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

Offering outdoor adventures and small town charm.

Details online at visitsmythcountyva.com.

[uplifting music] Growing up in the South allows for the collection of metaphorically corny hyperbole.

There is, of course, the wildly misused, "Bless their heart."

And let's not forget, "Hey, y'all!"

"I reckon," and "Well, it's just a little slice of heaven."

Ah, a slice of heaven.

It's a glimpse.

And a glimpse, by definition, is temporary.

A slice of heaven is a gift, and in order to flourish, must be nurtured by entering an atmosphere of dedication and excellence.

In days of old, a most excellent gift was a box of sweet, tart, fleshy strawberries.

A symbol of purity, love, abundance, passion, humility, and modesty.

The hallmark of perfect goodness.

Botanically, the perennial strawberry is not a true berry, but considered a multiple fruit, consisting of many tiny individual fruits embedded in a fleshy vessel adorned with hundreds of seeds.

Best grown in a deep soil rich in organic matter, but the soil must be well-drained because strawberries do not like wet feet.

A greenhouse provides flawless conditions and environment for a year-round supply of immaculate strawberry greatness.

The diffused light and warm climate cultivate safety and growth, while protecting the exterior from glyphosate and herbicides lingering in the atmosphere.

From someone born on Valentine's Day, I've received many gifts reflecting all manners of love and appreciation.

A true Valentine is given with reflection, thought, and remembrance of the relationship.

Call me old-fashioned, but a prime offering of unblemished strawberries speaks of consummate gratitude or passion every day of the year.

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 5-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.

Today, I'm in wonderful Bristol, Virginia, catching up with Michael Richard at his Glenmary Farms, a massive organic strawberry greenhouse business.

And, joining me for all things strawberry is my sweet friend, Atalaya Burden.

Atalaya is a local young baker who may be teaching me a thing or two about strawberry cheesecake.

The infrastructure and unparalleled dedication to excellence has caused Michael's strawberries to flourish.

Divine excellence permeates the atmosphere.

Okay, we are in Bristol, Virginia, at Glenmary Farms with Michael Richard, at his extraordinary strawberry farm.

Michael, thank you so much for letting us be here today.

-Thank you so much for being here.

So grateful to have you here.

-Yeah, this is stunning, beyond anything that I could have imagined as a strawberry farm.

Okay, Michael, when did you first receive the revelation that you wanted to be a farmer?

-Missy, it kind of goes back to my childhood.

I was probably five or six years old and going to my aunt and uncles, they'd take us down to the end of the road and we'd literally pick lunch and dinner.

And I just fell in love with it.

Met my wife, Lisa, at a church Singles function designed to get two young people together.

And we ended up starting a life together, and we have seven children.

-This is extraordinary.

It's stunning, it feels very special.

Tell me the history or provenance of how you came to be in the strawberry business.

-I'd gotten laid off from one job, six months later got laid off from another job.

My wife and I, we just sat down and prayed and talked and pondered and made supplication, and we decided that we were gonna move back to Virginia.

She asked me what it was that I wanted to do and I said, "You know that I wanna go into farming."

And she said, "Okay."

-Michael, you've shared with me that around 2008, that you kind of came to a crossroads in your life, in your career, with your marriage, with your family, everything.

Tell me a little bit about what happened to you.

-We had an accident on the farm.

It was a flashback and my face caught on fire, I had multiple burns.

The doctors actually thought it was a flash burn when in fact I was on fire for quite, probably 20, 30 seconds, and that's where some of the miracles started for us.

When I was in the Burn Center at Wake Forest Hospital, I had a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted my life to look like for the next 30 or 40 years.

And I wanted greatness again with my wife.

I wanted greatness again with my children.

It sounds like a cliché, but I felt like I was getting a second chance, and I wasn't gonna let this one go by.

And here we are.

My doctorate was finished, I was able to complete it.

I was able to get the vision straight for where I wanted to take things and...

I'm doing it.

I'm doing it with a great group of people.

-Michael, you were telling me that you went to Europe to study how to grow the best strawberries in the world.

-Yes.

-Tell me about that experience.

-A few years back, my agronomist and I, we visited Portugal and Spain to learn specifically how to grow strawberries just like this, to be able to grow the best strawberry that anybody has ever tasted.

-Well, you used the word "agronomist"?

-Yes.

-Am I saying it right?

-You are saying it correctly, yes.

-Okay, tell me what that is.

-An agronomist is somebody who truly specializes in a particular field of study within agriculture and they just, they know that field.

-Right.

That's very cool.

I am blown away beyond words.

I don't have the words to explain the flavor of your strawberries.

-Thank you.

-Your strawberries are out of this world.

-And it just makes me feel good.

It's a lot of work, a lot of effort, and I've been blessed with a lot of people to help me get to this point where we just grow a really, really good strawberry.

-It tastes like a little bit of heaven.

-I like to say, "heaven in your mouth."

-[clapping] I love it.

-[laughs] Good.

-I love it.

[Michael Richards] We purchased the greenhouse in Chuckey, Tennessee, and we brought it to Bristol, Virginia, our home.

[perky music] So this strawberry here is ready to pick today.

The way we grow, it allows us to pick the berry.

We can ship that berry ready to eat and still, three to five days later, that berry still looks like we just took it off the vine.

[jaunty music] -How many acres do you have here?

[Michael Richards] We have almost 2 1/2 acres.

[cheery music] We use ground coconut husk as our media.

In this particular time and place, we can just tell that the leaf has a need for magnesium, so we feed the plant Epsom salts.

[bouncy music] Strawberries don't like to be sitting in water.

They like moisture.

They just don't like to be sitting in it.

[rosy music] The energy screen acts as a movable ceiling that allows us to either keep the heat in, or release the heat, depending on the time of year.

[Chef Missy] Quite an operation.

[Michael Richards] And again, all tied in to a computer system that helps us monitor the actual environment.

We also recapture all excess fertigation solution.

So this is all going to a central place, gets pumped back into the fertigation shed, where it then gets reanalyzed, reused, and brought back into the greenhouse.

[upbeat music] So, here's the deal.

Doesn't matter how good that berry is, if you drop it, it cannot be sold.

-[gasps] -It's just the way it is.

-Wow!

[positive music] [Michael Richards] Southwest Virginia is just a great place to grow strawberries in the fall.

Bristol's been great to us.

Strawberries are a year-round fruit for Southwest Virginia.

[optimistic music] [Chef Missy] When you're in this facility, I just feel the love.

[Michael Richards] Well, we have beautiful people working here, just really, really good people.

[buoyant music] -Mm.

Heaven in your mouth.

[happy music] We are back here in the French Magnolia Culinary Center.

We've just had this amazing morning with Michael at Glenmary Farms, and as you can see, brought back all these incredible strawberries, and we're still with Atalaya Burden, who is a local amazing baker.

We have invited her to join us for today.

We are going to make two strawberry cheesecakes from scratch, one to keep for ourselves.

-Mm-mm.

-Yeah.

And one to give a mutual friend of ours for her birthday.

And today, I'm gonna be your sous chef.

-That's great.

I've always wanted a sous chef.

-[laughs] Everybody needs a sous chef.

-Yes.

-All right, boss, what's the very first thing?

- Mise en place.

-[gasps] Mise en place.

[gasps] What does it mean?

-Everything in its place.

-Oh!

You've made me so happy.

All right, we have one and a quarter ground Graham Crackers made in the food processor, ready to go, a third of a stick of butter, unsalted, and I'm ready to measure out 3/4 cup sugar for your crust.

We have our spray and our springform.

[Atalaya Burden] First thing, I need the Graham Cracker crumbs.

Next, I need to turn this on and heat up the butter.

All right, chef, I need 3/4 cup of sugar.

[Chef Missy] Got it.

-Next, we need two teaspoons of ground cinnamon.

-Got it.

Mm, I love the smell of that cinnamon.

[Atalaya Burden] It does smell good.

Now I'm just gonna take a simple kitchen fork and stir it up a little bit.

I'm gonna pour the butter in and mix it as I pour it.

[Chef Missy] Beautiful.

Mm, that looks great.

[Atalaya Burden] Yes, it does.

-What next, boss?

Tell me.

-We need to get your springform and spray it with olive oil.

[Chef Missy] Perfect.

-Thank you, chef.

-You're welcome.

[Atalaya Burden] So next, what we're gonna do is, we're going to sprinkle all of our crust into the springform and pat it down to make our crust.

[Chef Missy] Beautiful.

-Be sure to get your crust all the way to the edges and make sure you pat it down all the way around.

-Yeah, good point.

-Okay, chef, put this in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, please.

-Thank you.

All right, now that you know how to make your Graham Cracker crust, it's chilling in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Fortunately, Atalaya and I made two Graham Cracker crusts this morning, and they have been chilling at least 30 minutes.

And now we're gonna make our strawberry glaze and our strawberry filling.

And so, we're gonna need two and a half cups each of these fresh, beautiful, local Glenmary Farms strawberries.

So bring me five cups total.

[Atalaya Burden] Okay.

[Chef Missy] Right into the food processor.

We're gonna need two tablespoons of cornstarch each.

Again, we're making two strawberry cheesecakes, so that's four tablespoons all day.

Pulse on high.

All right, next step, we have our strawberry glaze and filling.

We're gonna bring the strawberry glaze to a boil and then turn it down a little bit, let it simmer for about five minutes, and as it simmers, it's gonna get nice and thick, right?

-Yes.

-And we can use it as a filling in the cheesecake, but we can also use it as a glaze.

Now, if you don't have a beautiful strawberry farm right down the street from your house, then you can certainly use frozen strawberries.

Just be sure that after you defrost them, that you wanna get all the liquid out of them because you really don't want it to be wet.

Mm, do you think it's ready?

-I think it's perfect.

-Okay, great.

So the cornstarch acts as a type of glue, right?

So, as the strawberries are releasing sugar and they're reducing and getting hot, then the cornstarch allows it to get gooey and thick.

Okay, let's put these in the refrigerator.

-Okay.

-Okay.

Okay, both of our Graham Cracker crusts have been chilling for 30 minutes plus.

They're ready to go.

We have our strawberry filling and glaze already made and in the refrigerator, right?

-Yes.

-And now, it's time for the filling.

So easy and fast.

You can use a hand mixer, but today we're gonna use our KitchenAid.

We're gonna start with three eight-ounce packages of All-American cream cheese.

And these have been sitting out for a little bit, so they're nice and smushy.

-[Atalaya Burden] Soft.

[Chef Missy] One 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

The juice of one whole lemon.

One and a half teaspoons of really good quality vanilla.

Okay, mix it all together.

-Make sure your mixer is locked before starting.

[Chef Missy] You're gonna wanna start your mixer low for about a minute and then crank it up on high and keep whipping it on high until all the lumps are taken out of the cream cheese.

-Hmm.

-Another great Christmas smell.

-Baking has a lot of delicious smells.

-For sure.

Now for the eggs.

One at a time.

Just keep it on low.

Egg number three.

-The texture of that looks really good.

-Are you pleased with that?

-Mm-hmm.

-All right, we're gonna pour it in about a third of the way.

This is some strawberry glaze that we made right when we got back from the farm.

And it's nice and cold.

[Atalaya Burden] Now pour in another third of the batter.

[Chef Missy] Your batter has a great consistency.

[Atalaya Burden] It is.

[Chef Missy] And I would be generous.

Beautiful.

Okay, one cheesecake down, one to go.

So we're gonna move quickly.

Three eight-ounce packages, all-American cream cheese.

One 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

The juice of one lemon.

A teaspoon and a half of vanilla.

Okay, crank it up.

Adding one egg at a time.

And mixing on low.

Once I know that all three eggs are evenly distributed, then I'm gonna crank it up just a feather for like five seconds.

Okay, moving quickly.

I'm gonna pour a third of my batter in.

Give it a little shake.

Helps to spread it.

I truly think that Glenmary Farms has the most amazing, most delicious strawberries I've ever had in my life.

In fact, I would go so far as to say I don't even know if I've ever had a strawberry until today.

[Atalaya Burden] Yeah, it's very hard to find some good, juicy, delicious strawberries.

[Chef Missy] Yeah, just the way he does things, all of his business practices, his farming practices.

He's such an intelligent guy, too.

And it's inspiring talking with him, don't you think?

He's just, there's something special about him.

-And you can tell he loves what he does.

-Oh, there's so much passion.

We've preheated the oven to 300, and these cheesecakes are not going to cook in a water bath in a bain-marie.

We're gonna just put them right on the shelf in the oven in the middle, and they're gonna bake for one hour.

You do want a little bit of jiggle in the middle when you pull it as it chills in the refrigerator, then everything's gonna come together, it'll tighten and be absolutely beautiful and delicious.

-They already look so pretty.

-I know.

All right, let's get these in the oven.

Right here.

Awesome!

Yay!

Let's clean up.

[laughs] [bell dings] [Chef Missy] After an hour at 300, the cheesecakes are perfect.

There's a little jiggle in the middle, and they are ready to chill.

We have baked our strawberry cheesecake, and it has been chilling for a sufficient amount of time, at least six hours, would you say?

-Oh, yeah.

[Chef Missy] Yeah, definitely, and it's perfect.

All right, let's decorate it.

For me, I thought it would be fun to do our slices, right, and just create a wheel.

[♪♪♪♪♪] One of the things I love is that the entire strawberry is red and edible.

[Atalaya Burden] Yes.

[Chef Missy] All the way down to the little green stem.

[♪♪♪♪♪] You really have never had a strawberry until you've had Glenmary Farms strawberries.

[Atalaya Burden] Definitely.

They're nothing like what you can get in the stores.

[Chef Missy] Right?

It's not even close, is it?

-[Atalaya Burden] No.

-[Chef Missy] I know.

It's sad, but yet encouraging at the same time.

[Atalaya Burden] You know what it looks like?

Edible art.

Not only is the glaze really pretty, I think it adds a lot to the flavor, too.

-I do, too.

You know, my birthday is on Valentine's Day.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

-That must be fun.

-It is, sometimes.

I think I'm gonna make a strawberry cheesecake just for myself.

Just in honor of me, right?

-[Atalaya Burden] I mean... -[Chef Missy] Why not?

-[Atalaya Burden] For real.

-[Chef Missy] For real.

[Atalaya Burden] Why not?

[classical music] -I love it.

Good job.

Okay, can we eat it?

-Definitely, I have been waiting for this.

-[laughs] Okay, let's go for it.

Ta-da.

Wow.

Hmm.

Perfect.

Dense yet fluffy.

Cheers!

-Cheers!

[Chef Missy] I just love looking at it too.

-[Atalaya Burden] Mm-mm.

-Mm.

Mm.

-This is so good.

-Wow!

Should we share some with Thomas?

-Mm... -Mm, no.

-I think we probably should.

-All right, okay.

Very cool.

Right here.

Nicely done.

-Thank you.

You too.

[classical music] -Are you sure you can't come move in with me?

-I cannot.

-[laughs] -Thank you for having me.

-You're so welcome.

I guess you have to finish high school.

-Yeah, that is kind of important.

-Yeah.

You're an amazing baker, and I wanna be your very first customer when you open your first bakery.

Okay?

-Thank you.

-You're awesome.

Oh.

Mm.

It was a great day.

-It was.

It was a lot of fun.

-It was a lot of fun.

And we kinda killed it.

-Yeah.

-I love it.

Okay.

Later, Gator.

-Bye.

[classical music] [Chef Missy] Attaining excellence in a field requires discipline, time, acumen, study, and the perfect safe haven environment.

Like strawberries, gifts must be nurtured, watered, and stewarded in a protective, warm blanket of encouragement fueled by love.

Glenmary Farms has reached the pinnacle of distinction and excellence for the romantic strawberry.

The virtue and character of the grower yields excellence so that we can experience a little slice of heaven.

The accentuated perfection of excellence, stewarded in an atmosphere of love, gratitude, and generosity causes flavor to flourish.

Heaven in your mouth.

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

Details at smythcounty economicdevelopment.com.