramel from old Southern confections like you used to remember in the '40s.

What we start off with is only Georgia Grown pecans.

We use Georgia Grown because we are a Georgia-made company.

We have been here for 50 years, and we plan on being here for another 50.

And we actually consume over 250,000 pounds of pecans a year.

So we've been doing caramel and pralines in Savage cookers since the day we got into business.

These are actually some of our original cookers.

These pots are 35 and 40 years old.

They have the unique ability, because copper is going to evenly distribute the heat throughout the candy all the way, so we don't have burning on any of the edges.

So Gopher turtles are our number one caramel item.

Cream, butter, sugar, and corn syrup.

Those are our only ingredients in the actual caramel.

People don't use 100% real sugar anymore or 100% heavy cream.

They use things that are diluted in the market.

And we still use things exactly how we started these recipes.

So all of the bubbling and roaring boil that we see here is actually our cream and milk being bubbled out of the the caramel concoction.

The cream and vapors will be cooked out, and we'll start to have more of an actual caramel, solid caramel, candy beam coming out of this pot.

Everything that we do is still done by hand, and that's for a reason.

My dad always said that being in the confection business is like being in a world that's completely forgotten.

Every piece of candy that's made by scratch is a little bit different.

A little bit more chocolate, a little bit more caramel, a little bit less of this saltiness of the pecan.

And that's what makes us who we are.

Confection cooking is like looking at a snowflake.

Every piece of candy's different, and it will never be the same.

We've been doing this for a very, very long time with the same group of people, and that's what makes it so special.

We're truly a family here at Savannah's Candy Kitchen.

(upbeat bluegrass music) What we're doing right now is we're actually making some clusters, chocolate clusters, for our store.

So each one of these is white chocolate, but we got two different variations.

We have peanuts going on over here, and then we actually have coconut going on on this side.

So many chocolatiers in the world, they use what we call coating, which is a compound, which is the typical bar that you get at the grocery store.

But when you get real chocolate, that's the memories that you don't forget.

That's when you go, "I had this piece of chocolate with this decadent cake one time, and I can taste it right now."

This is that chocolate that leaves that flavor in your memory, because it is such a real ingredient and it has that extravagant taste.

End product right here, y'all.

We got a full tray that'll equal out to about three pounds of clusters, OK?

We'll probably produce about 5,000 to 6,000 clusters every two to four days here at our facility, and then they will be sold and be replenished by next week.

So we can't keep 'em in here.

(blues music with hand claps) Even though we're called Savannah's Candy Kitchen, we have actually accidentally fallen into being a bakery as well.

It was probably 25 years ago now, but one day my mom, unbeknownst to my dad, put a coconut cake in our catalog.

And we didn't have a bakery, and there was multiple, multiple people calling for a coconut cake.

So we put all of our resources together, and from that day forward, we've been in the bakery business.

A coconut cake is actually our number one selling cake.

Coconut white cake is the historic cake that you have heard about that was being eaten in Southern homes in the early to late 1800s.

So that's the cake that was a delicacy back in the South, and it's really kinda become our favorite cake today.

(blues music) So this is actually our original saltwater taffy.

It is a 150-year-old item that's really known to be in America.

But what makes real, true saltwater taffy?

Well, you have to be within eyesight of seeing salt water.

That's why New Jersey, Asbury Park and all that's a really big area.

But guess what?

Right here in Savannah, Georgia, we're on the Savannah River, so we're making authentic saltwater taffy.

So we're gonna make a a piece of strawberry taffy.

This piece weighs about approximately 35 to 40 pounds, and will actually produce about 3,000 to 4,000 pieces of taffy.

Taffy's another candy that you're used to getting to a grocery store that's really sticky on your teeth.

But this is a homegrown Southern recipe that is distinctive flavor, and you are not gonna mistake it for a piece of candy in the store.

So the next step, what we have to do on top of color changing, is actually called kneading the taffy.

So by putting air into the taffy, it's gonna give it that aerated taste where it's not so dense and tough when you bite into it.

So he's getting our green stripe ready right now that will then be added with our strawberry bundle.

So this is, this is the same process that Hunter's doing over there.

We're folding the air back into the taffy and kneading it.

If you were to let it settle, and not fold it, it would actually be hard as a rock.

So Hunter's gonna take our green stripe.

He's gonna put us a design inside the taffy that's actually gonna get folded in there, and then you'll see it once the taffy's cut.

Our taffy machine here is actually what they call a Rose machine.

This Rose machine came from England, and it's over 75 years old.

They don't make these machines anymore.

The company is no longer in business.

Every gear, every wheel, every single whistle on this machine is in timing, and it has to be all in synchronization or the whole machine will collapse.

So unlike when you can turn a motor off here or turn a wheel off there, there's none of that.

If this isn't working, this isn't working.

And if that's not working, this wheel's not working.

And it's a perfect unison of an orchestra to make this thing happen.

It actually makes 250 to 350 pieces of taffy a minute.

So once we get this thing going, we're making taffy.

(gentle country music) - [David] The store itself is a fascinating sight.

You'll find Rhett slinging handmade pralines and Gophers on the old marble slab located right smack in the middle of the store.

- Free praline sample, y'all!

Cream, butter, sugar and pecans!

Just like everything we do, we gotta add Georgia pecans in it, and that's what makes it nice and good.

This is our last step of our praline.

You can see that candy fully encasing the pecan, and we just gotta let it do a couple turns until we get it out on the table.

If y'all got any, throw one in the microwave for 7 seconds, and it'll taste just like this.

Everything's better with caramel and chocolate!

You got three stages.

You got the saltiness of the pecans, you got the bitterness of the caramel, and then you got that sweet, sweet chocolate decadence on top.

If you got those three tiers together, you're in Savannah's Candy Kitchen.

- [David] The caramel apples are right around the corner from there.

- So right here, y'all, we've got our number one chocolatier, Miss Linda, and she is beautifying all these apples.

We got real milk chocolate going on outside of this caramel, and we're gonna deck it in some graham crackers for a s'more apple.

So she's gonna take some graham cracker crumbs, put it on the outside, and then we're gonna melt some marshmallows to put on top, and then we got a delectable s'mores apple right here in front of us.

We also got some M&M apples.

We put 'em in the whole jar to see how many they can hold.

I'm not gonna count it, but it's more than it probably should be on there.

- [David] And don't forget the popcorn, and the ice cream.

- So, what goes good with sweet?

It's savory.

So we had to add some stuff with our ice cream.

We got savory caramel corn popcorn that we make with actual Georgia pecans.

We make it right here in store.

We got giant pretzels behind you as well.

We gotta have a little saltiness to the sweet.

(inspiring piano music) - [David] And once you're filled up on caramel, chocolate, and candy galore, take a little time to check out the architecture of the once cotton warehouse.

Arches, nooks, and crannies of this historic building just add to the overall allure.

- The bricks were hand-molded, the rocks were handpicked, the beams were actually sawed by hand.

Everything was done and lifted and installed by hand in these buildings.

It is history that you can't find anywhere else in the country.

You have to see it to understand it.

(inspiring piano music) The historic riverfront.

This is the first planned city in Georgia.

This is actually the James Oglethorpe plan, where the squares were built.

And right here on River Street is where the city got its start.

Pirate ships used to come in here.

We had World War II and World War I people actually get offloaded in Savannah when the war was over.

Every decade of history since the United States has been a country, Savannah's been here.

(lively bluegrass music) - And there are many doors to choose from here at the Kitchen.

One leads to popcorn, one leads to ice cream, one leads to pralines and Gophers, the other to taffy.

There's a mystery door upstairs?

I gotta find out about this.

- Over the years, that's been an office, it's been a mail-order facility.

Our mail-order business actually started in that door up there.

My mom and dad lived up there.

And back in the day, in the early '90s and late '80s, they would wake up, walk down the steps, come and open the store.

My dad would make the product in the kitchen, and my mom would run the register.

- [David] With mom and son honoring Stan Strickland's candy legacy with pride.

- Her name is Tonya Strickland.

She is the original Praline Queen.

She's the reason we are here.

- [David] And she's got a nickname.

- Tonya Jean, the Praline Queen.

(Tonya chuckles) - There you go.

There you go.

Savannah's Candy Kitchen seems to have found that perfect blend of growing as a business but staying true to traditional methods.

And as River Street tourists and regulars can attest, the results are as sweet as ever.

(bluegrass music winds down) (blues-rock music with vocalizing) Let's continue this episode in Milledgeville to discover a device that harnesses the true magic of the fire itself, and a farmer who gives us a taste of what this charwood grill can really do.

(exciting music) The land is the home of Comfort Farms, founded by military veteran Jon Jackson in 2014 as the first project of his nonprofit, Stag Vets.

Comfort Farms grows heirloom vegetables like tomatoes and greens.

He also raises turkeys, hogs, hens, rabbits, llama, and fish with the additional goal of helping veterans heal after their service, aiding them in getting back on their feet.

Jon has traveled the world learning about long-forgotten fruits and veggies, at least mostly forgotten in our part of the world.

He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to agriculture, and as I quickly learned, he is a master when it comes to cooking with fire.

(intense country-rock music) - So we're using some farm ingredients here.

Our proteins are gonna be rabbit and then we have guineafowl that we're gonna use in place of chicken.

One of the most delicious birds on the farm.

These birds haven't been adulterated.

These are the same genetics that have been running throughout the African bush and then providing sustenance to Africans for centuries.

But super, super succulent meat, very nutritious.

It makes some of the best stews that you can have.

- [David] One way Jon likes to cook is with a Georgia-made product that boasts ridiculous open-flame temps of up to 900 degrees.

And today, Jon's friend and QuadGrill creator Ray Palermo has set him up.

(gentle country music) - The grill is an invention of mine, and it came from the fact that I was fascinated by cooking over open fire, and have been for years and years and years.

The characteristics that make it different, that it is aspirated from the corners through venturis, which amplify the air flow, making the fire very, very hot.

- [David] Four corners.

- Four corners.

Hence, the name Quad.

And it also cooks with four different cooking styles.

But the real key to it is a very hot fire fueled by natural products, either charcoal or wood.

We want the taste of that open flame on our food product that we're cooking.

We want that smoke to be in the product.

(blues-rock music) Paella Valenciana.

- Paella.

We're making a paella Valenciana.

- Oh yeah, look at this.

Oh, man!

Oh, smell that, Jon.

- [Jon] Yeah, I smell it, man.

I smell it.

- Here we have crushed fresh tomatoes, which we're gonna add here in the middle.

(tomatoes sizzle) (rooster crows) He approves!

(Ron and Jon laugh) We're gonna add a pinch of saffron, which is the most expensive spice in the world.

For paella, you need to use bomba rice.

It absorbs all of the flavors very well, and it's a real short-grained rice.

We wanna cook the rice just slightly al dente, and it needs to dry up all of the liquid.

And then what'll happen is, the rice will crust on the bottom of the pan, which is a delicious part of it, and it's called socarrat.

- That crust at the bottom looks perfect, man.

So this is a pork chop from one of our hogs, and it's a rib chop.

We keep that bone.

Instead of like your traditional chop, tomahawk, where you trim the fat off of that, we keep that on there.

That's just bacon belly on that rib with beautiful loin and all the goodness.

This thing creates the perfect crust.

- Yeah.

- Enjoy this, my friend.

(chuckles) Yeah.

- Oh, wow!

Look at this.

Oh, these are magnificent.

(Jon laughs) - Yeah, y'all are a match made in heaven.

This is great.

- [Jon] You wanna try it?

- [David] Yes.

(Jon murmurs) - [David] Oh!

(Jon laughs) Not all pork chops are the same.

- No.

- You know, when you have animals running on the ground, your pigs are producing a lot of hemoglobin, right?

And so you got- - [Ray] Come on, keep cutting.

(Jon laughs) (laughs) Let's go.

Cut some more.

(Ray laughs) - You gotta treat it like a steak, man.

- [David] People always say, "Oh, with pork, it can't be red."

- Yeah!

- So tell me why this one's OK. - It's because of our pigs, the way they're raised.

They're running around the forest, they're doing things.

They have red meat, original red meat.

So true pork, this is how true pork is.

It's a red meat, 145, it's a medium.

So they will still retain that red color within the meat.

- [David] That might be the best pork chop I've ever had.

(Jon laughs) I'm serious.

I've had a lot of pork chops.

- Jon, seriously, that is the best pork I've ever eaten.

- Thank you.

- Hands down, the best pork I've ever eaten.

- [David] It's friendships and partnerships like Jon and Ray's that bring out the best in both people (laughs) and flavor.

Joining forces to create what was honestly one of the best pork chops I've had in my life are part of what make this duo so special.

Cooking with friends, cooking with fire.

So, from cooking in a candy kitchen down in Savannah, to cooking with fire on a state-of-the-art Georgia-made grill, to a legendary kamado-style cooker that's bringing folks to Gwinnett County from all over the world to celebrate this amazing creation, it's safe to say that we're fired up to see what these Georgia companies accomplish next.

I'm David Zelski.

See you at the next "Fork in the Road."

(gentle bluegrass music) - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your Agriculture Commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest-working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ Hmm ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you are the star ♪ ♪ All right, baby, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feeling, pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ ♪ Da-na-na-na-na-na ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your Agriculture Commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest-working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.