Smyth County, Virginia, located in the mountains of southwest Virginia, offering outdoor adventures and small town charm.

Details online at VisitSmythCountyVA.com.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [Chef Missy] It seems all good things come in pairs.

Salt needs pepper.

The right shoe needs the left.

Singles need a wingman.

Man needs a helpmate.

And all great comedians need a sidekick.

Even the main protein of a meal needs a side dish.

An accompaniment to usher in comfort... and enhance, refine, and boost flavors.

To make it even better.

Food is a messenger of nourishment.

And the right side dish completes the message.

Doves are also messengers.

The gray mourning dove, part of the pigeon family, is native to the United States.

Whereas the white-winged dove, associated with peace and love, was originally from South America and brought here by settlers.

Although highly social, mourning doves travel in pairs.

Immediately upon leaving the nest, a male dove seeks a female.

He sings before her until she agrees to mate with him for life.

350 million mourning doves are born in America every year.

They can fly at an altitude of 6,000 feet, reach speeds of 55 miles per hour... and they take in over 2,500 seeds daily to meet their high caloric demands.

I'm sure glad they're so abundant.

Because when cooked properly, mourning doves are delicious.

Especially when paired with the right side dish.

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 & Châteaux.

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.

Harvest means to gather or bind, and September 1st marks the preparation for the harvest season, and the first day of dove hunting.

Old friends and new are gathered in withering corn or sunflower fields, or on a spectacular mountain range.

Today, I find myself in Botetourt County with John Gurley, our Field and Stream expert, who is here to give us a lesson in all things dove hunting.

And joining us is his son, John Jr., and his childhood best friend, Stevi.

Okay, John, we are finally here.

It's dove season.

-Yes, it is.

-Yay.

-It's exciting.

-We're like in the first week, right?

September 1st, Labor Day, kicks it off?

-Labor Day weekend kicks it off, yeah.

Another venue and another hunt.

It's going to be a beautiful day.

I'm really excited.

-Yeah.

This is absolutely just spectacular.

I've never seen really anything like this.

This is amazing.

Tell us where we are.

-Okay, we are in Botetourt County, Virginia, which is absolutely gorgeous.

We're on the Douthat's Farm, which is 800 to 1,000 acres.

It's a cattle ranch.

-[Chef Missy] Wow!

[John Gurley] It's an equestrian center.

I've been lifelong friends with the Douthats, and Andy has allowed us to come out here and go dove hunting today.

So, we've got a beautiful place, and hopefully it will be productive.

-Tell me a little bit just about the dove.

-We're going to be hunting for mourning dove, and they are a migratory bird, which means they, like a goose or geese or ducks, they migrate in and migrate out.

And they'll find a place like a corn field, a millet field.

Today, what we're going to hope they're coming to eat are, you'll see this beautiful natural grass and the pastures, which will have seeds in it that they'll come and eat.

-Tell me what kind of environment, atmosphere dove love to hang out in.

-The rain, where we would say the weather's kind of ducky outside because you've heard the old saying, "Water off a duck's back," dove do not like to fly in the rain.

So, we're lucky that it's not raining now.

It's still a little bit of the heat of the day, so later on this afternoon, early evening, it'll pick up in the activity.

We've seen a couple flying around, so that's a good sign.

When we're hunting, you'll see the decoys that we'll set out for them because they'll see what they think are their friends sitting on the power line and come join them.

But they get up in the morning, and they go get their water, and then they'll eat.

And then, you'll see doves standing around on a gravel road because a dove does not have teeth.

They've got a beak, so they have what is called a crop, which is where their digestive system starts, and they'll eat rocks to put in their crop to grind up the grain or the seeds that they eat because they can't chew them up.

-Because they're migratory, that's really why they don't have a lot of fat on them.

-Yep, exactly.

-All right, John, you know I always ask this.

It's my favorite question.

How are we going to harvest the doves?

-Okay, today we're going to shoot them with a shotgun, much like we did on the pheasant that we shot.

The shotgun has a shell that goes into the gun, and then it's got a bunch of BBs or pellets that are kept into the shell so that when it shoots, it has a pattern that goes out, unlike a rifle, which would be a single bullet that would come out.

-Right.

Walk me through the setup.

There's a field, and where are we?

-Okay, so what we're going to do is we're going to use the power line.

So, we're going to have a couple different telephone poles that we'll get underneath.

There's a dead tree that's back here that we're going to have some of the boys sit underneath that because when the birds come in and they want to land, you want somebody to be there to disrupt their landing, to keep them moving.

-Okay, boss, tell me all about what these are and what do they do.

-The way that the shotgun shell works is that there's a firing pin on the backside, and this is in the barrel of the gun.

There's what's called a wad that's in there that holds the shot together, and then it comes out of the end of the barrel, and the wad peels away, and the shot makes a pattern, and different gauges have different patterns, and they have different amounts of shot in them.

So, this is a 12-gauge.

-[Chef Missy] Okay.

-And the lower the number gauge, the more powerful the shell, and the more shot that is in it.

Most people that are first starting are scared and/or worried about how much is that gun going to kick.

So, for most beginners, I'd start them off with a 20-gauge.

-With the pheasant, we had Molly, right?

[John Gurley] That's correct.

-[Missy] The superstar Molly.

-[John] That's it.

[Chef Missy] How can we forget Molly?

We had Molly because Molly would go and fetch the bird and bring the bird to us, retrieve the bird.

How do we get the doves from the field to our little sack or our pack?

-So, with pheasant, we had Molly.

With dove, we have Missy.

[laughter] -Wow, that's a lot of work, but I'll do it.

-It's not bad.

-[laughter] -They're not very heavy.

[Chef Missy] I cannot get over this view, this property.

I mean, we are on this mountain, and there is a 360-degree view in every direction.

[John Gurley] This is my fancy dove chair.

Those are our decoys.

[Stevi] Shotguns.

[Chef Missy] Shotguns.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [Stevi] 12-gauge.

[gun cocks] For dove hunting, I usually use a modified choke, which is sort of a medium pattern.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -Hey, Missy.

-Missy.

-What's happening?

-Hey.

-There you are.

-When was the first time you guys ever hunted together?

-Well, I think it was probably about '72... -Yeah, something like that.

-...early '70s, when our dads would take us on these fabulous dove hunts that they would plan.

[Chef Missy] I love it.

I'm so excited about getting some dove.

[John Gurley] Well, let's go get 'em.

We've got some fishing line right here.

You're gonna tie the weight on the end of the line, and I got it heavy enough where you can throw it over the line, and then you tie the decoy on the other end, and pull it up there to it.

[Chef Missy] So two by two, we peel away into far corners.

With joy and great anticipation... we plot... and we plan... and we organize.

-[John] All right, ready?

-[Chef Missy] Yeah.

And we do important things.

Then we wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And then, we wait some more.

Then we fix some stuff.

Oh, almost.

Over your head.

Okay.

[John Gurley] I'm really gonna give it a big one.

[Chef Missy] Nice.

Victory.

And then we waited again.

Then suddenly... it was game on.

You got him.

He's right over that fence.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [John Gurley] Okay, so our decoy worked.

-Yeah.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -Stevi, I'm coming around the other side of the house.

Doing Molly's job, now we have Missy.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [gunshot] [♪♪♪♪♪] [whistling] [Chef Missy] Nice shot.

[♪♪♪♪♪] John.

-Can you go down?

[Chef Missy] Yeah, I'm going.

Don't shoot me.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Two more coming in, John.

-Excellent.

-Nice.

Good job.

-Great day.

Huh?

-Good job.

-That's a good day.

-You did it.

-Stevi had a good day up there.

And John Jr.'s... he's out of shells.

-Hey, John.

-[John laughs] [♪♪♪♪♪] -We got a nice little grouping.

-To old friends and our family.

-Here's to old friends and to our fathers.

-You did some showing off at the end there, John.

-Well, I had to.

-Uh-huh.

[John Gurley] So now, next up, cook 'em and eat 'em.

-[Stevi] Oh, can't wait.

-[John Gurley] Chef Missy... doing her secret.

[Stevi] Yeah.

Perfect.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -I didn't get a hug.

Hey.

[laughs] [John Jr.] Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

Seven?

-Yep.

-Seven?

-Yeah, I did all right.

I missed a couple.

-Seven's pretty darn good.

-Seven's good.

That's a good shot.

-That's good.

And you were sending them our way, too.

-Exactly, there was like 30 in the tree, and they popped up.

-You got wet.

-Yay.

Yay.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Salt.

Ice.

So this makes it not taste gamey.

-The first thing we want to do is we're gonna peel... -[gasps] -See there?

There's a little breast.

-Wow.

-So instead of, like, on a pheasant or a duck or something where you might pluck the feathers off of it, with a bird this size, you can just go like this and peel it away from the breast.

-[Chef Missy] Wow.

Look at that.

-[John Gurley] See?

[John Gurley] And then you stick your thumb right in there.

[Chef Missy] Okay.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Wow.

[John Gurley] And there's your first little breast.

[Chef Missy] Nice.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -Good boy.

[♪♪♪♪♪] No, you're not.

You're not gonna want to put any of these in your hat.

-No.

-Foxfield.

-No.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Woo-hoo!

Okay, we are back here in the French Magnolia Culinary Center, and getting ready to have a beautiful dove dinner.

Hey!

How are you?

-I'm great, thank you.

[Chef Missy] Good to see you.

Everybody spiffed up and showered.

[Stevi] You know, it was a little slow to begin with, but all of a sudden, they started flying.

-Hey!

-Hey!

-There he is.

-You guys don't mind a little rosé, do you?

-Of course not.

-Yeah?

-Good, good.

I like this.

Rosé champagne is probably one of my favorite things.

But this is even more special.

Well, what I'm pouring you is about a hundred years older style of wine than champagne.

It's pretty special.

It's called Crémant.

It's fairly new in the United States, but it's from several different places inside France, including Champagne.

My favorite, though, is the Burgundy.

-To a great dove hunt.

-Yes.

-Successful.

-If you see a French bottle of wine that says "Père & Fils" on there, that means father and son.

Father and sons.

Right?

So, it's a generational project.

-What are the grapes for this?

-This is Pinot Noir and Gamay.

-Absolutely.

Cheers to Père & Fils.

-Ah, that's great.

-That's exactly right.

-Oh, to fathers and sons.

[John Gurley] That's it.

[Chef Missy] Figgy Wild Rice is the perfect companion for almost all game dishes.

First, choose a large cooking vessel, one with a lid.

You will need one onion, eight cloves of garlic, one and a half cups of organic wild rice, four cups of chicken stock, three cups of chopped dried figs, two cups of dried cranberries, two cups of chopped walnuts, and some measuring cups.

You'll also need a serving bowl, a spoon, and fresh parsley.

Simmer two sticks of chopped butter.

Chop one onion, then smash, mash, and finely chop eight cloves of fresh garlic.

Next, sauté the onion and garlic in the butter until clear.

Add one tablespoon of sea salt and one tablespoon of ground pepper and stir.

You can always add more later.

Add your wild rice and stir for several minutes.

Pour in four cups of organic chicken stock and give it a little stir.

Cover and set on the stove over low heat for at least one hour.

While the rice is simmering, chop your walnuts.

At the 30-minute mark, check on the rice.

If it's cooking too high, bring down the heat, cover it, and keep it going.

Continue to prep your fruit.

De-stem the figs and quarter them.

Then add the cranberries to your mixture and give it a little toss.

At the one-hour mark, the rice should be slightly puffed as it has broken out of its shell.

It will appear half prickly and half puffy, and the liquid should have dissipated entirely.

If there's still liquid, cover and let it simmer for another ten minutes.

When the liquid has cooked out, add the fruit and nut mixture.

Stir until evenly distributed.

Cover and let it sit on low for about 15 minutes.

Pull the parsley leaves off the stem for about half a cup.

Give it a light chop and set it aside.

Then spoon the rice into a serving bowl.

Sprinkle with the chopped fresh parsley.

Be sure to have your serving spoon ready to go.

And most importantly, give it a taste.. or two.

[♪♪♪♪♪] All right, we're back here in the French Magnolia Culinary Center, and I just felt like that we really couldn't have dove from that beautiful hunt without homemade cornbread, and jalapeno cornbread to boot.

How does that sound?

-Ooh!

-Yeah.

-Sounds good.

-So, this is my own recipe.

The first thing, eggs.

Two eggs.

So just go ahead and give these a little whisk.

And a cup and a half of organic heavy whipping cream.

You can also use buttermilk if you're used to making cornbread with buttermilk.

And then we have almost a quart of fresh cornmeal, some lard, and baking powder.

Jalapenos.

I de-seed these because the big part of the heat of the jalapeno is gonna be in the seed.

Don't touch your eyes.

For me, when I make homemade jalapeno cornbread, I really want it to taste like jalapeno.

Then I'm going to julienne the jalapenos, right?

And then, give me a little brunoise cut.

Brunoise cut is a tiny little square.

Good old-fashioned American cream cheese.

Nothing fancy.

Clean hands are the best tool.

This recipe calls for two packages of cream cheese.

All right, I love to use the muffin tins for cornbread.

I also love to do skillet cornbread, but when you're entertaining, having a dinner party, whether it's four, six, eight, ten, it's really nice to have the mini muffins because people can leave it off their plate if they want to, and it's not a required part of the entrée.

You don't want to overfill it, but you don't want to underfill it either.

I do two spoons, which is about two tablespoons, per muffin hole.

And, because my husband happens to love cornbread, I'm making extra.

I take end-of-the-summer organic heirloom baby grape tomatoes, right at the end, aren't these cute?

And just put them in the top.

-[John Gurley] Oh, wow!

-And these are going to cook for about 22 minutes at 400, but check them at 22 minutes.

You might need, depending on your oven, a few extra minutes.

We want them just kind of golden on top.

This is how you want the cornbread to look.

These turned out absolutely beautiful.

I am going to cover this and set it aside, ready for the table.

All right, I don't know about you guys, but I am very excited about this beautiful dove.

For this recipe, the first thing we're going to do is cook up some bacon.

So, dove is an all-dark meat bird.

And because it's a migratory bird, it doesn't have any fat on it.

So, we're going to create fat by cooking it in bacon fat and duck fat.

This is almond flour and cumin and sweet paprika and garlic granules and cracked pepper and sea salt and some Herbs de Provence.

So, a very earthy, fun dredge that's wheat-free.

These are the special little dove breasts.

Last night, after they were processed, I soaked them overnight in the refrigerator in very salty, cold water.

And this process helps release out, take out a little bit of the gaminess.

And then, early this morning, I made a brine of apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.

And it has been marinating in this.

And the reason why we want to do this is that marinating process or the brining process will help make the dove tender, right, and juicy and keep it from being tough.

We're going to take our dove.

Isn't that beautiful?

-[Stevi] It is beautiful.

[Chef Missy] I love it.

We're going to put it directly in the dredge.

I'm going to add our duck fat to the bacon fat.

So, we are going to cook these breast side up, breast bone side down.

I'm just going to cover this up with some clean paper towels.

It's been about four or five minutes.

Flip these over.

See this crispy bottom right here?

-[John Gurley] Yes, I do.

-[Chef Missy] I love it.

So, it's going to be on the breast side for about a minute.

The thing about dove, it's not a lot of meat, but you get a lot of flavor in each bite.

I'm going to take this organic asparagus, put it right there in that great fat.

So, it feels like the perfect vegetable to have with this dish because we're just capturing an Indian summer on the plate.

I'm going to finish off the dove with a little crunchy, fatty, salty, sweet, delicious bacon crumbles.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [John Gurley] [praying] Father, bless this food-- [Thomas] This is a Syrah grape.

This is from a place called Saint-Joseph in Northern Rhône in France.

On the west bank of the river is Saint-Joseph, and Saint-Joseph faces east, so it gets the morning sun, not the evening.

And so, it's cooler in the evening, so it doesn't allow the grapes to get plump and overripe.

And so, this is fantastic.

This is 100 percent Syrah.

Again, Père & Fils, Ferraton family.

I think it's a fantastic wine.

It's lighter body than you'd get across the river, so it doesn't overpower the dish.

-Figgy rice.

Oh, my gosh.

-I can tell you, I've been eating dove for 60 years, not to give my age away, and that's the best I've ever had.

-All right.

Whoo-whoo!

-Don't tell my mother.

-Okay.

[laughter] -Mmm.

Babe... that is so good.

It's not gamey at all.

It's very rich and earthy with the spices that you put on there, the seasonings, and that almond flour.

It's not bready.

-I will say that the meat itself is extremely tender.

-[Stevi] It is.

-[John Gurley] It is.

-Very tender.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Here's to a great dove hunt and an Indian summer dinner outside in Southwest Virginia.

[glasses clink] Highly adaptable, the dove's capacity to find their way back home over thousands of miles is unrivaled in the animal kingdom.

This uncanny ability has been used for centuries to deliver messages to military leaders and royalty.

The dove is a messenger that spirits forgiveness, and answers the promise of newness.

Maybe it's a new land... a new home... a new school... a new job... or a new relationship.

Along the way, there are signs... wonders... and messages that keep you going.

One day, you're on the road alone.

Suddenly, you're paired up the way it was always intended.

We did it.

And off you go, stronger together, better together.

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

Details at SmythCountyEconomicDevelopment.c om.