[Announcer] Smyth County, Virginia, located in the mountains of Southwest Virginia.

Offering outdoor adventures and small town charm.

Details online at visitsmythcountyva.com.

The following is a production of PBS Appalachia [uplifting music] [Chef Missy] Every day, all over the world, people from all walks of life flow from glad to sad, to suddenly joyful and grateful, all in a moment's notice.

But what if you could bottle and preserve a cheerful disposition?

A sweet, tart, earthy, and savory bite to accompany every meal throughout your day?

One ripe cherry holds the uncanny ability to radically improve your attitude with absolute certainty.

Full of antioxidants and Vitamin C, cherries absorb iron, produce collagen, reduce inflammation, and make me happy.

It's simply impossible to frown while eating a cherry.

While your feelings may betray you, a cherry will never disappoint.

And when two or more friends are gathered with a basket of cherries, you are guaranteed a delicious bucket of laughs, because a cheerful cherry can pull anyone out of the pits.

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 Relais & Chateau.

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

We pour into your home and set an elaborate stage for a multi-course culinary and wine experience.

We settled in Bristol, Virginia, a good place to live.

And 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 the French Magnolia Cooks.

Today we're in Cana, Virginia, about an hour east of Bristol, and we're catching up with fourth-generation Southwest Virginia fruit farmer Donald Ayers of Ayers Orchard.

I'm also joined by Bristol native, Nancy Wall Hopkins, the former Food and Entertaining Editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and who currently leads Eat with Nancy, a culinary consulting company.

Along with Thomas, we're ready to pick some Southwest Virginia cheerful cherries.

Donald, this is absolutely spectacular.

-Thank y'all for coming.

It's God's country.

We are blessed with a bountiful crop of cherries this year, and they're just sweet from the kissing of the sun, and they're great this year to eat.

So, good to have you all down.

-Wow!

What a harvest!

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

-Okay, I'm glad to.

Glad to.

You know, I'm the fourth generation of fruit growing on both sets of grandparents, so probably they settled here in mid-1700s from Europe.

They had cherry trees, but they used them for their own preserving... whatever they wanted for the winter, because they grew everything that they eat.

Nothing was bought.

They had no store to go buy.

so they grew everything they eat.

They preserved it, canned it, whatever it might be, and they lived off the land.

When I decided to plant cherry trees in 1981, I love eating cherries.

I mean, it's great.

I mean, it's a great fruit.

It's good, it's healthy for you.

Obviously, we know the purpose of it.

It purifies your blood.

Your calcium build-up in your blood, that acidity in the cherry dissolves that, and you wash it out of your system.

So they're healthy for you.

It went from there, exploded, to now almost a thousand trees.

It's been a wonderful business.

I love it.

-How many acres do you have here in total?

[Donald Ayers] Total land, 500 acres.

[Chef Missy] How many acres are dedicated just to cherry trees?

[Donald Ayers] Seventeen acres just for cherry trees, consist of about 1,100 cherry trees of different varieties.

-Of the 1,100 cherry trees that you have here, which is amazing, how many different varieties of cherries are you harvesting?

-I'd say approximately around 20.

-Twenty!

-Yeah, yeah.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-Twenty!

That's amazing.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Donald, one of my favorite phrases, seed, time, and harvest.

-Okay.

-So, when you plant a cherry tree, how many years does it take for it to bear fruit?

-On the standard rootstock, about six years.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

And if you go to the dwarf rootstock, about three years.

[Chef Missy] What are you talking about when you say rootstock?

[Donald Ayers] The rootstock is simply the beginning of a cherry tree.

They take that rootstock, and they get a bud, and they bud it to that rootstock.

They take that and they bud it in there, and they make the cherry they want.

And so, they'll plant that, take about six years to produce fruit.

And at that time, they could last as many as 50 years, 75 years, a cherry tree can, if you take care of it.

[Chef Missy] I was amazed to learn that the cherry is such a short harvest season.

It's like six weeks, right?

[Donald Ayers] Well, about four weeks, actually.

[Chef Missy] Wow.

Okay.

I just feel so blessed to be here.

And it is gorgeous.

-It's a done deal.

-You're a bad boy.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -We use an all-natural spray, which consists of magnesium and zinc, which are the two minerals that the tree needs to survive.

I stop applying anything on a tree at least 21 days before harvest.

If I can't eat it, I definitely don't want my customers to eat it.

[♪♪♪♪♪] This is obviously the Rainiers, and they're the orange cherries.

We have the black ones, which are Black Hearts.

And then we have Bing cherries, which is a red cherry.

Our ancestors preserved them with canning, and that way, they could have fruit throughout the year.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Okay, we are back here in the French Magnolia Culinary Center, and we are so blessed to have Nancy Wall Hopkins with us.

Now Nancy is the former Food and Entertaining Editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine for 22 years.

And, I'm personally blessed to have Nancy as my neighbor here in Bristol, Virginia.

Nancy is a culinary treasure trove, and we are so, so lucky to have you here in Bristol.

Nancy is a fabulous teacher, and I'm just so excited to learn from her today.

And today, we are going to make Southwest Virginia cherry preserves, and teach you all about canning.

Are you ready?

-I'm so ready.

I'm so excited.

[Chef Missy] Nancy and I came back from the farm yesterday and stayed up late pitting cherries.

And we have pitted 16 quarts of beautiful local Southwest Virginia cherries.

Tell us here what we have.

-Well, we have these gorgeous black Jubilee cherries.

You know, I'm less familiar with them, so this was the treat for me.

And then, a really special Rainier cherry.

I would have to fight you for these.

These are the Tart red cherries, sometimes called Sour cherries, but I always grew up calling them tart red cherries.

And they're big and brilliant and plump, and they're my favorite.

-I feel like everybody just lumps jams and jellies and preserves into one thing and calls everything jams and jellies.

-They do.

I notice the same thing.

-Right.

-But you know what?

They're really different.

-So if you're making jelly, sometimes you're using a strain of the fruit.

-Right, right.

-And also, sometimes a pectin, a fruit pectin.

And then, sometimes also canning gel.

-And the thing I think matters the most, there aren't any large pieces or whole fruits, which brings us to preserves.

-Right.

And really, canning is all about preservation of food in general.

Okay, Nancy, what is the very first thing we do?

- Mise en place .

-Yes!

Oui, w e mise en place .

Go to the head of the class.

All right.

Mise en place .

Everything in its place.

We have six quarts of organic sugar.

We have 16 whole lemons.

We have 48 fresh, whole bay leaves.

Very important.

Yes.

Eight tablespoons of fresh vanilla, eight heaping tablespoons of cracked black pepper, and... -Sixteen teaspoons of salt.

-Sixteen teaspoons of salt.

The salt is very important.

-Very.

-In fact, you really are not preserving anything without salt and sugar.

-And sugar.

-So what we've done is we've brought together a recipe that's both sweet and savory.

And the savory moment really comes from the bay leaf.

Bay leaves are indigenous to Southwest Virginia.

-Right.

-And I love that we are featuring and highlighting the bay leaf.

-I do, too.

I mean, they're familiar, but they're a little special, a little fancy for preserves.

It kind of fancies it up.

-It's so important to use exactly the number of bay leaves that a recipe calls for, because if you use too many bay leaves, your food is going to end up tasting very clovey, almost very heavy ginger, and it's too much.

Okay, start your engines.

-Start your engines.

Here we go!

-Here we go!

Okay, the first thing you want to do is get your cherries in the pot on low, and basically just simmer them for about ten minutes.

[Nancy Wall Hopkins] It just softens them, gets them on the road to success.

-Gorgeous.

Cover.

Step two, zest your lemons.

And cherries are so cheerful, but so are lemons.

[Nancy] So it's cheerful cherry preserve.

-Exactly.

I love that.

Step three, juice your lemons.

When I think about canning, I think about grandmothers and aunts and sisters coming together around the kitchen island, telling family stories.

It's kind of a hen fest.

-I was going to say it's like a little hen party.

You know?

-It is.

But if you don't have mothers and grandmothers and sisters and aunts... -You get to do it with your friend like I get to do it with you.

-Yay.

-Yay.

[Chef Missy] Here is a canning tip.

I love to do all of my wet liquids first, and then add the sugar and the salt and the cracked pepper.

This recipe calls for six quarts of sugar.

We each get three, and we have already backed off of the sugar quite a bit.

The sugar or the salt, or both, preserves the fruit or the vegetables.

[Nancy] I think it's really tempting to cut way back, but then two things.

You're not preserving it, and you're going to have a really softer set, some might say runny preserve, in the end.

So, it's tempting, but don't do it.

[Chef Missy] Okay, next, 16 teaspoons of salt.

Whatever salt you use at home, this happens to be sea salt with iodine.

Okay, second to last step, eight heaping tablespoons of cracked pepper.

Okay, we are ready for our star ingredient, outside of the cherries.

[Nancy] Outside of the cherries!

[Chef Missy] The bay leaf.

Nancy, how long do you let your preserves steep?

[Nancy] Most preserve experts believe that around 220, up to 225, that temperature Fahrenheit.

On average, mine go about 45-50 minutes, depending on the cherry.

-Oooh!

-[Thomas] Hi!

-Thomas.

Yay.

-I brought you a present.

-[both women] Yay!

-I brought us rosé.

You like rosé, I like rosé, everybody likes rosé.

And nothing says summer like a good rosé.

As you know, rosé is from primarily red grapes.

Pretty much any red grape can make a rosé because it's, the color comes from the skin.

And the best rosés in the world come from Provence, France.

In Provence, France, the grapes they use for their rosé are typically Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault.

The character from the Grenache and the Cinsault, which all three of those are red grapes.

They're all also very warm temperature loving grapes.

So the long summers in Provence allows for them to get fully ripe and plump, which is what you really want from those particular grapes, why they grow so well there.

But it makes for a great rosé.

And whatever it takes, I'm happy about that.

[all laugh heartily] Cheers to rosé.

-[both] Cheers to rosé.

[Nancy] Beautiful!

[Chef Missy] Okay, the next step is sterilizing your jars.

Tools of the trade, tongs... -Two flavors.

-Yay.

We're just getting all of the jars in.

[Nancy] The water should be about an inch above your jars.

-[Chef Missy] Right.

-[Nancy] Inch to two inches.

-So I'm putting all the glass jars in first, and then we're gonna add all of the lids.

Cover.

Okay, let's put ten minutes on the clock.

So this basket that comes with your pot... it was down low in the pot, and all I did was lift it up like this and hook it onto the sides of the pot.

-Right.

-I like... to fill all my jars with the fruit first and make sure that I get all the bay leaves out and set those aside.

And then at the end, I'm going to pour in the juice and fill up the glass.

Okay, so we're pouring in the liquid.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [Nancy] So first your lid.

[Chef Missy] So we're going to leave these jars in this boiling water for just really a few minutes.

-[Nancy] A few minutes.

-[Chef Missy] Right?

We're going to pull them out, and once they get pulled out and hit that cooler air, I won't say it's cold in here, but cooler air, then you should hear kind of a thunk.

And that's where it seals.

And this kind of sucks down.

-Exactly.

-And seals.

-And then it's preserved.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -Part of the fun of canning is personalizing your jars.

I have chosen some beautiful fabrics.

I also love the black and white gingham, right, with the cherry.

And then you can use the black label.

-[Nancy] It's so fresh.

-[Chef Missy] It is.

The most important thing to do is date your preserves.

"For Nancy."

-[Nancy] I earned that.

-[Chef Missy] You did!

Here's to cheerful cherries.

-Cheerful cherries.

-Love it.

For cherry preserve stuffed pork tenderloin, the first thing you want to do is mise en place... everything in its place.

We have our casserole dish, our fresh cracked pepper, our extra virgin olive oil, our sea salt with iodine, our beautiful Southwest Virginia cheerful cherry preserves.

We have a generous amount of fresh Herbes de Provence and some freshly shaved Parmesan Reggiano.

Then, of course, our pork tenderloin, cleaned and dried.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

We're going to cook the pork tenderloin for 18 to 20 minutes, uncovered, at 400 degrees.

Using sharp kitchen scissors, trim the fat from the pork tenderloin.

Find the generous side of the tenderloin where there's plenty of room to cut down one side.

Don't poke at the tenderloin with the tip of the knife.

Lay the flat part of the blade at the top of the tenderloin and begin to score the meat.

Cut all the way down the tenderloin once.

Run your fingers along the inside to feel the opening.

Then slowly work your knife down the tenderloin, again, going a little deeper, and use your fingers to feel the depth.

Make a sliver or two on the fatter side.

Season the meat first before stuffing it.

Drizzle a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil on the inside of the tenderloin and massage it in.

Sprinkling from on high, add your sea salt, then a little cracked pepper, and a generous pinch of dried Herbs de Provence, evenly distributed throughout the inside.

Liberally add the preserved cherries down the center of the tenderloin.

Notice I'm working from the center over.

Be a little generous so each person gets a nice amount of cherries with their pork.

And now, our beautiful Parmesan Reggiano.

Give a generous layer of parmesan over all the cherries.

Now, take the other side of the tenderloin and gently fold it over and give it a nice little squeeze, but not too hard.

Take this moment to make sure all of your goody is stuffed neatly inside.

Drizzle a little olive oil along the top of the tenderloin, then spread it over the meat using your fingers, and coat the outside with some dried Herbs de Provence.

Lay your pork tenderloin at an angle if necessary.

Finish with a little extra Parmesan Reggiano.

Be generous.

Remember to cook at 400, uncovered.

If you cover it, it will cook on the inside too fast and could end up being a little dry.

Remember that your tenderloin will rest on the cutting board for a good five to seven minutes before cutting.

I'm going to serve this cherry stuffed pork with organic asparagus sauteed in brown butter, roasted tiny potatoes, and dressed summer greens with shaved radish.

Slice your pork tenderloin on the bias, making each portion a generous inch.

Cherry preserve stuffed pork tenderloin.

Bon appétit.

[Thomas] So this is very special, this wine.

And these grapes are the same grapes as the rosé, only the full expression of the red with more of the skin.

So you get to really experience those grapes more fully as they're intended.

-Wow!

-Wow is right.

-What a treat!

[Thomas] This is from a place called Château Unang.

Used to be Unango, around the 1300s.

For 70 years, it became the home of the pope.

It was his office, administrative office, so it was the new house of the pope, which is Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

This château is about 150 miles from Provence.

These grapes in this are Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault.

They're all red grapes, but it's Southern France, so it's warm, and these grapes love that temperature.

But the soil here is special as well.

It has its own geological classification for the soil.

It's called Sables d'Unang.

Basically, it's sand above limestone, so it's sandy soil above limestone, which, as we know, with water runoff, the roots are going to go deeper into the soil, down to the limestone.

You're going to get a lot more character that way, which is why we taste so much of the terroir in this wine.

[All] Châteauneuf-du-Pape!

[Thomas] Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.

Thank you for all the blessings and all the hard work these ladies have put into this dinner.

We thank you so much for all that you're doing for us.

Bless this food to our bodies and us to your service.

In Jesus name, amen.

[Chef Missy] Amen.

To Nancy Wall Hopkins.

You are such a joy, so gifted, and I am so blessed to have gotten to spend the day with you in the kitchen.

Thank you so much.

-[Nancy] Thank you.

-Thank you.

And to Southwest Virginia cheerful cherries.

-[Thomas] Cheers.

-[Chef Missy] Cheers.

[Nancy] Cheers!

[♪♪♪♪♪] -That's really good.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -I love this dish.

-I'm proud of us.

I'm just proud of us.

We made something so versatile.

And it's beautiful with the pork and the parmesan and the black pepper, and yet, I know it will be so delicious on my toast in the morning.

-This is a fantastic dinner.

[Chef Missy] Viva, La Southwest Virginia!

-Viva, La Southwest Virginia!

[Chef Missy] Removing the pits from our life is a process, and it sure is easier with help.

A friendly face and a warm embrace can make all the difference.

We're always searching for the comfort of preservation, knowing there's a constant.

Life can feel unpredictable, and we need things and people we can count on.

Maybe cherries won't solve all your problems, but the bounty of a great and mighty crop produces hope, fellowship, and delicious preserves ready to gift.

After all, what was once a hard pit is now a seed for a new season.

And with great anticipation, we await the next great harvest.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [music fades out] [Announcer] Smyth County, Virginia, offering a business-friendly environment with partnerships like Smyth Strong, fostering entrepreneurship and growth.

Details at smythcounty economicdevelopment.com.