- [Promoter] "A Fork in the Road" is brought to you by.

- [Promoter] From produce to people, the best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times, we come together, work hard, and grow strong.

When you purchase Georgia-grown products you support farmers, families, and this proud state we call home.

Together we will keep Georgia growing.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you are the star ♪ ♪ All right, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feelings pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ - The fascinating and ever-changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bakers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more.

Straight ahead at the fork in the road.

(singers humming) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ - [David] Georgia farmers, artisans, merchants and producers, we depend on these men and women every day of our lives through the choices we make in the food we consume.

Their strategy and approach is always shifting, but the end game remains the same, results.

(soulful music) (gentle guitar music) Our oceans are full of wondrous creatures, an abundance of resources, and for years innovative minds have discovered new ways to maximize those resources.

But more recently doing so in a more sustainable and responsible manner.

This week we explore a few farmers, shrimpers and scientists who make a living studying and harvesting these common and not so common creatures from the sea to the table.

(singers humming) Let's begin off the coast of Brunswick with a man named Truck and Captain Johnny for an early morning cruise in search of shrimp.

(gentle upbeat guitar music) Shrimp captain Johnny Ray Bennett is usually up before the crack of dawn.

Soon after launch, he lowers the outriggers.

All is quiet on the open water except for the steady churning of the engine of his boat known as Dora F. No sunrise yet, but at 4:30 am the Moon decides to boast a little of its glory.

Herbert McIver, who everyone refers to as Truck is a longtime shrimper who now does work with the UGA Marine Extension Service.

Truck and I hopped aboard the Dory F with Captain Johnny aiming to pick up some shrimp for the Brunswick City market.

Hoping this day could be a good one.

(suspenseful music) - We've letting the net down what we've put 'em overboard.

(suspenseful music) We are dragging right here in the middle of the flu to see is there any shrimp there.

- [David] Once deployed, these giant nets skim along the sand and each net is fitted with a turtle escape device known as a ted and to bycatch reduction device to help unwanted larger fish escape and effectively reduce the bycatch.

There's also a smaller net that is much easier to pull in and can serve as kind of a test net to give shrimpers an idea of what to expect in the big nets.

- [Captain Johnny] Get 'em all.

- [David] Giving them a better idea of when to pull those in.

(suspenseful music) Once Captain Johnny gave the call, Truck pulled in the big net using the giant winch located in the center of the boat.

(suspenseful music) - Is that a big old sturgeon in there?

- [David] Sturgeon?

- Yep.

- [Truck] Whoa!

- You can push him right out that hole.

(suspenseful music) - [David] What do you think when you bring in the big nets?

What do you think's gonna be in that net?

- Ain't no telling.

- [David] Yeah - Sometimes they pay off good and sometimes they don't, but you gotta catch more shrimp in your trynet for cold water shrimp.

Fall shrimp and the summertime shrimp, you ain't gotta catch as many.

Now, brownie, he's the same thing like cold water shrimp.

You always gotta get two or 300 or half a basket to catch anything.

- [David] What's the difference in taste with the the white and the brown?

- The brown is a little bit sweeter.

I don't know why, they call 'em fresh water shrimp.

I don't know what they are, but I like all of them.

- [Truck] You might caught a little bit more fish.

- [Captain Johnny] I got a bunch of white in your this side.

- [David] Tell me what you're doing now.

- Cuddling the shrimp, getting them up.

I'm taking the big shrimp putting them one place and the small one in a another.

Putting the whitenings over there in that basket.

Anything I don't pick up, go back overboard.

- [David] We brought in some shrimp, but not near what these guys were hoping for.

- [Captain Johnny] Some boats do good and some ain't catching nothing.

I don't know what it is.

You see it ain't but one boat out there besides us and that's my grandson.

- [David] Overseeing the variety of these shrimp and other bottom-dwelling species was incredibly fascinating to say the least.

- [Captain Johnny] Hey!

- [Truck] Look what we got here.

- [Captain Johnny] Tiger shrimp.

- [David] What's a tiger shrimp?

- An Indian tiger shrimp migrated this way.

There's quite a few of 'em show up in the last four, five years.

They're huge, you can bake 'em, fry it.

It taste just like a regular shrimp.

Further south you go the more you find.

I've seen them that long.

- [David] Like Captain Johnny said, there are much fewer shrimp boats off the Georgia coast compared to the days when Truck and Captain Johnny started in this business.

Head back out tomorrow hoping for better luck?

- I don't know, ain't made up my mind.

(Captain Johnny laughing) - [David] But the quality of the brown and white shrimp caught off these Georgia shores are as sweet as ever and a true gem for chefs who cook 'em up and those who feast.

(singers humming) From the shores of Brunswick to the docks of Darien to learn about an interesting off-season alternative for shrimp boat captains, at least here in Georgia.

(upbeat music) In many parts of Asia, it's a common meal.

Of course, here in the us for the most part jellyfish is not on the menu.

However, there's a few folks here in Georgia who realize that the cannonball jellyfish or jelly balls, which are quite plentiful off these healthy Georgia shores, are the perfect texture for consumption.

Offering a little more of a crunch to your jellyfish salad.

- We're located in Darien, Georgia, right on the coast, and we process cannonball jellyfish otherwise known as jelly balls.

- It's a traditional food in Chinese community, mainly in China, Taiwan.

When we was young, all the banquet like a wedding banquet and the birthday banquet the jellyfish is one of the item you have to put on the table to share with your families.

Is a dedicated food in Chinese community.

I can say the texture is good, the shellfish is the number one in the world.

I think that our jellyfish is the number one in the world.

- Something about our jellyfish that makes them better than anywhere in the world.

I don't know if it's our water temperature, if it's the path that they take, what they're eating, but our jellyfish are crunchy and it's the crunch that makes the jellyfish.

(upbeat music) - Shrimp boats are used to catch jellyfish.

They switch out the nets.

The nets to catch jellyfish are larger nettings and they're much stronger, 'cause of course, jelly balls are a lot heavier than shrimp.

A good catch of jellyfish is about 60,000 pounds.

So, when a boat comes in of jellyfish, we use our suck machine.

This hose will suck the jelly balls off the boat and it'll come through the hose onto our conveyor where we kind of look through and see if there's anything that probably doesn't belong.

And then it'll come across through here where it drops into a large vat that will then lift with a forklift and take up to our processing plant.

(upbeat music) The vats of jellyfish are filled with water and then brought over to these mixers where they're agitated to remove the slime off the jellyfish.

We do this because it just creates a better texture and they stay in these agitators for about 20 minutes and then we remove them and then they're lifted with the forklift and put into these washing machine.

and then they're swished around and that's when everything else that came from the ocean along with the jellyfish gets removed.

The jelly balls will fall out as well and they'll come down through and they'll fall in another vat.

This time that vat is lined.

When that vat gets full, then we'll bring it over to another part of our facility where we're now we're ready for brining.

(suspenseful music) After they come out of the washer, this is when the brining starts.

So we add more water along with aluminum sulfate and salt.

So, this is what gives it its shelf life and allows it to stay shelf stable.

- [David] And how long does it do this for?

- [Employee] We usually keep it in this brine for about two weeks before we begin packaging.

So, Michael and I are gonna check the salt saturation of this brine solution.

- [David] What are you looking for?

- We want it to be above 74 just for safety purposes, but for quality purposes we like it above 83.

- [David] Okay, and what's this one at?

- [Michael] Like 87.

- [Employee] That's perfect.

- [Michael] 95.

- [David] 95.

- That makes sense, 'cause all the salt was on the bottom.

After they're brined for about a couple weeks we are ready to pack them for shipping and we pack those in five gallon buckets and send them on their way.

- [David] Are there certain months that are better for catching them?

- Our season runs from the end of December to, if we're lucky, the end of April.

(gentle upbeat music) - We try to do everything local.

We buy our supplies locally.

We rent our extra equipment during in season locally.

Our jelly ballers, which are shrimpers.

We hire them locally, because it's very important to stimulate our local economy.

- [David] In July, 2002, Terry and the team at Golden Island International became the first American company to export jellyfish to Asia.

- About 20% of our business is domestic.

We sell mostly to Asian markets that do a finished product.

- We ship to the China, and the China importer sell to the producer, to the factory, and the factory make this one and ship back to the United States.

They have a seasoning package just like ramen noodle.

- You, yeah, a Caesar salad.

You just open it, you can eat it.

(upbeat music) - Terry has found a niche market that he's very passionate about.

He loves providing for this community.

He loves seeing this whole business an idea that he had come to fruition.

And I see that every day that he comes to work.

- [David] So, Terry and the team keep chugging along with high hopes for a business with seemingly endless opportunity.

Western culture has surely embraced consuming oysters and even snails, right?

So, is eating jellyfish a stretch?

I myself might have to try it.

(gentle upbeat music) (singers humming) Remaining in Macintosh County near Darien, we explored the business of another aquatic species that frequents the shallows of this nutrient-rich water.

(suspenseful music) This is Georgia's beautiful coast the most protected stretch of marshland on America's eastern seaboard.

A safe haven for nesting birds and home to healthy nutrient-rich water that harbors a perfect growing environment for this shell Georgia-grown gem.

(inspirational music) Ernest McIntosh Senior and Junior have been farming these Georgia oysters for several years under the company name E.L. Macintosh & Son Seafood.

Continuing a long family line of seafood production coming from these Macintosh County marshes.

(inspirational music) - It's a blessing to have someone to be able to carry it on.

It make me feel like all what I've done in life that it would continue going on.

(inspirational music) - You know, I've been raised in the commercial crabbing and it is something we challenged and win at together.

We got this opportunity and we, it was like, I guess we were kind of like a two-headed man.

You know, we was all together at the same thing.

(gentle music) Oyster's a big part of clean water, clean air.

One of these oysters filters, a big one, 50 gallons a day.

So I mean, it's a good thing for us.

And I wish it was more people interested in it than it is for the state.

And I imagine we'll get there.

- Oyster farming is something that it's just something different.

It's worked, but it's all together different from what I've been doing over the years.

Me and him butt heads sometime, but I have to listen to him because he's got a younger mine and other time he hit me with this new technology stuff and it all works out.

- These here are market ready.

These would be the first one out of the farm when the season reopens.

- You've got the work to get looking like this now.

This oyster is up off the bottom.

It's not in the mud.

It oysters and racks and bog bags and stuff like that.

And they filter clean water all the time.

It's not filtering that mud.

So, the bacteria is much lesser in this oyster when you growing it in the water column.

- You ain't going to just put this animal out there and expect for it to just go on its own, 'cause it's not gonna make, it's not gonna be pretty.

(upbeat music) We keep a three day minimum a week out here with these guys, sometimes four days.

And if you're trying to make a living at it and you want to be successful, you going to stay out here on this water behind it.

A wild spat is any farmer's worst nightmare.

That is a wild oyster larvae.

So, what that does is when the tide goes out certain time of season that wild oyster will put out that larvae.

And as the tide goes out, it try to catches on hold on to something before the water leaves it.

So, whatever it latches on there it'll sit there and it'll grow.

So, you can imagine the millions of that in the water and it hit one of these little bags here and attached to these little guys.

And now, you got a box here.

You got a bag of oysters, a reef rather.

You can't do nothing with it.

But the opportunities is how much you wanna work at it and be a good farmer, you know?

If it ever gets that bad, you're not really interested in being a farmer.

(upbeat music) - [David] These oysters look different than what you may be used to seeing.

There's a golden brown glaze along the outer shell and they're harvested individually, not clumped.

And this is all by design.

It's the result of a team of researchers, biologists, farmers and chefs, all sharing information, long hours, and a team passion for this amazing creature.

(gentle upbeat music) Just a couple of counties north of Harris Neck lies Skidaway Island home of the UGA Marine Extension in Georgia Sea Grant, the birthplace of Georgia's first oyster hatchery.

Tom Bliss is the director of UGAs Shellfish Research Lab and guides a dedicated team that is pioneering Georgia's oyster aquaculture.

(upbeat music) - We work with the oyster's natural cycle.

So, we bring the oysters in, in the spring, we conduct a spawn.

Once they've spawned, we have to fertilize the eggs and then take care of the larvae all the way through their larva period until they become oysters, which they do it during their setting period.

So, here in Georgia, our oysters grow in the intertidal, which causes them to grow tightly bound together in clumps.

Those clumps are excellent for roast, but they're hard to break apart into single oysters that individuals like to be able to eat at a restaurant.

So therefore, we've started adopting practices that have been developed elsewhere to grow them as a single oyster for wider distribution and actually, easier to eat in many ways.

And so, to do that you have to go to a more gear intensive industry and use hatchery-produced oyster seed to make it a much easier process.

So every oyster grown takes on the flavor of the water that it's in.

So, an oyster here from Georgia can look the same, but it can have a completely different taste than one from South Carolina, or Virginia, or the Gulf.

- [David] Justin Manley is the hatchery manager here on Skidaway and has played a major role in revolutionizing Georgia's oyster industry.

He carefully watches over their maturity from spawn to the first several months of growth.

A fascinating process to say the least.

- We are trying to provide economic growth and stability to the industry.

Seed forms the foundation of the oyster industry and that's one thing the University of Georgia Marine Extension Georgia Sea Grant is trying to do is help provide growers a stable environment to invest in developing their businesses.

(upbeat music) What we're doing right now is we're spawning oysters to produce oyster larvae.

In nature, oysters are mass spawners so they'll broadcast spawn eggs and sperm into the water column, and in the water column fertilization occurs.

And now, I'm adding some live sperm to see if we can get something.

The oysters will develop 14 to 21 days until they become competent.

During this time they develop an eye that's about 200 microns in size and they'll look for an adult oyster or some other form of substrate to settle on.

What we do here is we spawn the oysters artificially using something called thermal induction, which is changing the water temperature from cold to hot simulating a spring condition, which is a cue to them, a biological cue, that they need to start spawning.

So this is where we bring oysters to grow them here in the upland before they're moved out to growers in the field.

So you can see how how the water's coming through you can't really see through it very well.

It's because we have only a handful of oysters in the silo.

We have about 50,000, okay?

You can see they're a lot smaller than some of the other oysters we have in this upweller.

These are larger oysters.

They're able to clear that water out relatively quickly, because of their size and their density, 'cause oysters are filter feeders.

What we're doing here is we are upwelling these oysters right now.

So, we're bringing raw water in from the estuary in through our tanks and then it's returned back to the ocean again.

It's bringing in oxygen and plenty of phytoplankton so they can grow.

These oysters right here are for one of our growers, Ernest McIntosh, E.L. Macintosh & Son.

They're currently our only oyster farmer.

This is all his, I think we've got a little over a million oysters right here in this upweller at this time.

(upbeat music) - [David] An oyster is indeed a shellfish, a living creature, that needs to feed.

And though they seem unaware and lifeless at first glance there's a fascinating process that goes into feeding them appropriately.

That's where Rob Hein comes into the story along with his giant bubbling fluorescent tubes of algae.

- It's very similar to horticulture.

We just take small amounts of the algae and we'll move them into a larger vessel and add nutrients.

Very similar how you would take a small plant that's getting a little root bound and you'd re-pot it into a bigger pot with more room, more soil and then you would need to fertilize it as well.

This is the same species of algae in different densities.

And as the algae grows more and more, it becomes more and more dense.

And so, you can actually see the color change.

So, these are ready to either be fed or to be transferred into a larger size vessel like the one behind me.

The exact growing region of an oyster does impact the flavor of the oyster and the quality of the oyster, which probably does have something to do with the native algae strains in that particular region.

- [David] Oysters naturally grow in clumps, creating giant fish-feeding mounds of shells all around these pristine marshlands and fluctuating tides.

So, growing these oysters individually and say from predators is a challenge this team takes on every day.

They learn the do's and don'ts the hard way through experience, trial and error.

So, the farmer has fewer challenges on their end.

In turn creating a more profitable product.

- We're researching this to make it easier for people that are interested in it to get started in it.

We've made a few mistakes ourselves and it's very valuable to pass that information on to someone that might be wanting to get into it so they don't lose all their investment.

(bright music) - [David] Rob, Justin and the UGA oyster hatchery team keep a close relationship with the Macintosh's.

These shellfish begin life on Skidaway are then moved to the marshlands of Macintosh County in the good hands of the Macintosh oyster farming family.

And from there grown to perfection.

- UGA gave us seeds and we actually, wanted to make those seeds grow.

We failed a little bit and once we caught on to how to make that oyster grow and make it look real good, it hadn't stopped since.

- So as the industry grows, our hope is that we can help facilitate the growth of the commercial aspect, not only in the farming aspect, but also on the hatchery side.

- [David] It's an exciting yet challenging industry, but this team has come quite far and learned so much.

Teamed with dedicated scientists and honest, hardworking farmers like the Macintoshes, the future is bright for an industry for these remarkable Georgia-born creatures.

And though Earnest has yet to discover a pearl in one of these gold glaze shells, perhaps the real gem is the oyster itself.

- If you grow something and you are afraid to eat it yourself then I mean, how you think other people going to feel?

So, they got certain months with it, but I know what I'm growing and how I'm taking care of it.

It's salty.

- Once they grow out, right?

I'm worse than a kid in a candy store when a beautiful one comes out the bunch.

I mean, I love them.

(upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) - So, from shrimp and oysters to the lesser known industry of jellyfish, these hardworking Georgia businessmen and women are a resilient group who truly believe in the importance of what they do and the opportunity that lies ahead.

I'm David Zelski see you at the next "Fork in the Road".

"A Fork in the Road was brought to you by... (upbeat music) - [Promoter] From produce to people, the best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times, we come together, work hard and grow strong.

When you purchase Georgia-grown products you support farmers, families, and this proud state we call home.

Together, we will keep Georgia growing.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you are the star ♪ ♪ All right, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feelings pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪