FEMALE (VO): Smyth County, Virginia.

located in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, offering outdoor adventures and small-town charm.

Details online at visitsmythcountyva.com.

♪♪♪ CHEF MISSY (VO): I think more and more about what it takes to produce something great and of value.

Strong work ethic runs in my family, and I'm always striving for excellence.

But in business, it's all about scaling up, expanding, and producing more.

We live in a world of gadgets, applications, and machines, all designed to produce things faster and better.

The real trick is getting the machines to actually work.

There just seems to be too many things that can break or go wrong.

And how is knowledge, heart, and courage developed when you're relying on a machine to do all the work?

Sometimes just the simple, everyday things are special and of value.

Kind of like broccoli.

It's not especially fancy.

In fact, it's downright regular... but highly nutritious.

America consumes around 1.2 billion pounds of broccoli every year.

We often forget that in order for us to have our simple, everyday vegetables, there's a farmer somewhere creating systems, taking risks, and expanding large-scale productions of those simple foods in order for us to enjoy them every day, and that takes a whole lot of knowledge, courage, and heart.

Hi, I'm Chef Missy, and I'm the French Magnolia, a true blue Southern gal with French ancestry running through my veins.

My husband, Thomas, is a wine expert and hospitality veteran.

Throughout our careers, we've worked for some incredible restaurants and hotels, from Atlanta, to New York City, to Charleston, South Carolina, to the edge of a mountain at a five-star relay and chateau.

But pretty soon the French Magnolia, a luxury culinary company, was born.

For seven years we poured into homes for multi-course culinary and wine experiences.

We settled in Bristol, a great place to live, and now have the French Magnolia restaurant, a French American brasserie and wine bar, on the iconic State Street.

When we're not working, we love connecting with local farms and Appalachian culture.

From farm, field, garden, and stream to chef and somm to the table, all in one day.

This is French Magnolia Cooks.

♪♪♪ Today, I'm catching up with a 12th-generation farmer, Jordan Brandon, who owns and operates Old Dominion Organic Farm, a large-scale production farm in Southern Virginia.

Jordan, this is absolutely, spectacularly beautiful.

This is gorgeous.

I'm so excited to be here.

I absolutely love organic broccoli.

Tell me where we are.

JORDAN BRANDON - So we are at Old Dominion Organic Farms today.

We are in the little town of Warfield, just north of there in Brunswick County.

This is really the center of Southern Virginia.

Pretty dead close to the middle of the state, yes.

- Yes, we are.

- Right.

Tell me a little bit about the history and provenance of this land and how it came to you.

So my family's been farming in the state of Virginia since 1654.

This particular land is new to the family where we're standing now, but in the land around Dundas, we've been farming there, particularly, for three generations.

So yeah, I can officially say I'm a 12th-generation farmer here in Virginia.

Since 2016, we've been 100 percent organic and converted away from the staple crop of tobacco.

- So Jordan, you grew up here?

- I did.

I did.

I grew up here.

I spent my time in the fields all the way through high school and then through college, working summers in the fields.

What kind of products did your grandfather and father grow?

So my grandfather and father grew corn, wheat, soybeans, and primarily they grew tobacco and also raised some livestock.

When did the conversion away from tobacco to full produce happen for you guys?

In the early 2000s, I came back to the farm and started transitioning away from tobacco, and I think my last tobacco crop was in 2015.

Jordan, I know you went to VMI - and then Virginia Tech - Yes.

to study engineering.

And you are a true blue Virginia boy.

I am.

- Through and through.

- I am that.

I love it.

You were a very successful engineer for a long time.

Tell me about the moment that the revelation came on you when you realized you were going to be a full-time farmer.

I got dropped off at college and decided, come hell or high water, I was not coming back to the farm and I was gonna go be an engineer.

And I did that for -- till 2006.

I worked for a defense contractor in DC, and, I decided I wanted to work myself.

I didn't--I did not like office hours, I did not like the nine-to-five, and I wanted a challenge.

And this has certainly been a challenge.

[LAUGHTER] Tell me a little bit about this variety, and how many different varieties of organic broccoli do you grow?

So we--we've grown probably as many as ten, trying them out to see what works here in Southside Virginia.

It's been an experiment because, well, I don't have anybody to compare it to.

So right now, what we're looking at, the field we're in right now, is a--a new variety called Fortress.

It's-should work well for the organic market, because the plant's nice and tall.

It fits what the buyer's looking for, what the grocery store is looking for, and that is a tall plant.

It can be banned and labeled as organic very easily.

Tell me about the criteria that it takes to really be a certified organic farm.

Well, the-first takes three years of no herbicides, no pesticides, no synthetic inputs of any kind on the land, and then we have to go through the certification process, applications.

That's the easy part.

The hard part is finding, especially with produce, is finding out how to grow the crop you want to grow organically and successfully.

There is a lot of investment, from having to have the infrastructure to grow the plants when they're in the greenhouse, to then the labor to take those, plant them, and then it's all hand-everything's gonna be hand-harvested.

Got fertility costs.

I've got the land rent in cases.

There's a lot of overhead expense that goes into this.

I've gotta cool it.

I've gotta ice it before I ship it.

If it's not handled properly and not iced, it's not marketable.

I've also gotta jump through paying food safety inspections.

I've gotta pay for organic inspection.

I've got to make sure I'm in compliance with all my different buyers' requirements for labeling of the cases.

We buy fertilizer that's all, uh, all natural, comes--comes from different sources, but it's all natural organic fertilizer.

Nothing comes from petrochemicals.

Tell me about some of your other growing products.

On the grain side, we grow some--we grow some corn, and we grow some soybeans, and occasionally grow wheat.

On the produce side, we're a little more diverse.

We're, right now we're in this broccoli field.

I also have some cabbage being grown right now we're trying to finish up with.

In the summer, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers.

I've grown carrots, I've grown beets, I've grown green beans.

Initially, when we started, we were very small, and we were in a few grocery stores, and they wanted a little bit of everything.

And we tried that, but it's hard to be very efficient growing a little bit of everything.

And so we decided to pick what we were good at.

And this is, uh, the broccoli is one of those things we've--turns out we're pretty good at.

All right, I want you to teach me how to harvest beautiful organic broccoli.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ CHEF MISSY: Thomas and I have spent the last seven years traveling the Southeast and serving guests from all over the world with our luxury in-home fine dining company.

We have served over 10,000 people and performed over 1,000 fine dining, culinary, and wine experiences.

And throughout the years, we have consulted, planned, and assisted others in the launch of their restaurant brands.

But now it's time for America to make reservations at the newly curated bricks-and-mortar restaurant French Magnolia, a French American brasserie and wine bar in Bristol, Virginia, on the famous State Street.

We're opening November first of 2024.

So Thomas and I are busy gutting and renovating and making plans and decisions that will hopefully be a true blessing for our community and the region.

♪♪♪ We are back here in the French Magnolia Culinary Center, and Tom and I had a fabulous time yesterday at the largest full-scale organic production farm in the state of Virginia.

It's called Old Dominion Organic Farms, and it's quite impressive.

Most of the farmers that we meet and buy from here at the French Magnolia are what we consider micro farmers.

They can grow and yield produce on their own land, sometimes hog, sometimes cow or chickens, sometimes bread or cheese, and they sell their products at a local farmers market.

But in order to have a contract with a major grocery store or several grocery stores, you need to grow and yield a lot of produce.

In Jordan Brandon's case, Old Dominion Organic Farms has more than 1,700 acres.

Broccoli seems so simple, and it is.

But in order to achieve great flavor, you need to do some simple things right.

So here's what's on the menu: our perfectly blanched and roasted, organic broccoli-- and I'm going to give you some of my little trade secrets-- and our crispy skin wild sockeye with kalamata olives served with a lemon curd orzo pasta side dish that is to die for.

And it is so easy, perfect for date night at home.

I'm going to show you a foolproof way to roast your broccoli so that it's cooked throughout and has delicious flavor, and you won't want to add anything to it.

One reason you want to blanch your broccoli before roasting it is that you want to break down the fibers inside the stalk, right?

So many times you are roasting your vegetables, and it's taking forever, and then when you get it to the table, mm, it's still kind of fibrous to eat on the inside, and you end up kind of pushing away most of the broccoli because it's not cooked all the way through.

But if you blanch your broccoli beforehand and then roast it in the oven, you get that beautiful, crunchy, delicious flavor, and you're not wasting the broccoli.

You're eating all of it.

Step one, preheat your oven to 400.

Generously salt a big pot of boiling water.

Because we eat with our eyes, I love to keep the vegetables whole and present them beautifully on a plate.

Instead of just taking your knife and cutting down the middle, kind of find a little opening right there... [CHOPPING] and cut the stalk in half.

This is what you're going for.

One of my secrets at home is I cook once so we can eat three or four times.

I love having freshly blanched organic broccoli in the refrigerator ready to throw in the oven and roast, ready to roast and throw in a pasta dish.

It just makes life during the week so easy.

Get your broccoli in the boiling salted water all at one time, and make sure that all of the broccoli is under water.

We're going to blanch this broccoli for about five minutes, and we're going to finish half of it in a water bath, and the other half of it we're going to finish in the oven.

You're blanching the vegetable in salty water, but you're not cooking the vegetable all the way.

What you're doing is you're really just breaking down the fibers inside the vegetable so that you can eat it and that your body can easily digest those vegetables.

If you've ever tried to eat a lot of raw vegetables, you know it isn't fun, nor is it delicious.

I'm immediately going to get the broccoli into an ice bath that I want to set aside for this week.

I'm going to finish the blanched broccoli with a little good quality, extra virgin olive oil, and a little cracked pepper.

We're going to get this in the oven at 400 for about 25 minutes.

Tom and I really love pasta, and we treat ourselves to a small portion of pasta a few times a week.

I really love orzo, and I feel like it gets overlooked.

Orzo is a pasta, but it looks like rice, and I love how it takes on kind of a rice pilaf quality when you put it on the plate.

I think it's a gorgeous and delicious side dish.

Today, I'm going to give you one of my personal favorite recipes, orzo with lemon curd, feta, and fresh mint.

Delicious.

So easy.

Bring two cups of organic chicken stock to a boil.

While the stock is coming to a boil, I'm going to prep out my mint.

I love to stack the mint leaves, roll it like a little mint cigar, and then give it a little chiffonade cut.

Isn't that pretty?

You can do this for basil too.

Get one cup of orzo into two cups of liquid.

I'm using organic chicken stock, but you could easily use organic vegetable stock.

I've got the orzo covered and on low on a back burner.

That's going to cook for about 15 minutes.

While the orzo is cooking, we're going to prep and cook our wild sockeye and kalamata olives, then assemble, plate it up, ready for the table.

There are a variety of fishes within the salmon family.

I happen to love wild sockeye because it's not very fishy.

I'm going to show you how to cook the crispy skin salmon.

And for those people who don't want the skin, it's going to be so easy to just peel off, which they can do at the plate.

With your knife, just kind of come down.

I'm just going to create some nice portions.

Get your skillet hot at a low temperature.

I'm going to get a little bit of olive oil in the skillet.

Just give it a nice clean cut at the end.

Okay, here's an easy way to figure out your portions without weighing out your fish.

Markdown about three inches for one portion.

That's one.

Okay, one, two, three.

Two.

One, two, three.

So here are two portions for tonight, and then I'll already have lunch ready for tomorrow.

Easy-peasy.

I'm going to put a little bit of olive oil on the skin of the sockeye, salt the skin, and a little cracked pepper.

Okay, we've got a great smoke point.

Skin side down, I'm going to finish the meat side with one of my favorite little lemon peel, cracked pepper seasoning mix.

It's a little dried onion, red pepper, cracked pepper, lemon oil.

It's a little bit of garlic, onion, red pepper, lemon peel, lemon oil, and the wild sockeye wouldn't be complete without a little fresh herbs de Provence.

Our orzo is perfect.

Ready for assembly.

Add half a cup of lemon curd.

Be sure to really smash and mash that lemon curd in the orzo.

And half a cup of crumbled feta, and give it a little stir.

Finish your orzo off with a generous amount of cracked pepper.

Okay, let's check on our sockeye skin.

Whooh!

Perfect.

So that skin took about five minutes to get nice and crispy.

Add a half a cup of pitted kalamata olives into the skillet.

Again, for your guests who don't like the crispy skin, they can easily peel it off.

We've got our sockeye flipped onto the meat side, and it's only going to cook on the meat side for a couple of minutes.

So let's get our orzo in the bowl, finish with mint, and get ready for plate up.

Get your orzo in a serving dish.

Finish the orzo off with your fresh mint, and give it a little stir.

The roasted broccoli is gorgeous.

And I know that it's cooked all the way through to the center.

Finish the broccoli with your lovely French fleur de sel.

Okay, time for plate up.

I start with my lemon curd feta and sweet mint orzo.

Let's get that gorgeous roasted broccoli on the plate, and the salmon is perfect.

Finish the wild sockeye off with a little bit of fresh squeezed lemon.

I love to put the scalded pitted kalamata olives on the side, almost like their own little side dish.

One of my French Magnolia favorites: crispy skin wild sockeye with charred pitted kalamata olives; feta, lemon curd, and sweet mint orzo with blanched and roasted organic broccoli, finished with French fleur de sel.

Bon appetit.

♪♪♪ THOMAS - Wow.

Beautiful.

Fish in a tree.

- Yay.

- [MISSY CHUCKLES] Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day.

We thank you for all your blessings.

Thank you for all that you're doing for us, seen and unseen.

We just know that you love us and we love you back.

We just thank you for this food and bless it to our bodies and bless to your service in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Cheers.

I know you're familiar a little bit with Vouvray.

It's one of the great wine regions in France.

People have been making wine in Vouvray since the Middle Ages.

Like 500 to 1500 was the Middle Ages, so throughout that time.

A lot by the monks.

That's where a lot of the skills and education was, in the monasteries, and those guys were allowed to pursue certain endeavors, and wine was a big one of them.

Sometimes what I think of, when it comes to Middle Ages, it's like the other night when we were watching that movie First Knight .

Um, that whole era is the Middle Ages, all the kings and the knights and all the castles and all that.

That's exactly what was going on in this area and throughout the Loire River Valley, which is where this is from.

If you take the TTV, the bullet train from Paris for an hour and 15 minutes, you'll land in Tours, okay, in the terrain region of France, of Loire.

And from there, you'll take a 15-minute car ride just outside of town.

It's a spot on the map.

The wine region of Vouvray, only about 125 acres, the entire region, and it's one of the great wine regions of France.

What's interesting about this place is that the soil and the climate are ideal for this particular grape, which is Chenin Blanc.

When I think of Chenin Blanc, automatically, I think of Vouvray as the benchmark for that varietal.

So being 100 miles or so off the coast of the Atlantic, okay, you're gonna get a little bit of salinity in the air.

You have the Loire River running through there, which this is on a plateau above the river, right?

So the river is going to help control the temperature in the area, okay?

Keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, to help prevent against frost.

In the soil in Vouvray in particular is clay, flint and this tuffeau limestone, right?

And so tuffeau limestone is very interesting.

It's from the Cretaceous period, which is post-Jurassic.

There's a lot of marine sediment and fossilized sea creatures in this limestone, which is very soft and porous for limestone, which gives a lot of water retention, but a lot of water runoff at the same time.

For me, this particular wine is a great expression of the Chenin Blanc grape from Vouvray.

So this particular family, the Bouvier family, Maison Bouvier is the house, they have been making wine in this area since the late 1800s, for about 140 years.

So right now, they're in their sixth generation of winemaking in Vouvray.

So here's to the grape growers and the winemakers of Vouvray.

That is awesome.

Cheers.

[laughter] - Cheers.

- Cheers.

♪♪♪ You know,there's a lot of flavor in that crispy skin.

♪♪♪ The seasoning, the herbs on top, that crust is perfect.

So good.

♪♪♪ Oh.

When I stop, sit, and enjoy my own dish, I really love it.

It's beautiful all the way through.

Fantastic.

Great job, baby.

And we're celebrating a big thing in our lives with broccoli.

That broccoli is amazing.

It really makes the dish, ties it all together.

And this wine, the Vouvray, this is my absolutely favorite white wine.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I think we should raise our glass to the French Magnolia, the new French American brasserie in Bristol, Virginia.

I'll cheers to that.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely.

♪♪♪ CHEF MISSY (VO): Man will always desire knowledge and challenges.

There will always be an emotional call and drive to scale up, expand, and produce more, but producing greatness at any scale will always need the human heart.

Nothing will ever replace a human's ability to love generously, solve problems with good old-fashioned know-how, or create with originality and sense of humor.

Maybe it's a desire to grow a deeper relationship, or expand a culinary business into a restaurant that feeds a community, or scale up a generational family farm to feed a nation.

Whatever the dream, grit, and grace of the human heart and hand holds value and endures forever.

♪♪♪ FEMALE NARRATOR (VO): Smyth County, Virginia, offering a business-friendly environment with partnerships like Smyth Strong, fostering entrepreneurship and growth.

Details at smythcountyeconomicdevelopmet .com