[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 idea starts with a seed, a revelation, an aha moment.

The seed drops into a fertile heart and takes root.

It moves throughout our cells and becomes our thoughts.

We look at it from every angle, and maybe we sit with it for a bit and work through every detail of its path.

When will we plant it, and how will we help the seed reach its maximum potential?

A seed's destiny is prophesied in its DNA.

Its perfection has already been scripted into its origins, and the outcome has already been spoken from the beginning.

It's time for soil, but not just any soil.

Layers of warm, fertile, black gold soil becomes the womb for the seed.

Water transports the soil's nutrients, and sunshine keeps the heartbeat.

All of creation works behind the scenes while we wait.

Suddenly we have a sprout, and soon we're introduced to heart healthy summer greens.

This sturdy, crunchy, vibrant rainbow chard is essentially a beet without a root.

It attracts bees for pollination and extends an invitation to eat a healthy rainbow.

And the lovable collard green with its big, floppy leaves, synonymous with southern comfort.

A plant's natural tendency is to reach for the sun and become its best.

It never questions or wavers on its destiny.

It's created to become something delicious and nutritious, intelligently designed to fuel the body with epic flavors, bringing home into the 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 Relais & Chateaux.

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.

Southwest Virginia feels like an idyllic never-never land that's somewhere over a rainbow.

But usually, we're just a few steps away from the certifiably adorable small towns that make up Appalachia.

Today, we're 30 minutes from Bristol, stepping into Meadowview, Virginia.

We're meeting up with Erin and Jonny Root of Project Root Gardens, where they design, build, and teach permanent living soil systems for edible gardens.

For the past four years, Jonny and Erin have been growing and stewarding a quarter acre of land for Harvest Table Farm.

Through Jonny's expertise, they have harvested 35 different varieties of vegetables, yielding an annual average of five tons of nutritionally dense, super clean food.

But I'm after my summer greens today, and seeking compost knowledge from the king of soil, Jonny Root.

Jonny, thank you so much for letting us be here.

This is absolutely gorgeous.

Just stunningly beautiful.

I love it.

Just makes me feel alive to be here on the farm.

And I heard you are the man, the guy, you are the soil expert .

-I don't know about expert, but I enjoy soil a lot.

I'm very passionate about soil.

That is correct.

And, yeah, thank you for coming, Chef Missy.

Really appreciate you coming out here and taking a look at our farm.

I love to talk about soil and show you what we're growing here.

And one of the things we really love to show off in the summertime is our greens.

-My big question is, how does somebody like Jonny Root decide to be a farmer?

-Yeah, a few different factors.

I guess, first, I got into the concept of growing food because I was really curious and passionate about where my food came from.

I wanted to know where food came from, how it was grown, why it was grown that way, and that took me on a lifelong journey.

Bought myself a car, sold all my stuff, and started WWOOFing across North America.

And WWOOFing is an organization, Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms.

And it's a way for people to volunteer their time on already existing farms and in exchange for food, a place to stay, maybe cash.

It all depends on the exchange.

And so, I did that for 13 months across North America, found myself in Alaska and heard this kind of way of growing food.

The term was called "permaculture," and I wanted to know more about permaculture and what that was.

And that was founded in Australia.

And so, I bought myself a ticket to Australia, and I studied in Australia for two years.

And from there, just everything took off, and I was able to travel around the world and... -I know you feel the same way, but I love telling the story that food does not come from the grocery store.

-Mm-mm.

-Right?

-Mm-mm.

Oh, yeah.

-Share with me a little bit about your passion for farmers markets.

-Southwest Virginia really has that.

We have a great farming community, but we also have a great population of people who appreciate that.

They appreciate local food.

You know, their great, great grandparents were growing food in their backyards.

So generationally, they know what real food tastes like.

And I think that's why we're so able to have this community here is because of the type of people in Southwest Virginia.

You know, they want real food.

Erin and I and our family, we have volunteers.

We have interns weekly who come here and support the farm.

And our biggest supporters are our customers.

We wouldn't be able to do what we do if it wasn't for all those other parts.

-Amen.

-Yeah.

-I love it.

I love it.

Yay.

Okay, Jonny, tell me what you've got working here.

-So, yeah, one of the things I was talking about is we are a four-season farm, and there's certain crops we like to grow year-round.

And lettuce is one of those.

And the way we're able to do that is doing, like, a succession planting.

When one crop is finished, the next one's ready to go, and then when that one's finished, the next one's ready to go.

We're trying to close the loop on the nutrient cycle, and so, by not having to add compost and amendments every time.

We use these black tarps.

[Chef Missy] Looks like something is cooking in there.

[Jonny Root] Yes, exactly.

You can kind of see all the old plant residue, and then this is all just beautiful compost and soil.

-I want to learn about carbon.

[Jonny Root] Mm-mm.

So, carbon is what we call a brown material, and one of the things we really try to do on this farm here is sequester carbon.

We're trying to put carbon back into the soil as much as possible, because right now, these days, I feel like a lot of the large-scale farming, they're actually just releasing carbon into the atmosphere, and that's the opposite of what we want to be doing.

So what's happening here is these are our beds here, and these are our pathways.

And so, our wood chips are mainly in our pathways, where our beds are living beds.

We call them permanent raised beds.

And so, they're living soil beds, and our wood chips go in between, and that carbon kind of acts as an interconnectedness between the beds, and it brings them together.

And so, there's nutrients and water and things getting passed back and forth, but it's just like black gold in there.

It's worm kingdom down there.

-Yeah.

And you want worms.

-And we want worms.

Yes.

Yeah.

Our worms are just like our bees, some of our biggest supporters.

-Okay, tell me about nitrogen.

-Mm-mm.

So, nitrogen, or what we call green material, is anything that's still kind of living.

Or, if you were to rip a leaf off a tree and it was green, well, if it's green, it's a nitrogen, but if it turns brown and is crumbly, that's actually a carbon.

So the nitrogen has more of the living.

It's green, it's vibrant... -Nitrogen and carbon.

[Jonny Root] ...carbon, you want them both, and both of those are a huge part of life.

[Chef Missy] It smells like forest floor.

You are a walking encyclopedia of every... and you're a very good teacher.

-Oh, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, I love sharing knowledge and consulting and helping people start backyard gardens.

[Chef Missy] It's not just something you're reading in a book, but you created the soil.

You developed the compost, you planted the seed, you watched it come to maturity.

And then to see it all the way to the plate, that's what I love.

[uplifting music] And look at your rainbow chard.

-It's designed where the pattern of the plant grows through the middle, and so we just harvest from the outside.

And like anything, the more you harvest, the more it grows back.

[uplifting music] -I'm a Georgia girl, so I love my collards.

I can put away some collards.

[uplifting music] -I think our crop rotation is a huge reason why we don't have pest issues.

Every seed is the birth of life, just like in Erin's belly, so.

-[Chef Missy] Exactly.

-[Jonny] It's quite beautiful.

[Chef Missy] There's something joyful about being in this area.

I feel calm, I feel peaceful.

I feel a lot of love on this farm in general.

It's very clear when you're here on the land that there is an intense amount of passion being poured into this land.

[Jonny Root] Mm-mm.

Yeah, that's definitely our heart, for sure.

We put a lot of our love and heart into this, and we care about what we do.

[uplifting music] [Chef Missy] I spent a morning with my dear friend Anastasia Berg, who is a fabulous gourmet cook, but who has also been developing compost, building soil systems, and farming since she was a little girl.

Anastasia grew up in the former Soviet Union where food was very scarce, and many weekends were spent working farms in order to eat and survive.

She married a boy from Southwest Virginia and brought with her a bounty of practical wisdom for all things gardening.

Anastasia's depth of knowledge and teaching on composting was so vast, we dedicated a special feature honoring her sage advice, attention to detail, and excellence in producing world-class organic food.

Check out this special episode, Soil Secrets , on French Magnolia Cooks under "Extras."

With warmth, humor, and passion, Anastasia tells the story of sowing into good soil in Southwest Virginia.

We are back in the French Magnolia Culinary Center, and we are so blessed to have Anastasia Berg here with us today in the culinary center.

Thank you so much for coming and cooking with us today.

-Thank you, Missy, for inviting me.

I appreciate it.

-So we're gonna cook today.

We're gonna eat today, and possibly have a little vino?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Let's get started.

What to do with greens?

What to do with greens?

The one thing to remember about cooking greens, you need time.

Time, time, time.

First things first.

Mise en place.

Mise en place .

Yes.

Everything in its place.

You've got your cooking vessel.

Obviously, you'll need good, filtered water, garlic, salt.

We love sea salt with iodine, cracked pepper, and then a fat source.

This is 2.5 pounds of really good quality bacon.

I actually had the foresight for this show and cooked some greens for 72 hours, starting about three days ago.

These are organic greens.

Same recipe I'm going to give you today.

This was about 15 bunches... -[Anastasia Berg] Whoa.

-[Chef Missy] ...of greens.

About 15 bunches of something green cooked down for 72 hours will yield about nine quarts.

One thing to remember, I always save back the pot liquor for your winter vegetable stews.

Now, the big debate, whether or not to de-stem your collard greens.

-Hm-mm.

-Because I cook my greens for so long, I leave the stem on.

-Oh!

[Chef Missy] Stack all of your greens, doesn't have to be perfect.

And then just fold it in half.

And then, I'm going to do just one inch.

And I think this makes a nice cut, and that's a nice bite.

Cut up your bacon first and sauté your bacon in the stockpot, and all those good fats will start to release.

And then add in your garlic.

Beautiful.

Put this in our pot, add your salt, and then add about a half a cup of good coarse ground pepper.

The thing about pepper is the longer something sits, the hotter it gets with pepper.

So get all of your bacon, your garlic, your filtered water, and your greens in the stockpot.

Cook for 72 hours.

But I'm telling you, you will be really happy with the outcome.

And then, you can transfer to a smaller Dutch oven.

Love me my collards.

We are going to make a collard greens crustless quiche.

And in France, that would be a flan, similar to a frittata, right?

Except for this is going to be my recipe, which is a deep dish crustless quiche.

First things first.

Butter!

One stick of butter, boom.

Six cloves of garlic.

Love this stage of the butter.

The milk fats are starting to separate and get sweeter.

And you'll start seeing the butter get a little brown.

Two leeks for this recipe.

Right here.

Boom.

Set that aside.

And then just a nice inch.

And then, wash your leeks really, really well.

Just kind of give this a little toss.

-Oh, I just love the aroma of garlic.

-I know.

Okay, a generous pinch of salt, a generous pinch of coarse black pepper, and a generous pinch of Herbes de Provence, my favorite.

One large slice of country ham.

-[Anastasia Berg] Hm-mm.

-[Chef Missy] Okay.

You want to trim the fat.

Just want to cut the country ham in small little pieces.

So I'm going to go ahead and sauté the country ham with the leeks and the garlic, really, to just marry flavors.

Butter, garlic, sea salt, pepper, Herbes de Provence, leeks, country ham.

Yay.

-You want to impress the guy, do that.

-Exactly!

I think that's how I ended up with one of these.

I think these look beautiful.

-Yes!

-They're done.

Go ahead, get them off the stove, and let them rest and cool down at room temperature, maybe ten minutes.

The next step, part two of the collards crustless quiche.

The eggs and the cream and the salt and pepper.

Easy peasy, in the blender.

Okay, the oven is preheated to 375, and we're gonna crack some eggs.

-[Anastasia Berg] Okay.

-[Chef Missy] 18 organic eggs.

Here's a little secret.

Rather than cracking it on the edge of the Vitamix, where the shell could fall inside... -Okay.

-...I crack it separately out on the board.

-Ah!

-And then gently open up the egg and drop in the egg, shell free, right into the compost bin.

-That's very good advice.

-Right?

[Anastasia Berg] One, two, three.

Hut!

Two cups of heavy cream.

[Chef Missy] And half a cup strong French Dijon mustard.

[Anastasia Berg] And one generous teaspoon of sea salt.

And one generous teaspoon of cracked pepper.

[Chef Missy] I'm not gonna over whip, because I don't want that heavy cream to turn into whipped cream.

All right, the final stage, building the quiche.

So we've got some paper towels here and just pressing down on them with the paper towels, really squeezing every little bit of liquid out.

Then I'm just going to flip this.

Okay, so we have our collards.

We have a generous cup of Gruyère, and then I've got some shaved Parmesan ribbons to finish the quiche with.

And our sauteed garlic, leeks, country ham.

All right.

Springform, our cheesecake springform.

And I like to take the spraying away from the counter, right.

So I just pull it to the side... give it a liberal spray.

So we'll start at the bottom with the leeks, the garlic.

Go ahead and just sprinkle this in.

These have cooled off at room temperature.

Very pretty.

Step two, pouring in the egg batter.

Halfway, I'm going to add the Gruyère.

I love Gruyère!

-[Anastasia chuckles] [Chef Missy] If you want to splurge and you have it in your budget, Comté from Comté France, ooh, but the Gruyère is lovely.

And then, if you don't have Gruyère, Baby Swiss.

Finish off our egg batter.

Ooh.

Okay, now, the collards.

Just take little sections at a time and kind of scatter it around.

-[Anastasia] Okay.

[Chef Missy] And then I just take my finger like this, and I just kind of poke it.

I'm not looking to really press the greens all the way down.

-[Anastasia] Okay.

[Chef Missy] Just kind of get the egg on top of it.

And we're going to finish with the parmesan.

Yay.

Be generous.

All right, then finish with some organic tomato.

Now, the tomato is going to really brighten it up in terms of color, right?

Gorgeous on top.

Great way to finish.

But also, the tomato adds acid.

All right, we'll just put one beautiful in the middle.

Gorgeous!

One last little thing I love to add, just a generous sprinkle of Herbes de Provence.

This is going to cook at 375 for 90 minutes.

It's going to cool at room temperature for 90 minutes to 2 hours.

I'm getting ready to sauté up some rainbow chard, the stems, and then sprinkle them crunchy over the salad like a veggie crouton.

Okay.

Gorgeous!

-[Anastasia] Gorgeous.

[Chef Missy] Yes.

And we're gonna let this rest for a minimum of 90 minutes.

[perky music] It is very important to salt your lettuces, and this is a great opportunity to pull out that expensive French finishing salt and finish your greens.

[perky music] Something to celebrate.

-I know.

Cheers.

-Cheers.

[perky music] [Thomas Fraley] I love Sauvignon Blanc.

Sauvignon Blanc, as you know, is probably one of the most widely produced grapes in the world.

That being said, Sancerre in France produces some of the best Sauvignon Blanc wine in the world.

Sancerre, by the way, is in the Loire Valley.

It's kind of the eastern side of Loire Valley, about two hours south of Paris.

On a bottle, in France, it's always the location.

So we know where this is grown and in this location, what they grow there.

But this is ideal for what you guys have been working all morning on.

Greens, eggs.

There's some herbaceous notes to this.

You'll get the minerality from the soil.

Soil is so important.

Humans have lived in Sancerre going all the way back to the Stone Ages, through the Iron Age, which was the Celtics, the Romans.

There's a lot of history there.

Along with a hunter and gatherer, notions of people of that age, they were also moving into agriculture.

So even back then, they were interested in the soil and seed, time and harvest, right.

So, it's not a new thing.

[all laugh] Sancerre has elevated the Sauvignon Blanc grape more than anywhere else on the planet, as an exceptional wine.

It's the benchmark for Sauvignon Blanc.

So this particular Sancerre is from a place called Chavignol, which is a small hamlet on the hillside, dead center of Sancerre.

So another great thing that comes from Chavignol is Crottin de Chavignol, which is a kind of a stinky goat cheese, similar to Camembert, one of your favorites, right.

This is fantastic.

So you can see how a strong cheese like that will pair with the acidity and the minerality of this wine.

What grows together goes together, Chef Missy always says.

[laughs] On the plate and in the glass!

-[Anastasia] Cheers to that.

-Cheers to that.

[glasses clink, all laugh] [perky music] [Chef Missy] Father, Lord, bless this food to our use and us to your service.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

[perky music] Hmm!

[perky music] -Hmm.

Wow!

The crust on that.

All the herbs, those tomatoes.

That's awesome.

[perky music] -I can definitely taste the lemon and that salt.

It's amazing.

[perky music] [Thomas] This is fantastic.

Cheers to the chefs.

-Yay!

-[glasses clink] [Chef Missy] Our lives are filled with seeds.

Every day, we have countless opportunities to sow seeds of time, talents, and resources.

But a seed must be nurtured, watered, and allowed to grow in good soil so it can reach its greatest potential.

The condition of our heart determines our destiny.

For the heart is the soil that hears, prepares, receives truth, and makes decisions.

It's our creator's greatest desire for us to be good soil and experience healing, goodness, joy, connections, love.

The receptive and humble heart receives seeds that will sprout forth maturity to nurture communities, steward nations, and build a kingdom.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [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.