The fork in the road was brought to you by.

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.

And the picture on the wall.

A sign.

From afar yet to meet.

Face to face has been.

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.

I came from the desert on my hands, strong like a.

Tree.

They're contrasting.

And 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 and farmers and chefs both depended on and appreciated pretty much since the first seeds were planted.

It can be argued that a chef is better when they understand the farmer and their crop, and a farmer loves to see the creative culinary masterpieces that are often formed from the fruits of their labor.

This week we follow a beloved Georgia chef who returns to the Peach State after a few years away to reunite with a few local farmers, meet some new ones and forge lasting relationships for his next Georgia restaurant in Atlanta's Summer Hill district, Known as Southern National.

We begin Chef Nutter's farm journey in Connelly, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, where he meets a dedicated dairy goat farmer who is providing tasty local cheeses for this community and beyond.

Goats are fun, often quite funny and absolutely adorable, as Chef Nutter quickly discovered.

But he also learned that these goats are talented, and that's much to the credit of Mary Rigdon and the evenly talented team at Decimal Place Farm.

Decimal place started when I was living in Grant Park on a 10th of an acre, and my husband and I decided that we could try and live on a farm.

I wanted to be a stay at home mother for my children.

And when we got here, I got two little goats and I made the cheese in the kitchen.

The children and I had a great time.

We had the garden right here.

One thing led to another and people kept coming down the driveway wanting the goat milk.

And I had to tell them, I'm.

I'm not a dairy.

I'm not a dairy.

This is just for my family.

And I talked to a friend of mine who built the building for me in 2008.

We became a legal grade, a dairy, and we've been supported by local chefs like Chef Nutter for the last 15 years.

What we milk from Sunday through Wednesday goes to the restaurants, and then what we do on Thursday and Friday goes fresh to the farmer's market.

We have 40 animals milking twice a day every day, and that's the amount of milk and cheese we have to make our products.

Is hard to believe that you're like seven miles from the airport and you just take two or three turns and there's all this Atlanta traffic chaos.

And then you're tucked away back here on these 40 acres.

What are you looking for when you're trying these cheeses.

Outside to weird, like a sense of place?

A lot of region's cheeses could be the same, same recipe.

But because of the grass that they chose for the feed that they chose, the way they treat the animals, the flavors are a little different.

A different kind of sweetness, mildly molasses.

See, they're a lot of the citrus notes are a little higher to tear, whereas different you get the taste of the lamb is guys like we ready to give milk and I like to see what's going on.

Come on in.

Everything is the same, but miniature.

Yeah.

Let's see, because I knew that I was going to be doing this.

It's built for my height.

It's like, perfect.

And I measured my longest goat when I built the place so that they wouldn't fall off the back edge.

So it's built for me.

The only problem is that when I have taller people work for me, sometimes they hit their head on the ceiling when they're up there.

The story of my life.

Yeah.

You know.

Reaching a little differently.

With dipped everyone with a chlorine based dip.

And then we wipe each one separate paper towel for each side so that if there's any possibility of contamination, it's not spread.

And then the first stream is milk.

We make sure it comes out no clots, no lumps, so that the milk quality is just right.

Goat milk is actually naturally homogenized, shorter chain fatty acids.

And that's why for folks that have the allergies and sensitivities, it's easier for them to digest the goat milk.

The milk is.

Coming through the line here and then it goes down to a large pipe which takes it to the receiver at the end of the run.

You hear it, it shucking and mucking over.

Here we go.

Empty that thing.

You turn around and go help your back.

Time for some arugula salad now.

This is round one.

We bring in ten at a time.

Every test.

There you go.

Come on, Everybody out.

I know we have visitors.

Hurry.

Round two is ready.

I think they're wondering what's taking so long.

This is a choice that I made because I believe in an animal that eats poison ivy.

Honeysuckle, privet, kudzu, and turns it into milk.

Once a month, we do a sampling of each animal's milk and weigh that sample so that we know exactly who's giving how much and those records stands nationally.

But also it tells me how the animals are doing.

That's Preston.

The chickens are housekeeping.

They fluff the bedding and eat the bugs.

And then we we get the eggs just for us here.

Scott Got some nice legs, though, and I see them.

Because we want a year round milk supply.

We have babies born almost year round.

Future studies.

All of these to happen to turn out to be boys, but they'll be future herd sires at another farm.

They come out here whenever the weather's going to be good so they can stretch their legs, get used to nibbling on things but still be safe.

Would you like to go and see the cheese making?

Of course it's cheese time.

When we're milking, it comes through the pipe, through the wall and then down into the tank.

And then in the morning I start the first batch of milk and then we start milking.

I started making cheese in the pot because that way, whatever chef called that day, I knew what I was making so I could make the creamy goat cheese and the feathered cheese and balance what the chefs who called for those cheeses wanted.

A lot of time.

The recipes.

I try to come up with a dictate with what flavor profile I might be looking for.

So I'm not like a certain stone type person, but I am interested in this mozzarella thing she's got going on.

This is milk that we put the culture in yesterday, but the rennet did not get added.

So what we've got is a very beautiful buttermilk.

What did you learn today?

I learned, and I'm going to get to taste goat mozzarella.

I read about it.

I never had any.

So I'm looking forward to that.

This is a cheddar cheddar.

We don't do a lot of this.

But since you're here today.

Don't make me blush.

We have the feta cheese here.

This is the chevre, the creamy goat cheese, and then a celeste fig.

Oh, that way chef can have his creamy goat cheese on that beautiful Celeste fig.

Will subtle citrus notes.

And then this one is the surreal Wow.

That was really good.

Oh, man.

Lighter, I would say area not as heavy.

I feel like you could eat more of this with this.

This is the milk.

Smooth.

And then there's your buttermilk.

Buttermilk again, not as heavy as a dairy buttermilk.

So it's safe to say that decimal place farm cheeses ain't on the menu at Southern National.

You could just sense Chef's creative culinary mind churning, cheesy new ideas with this impressive variety of flavors.

Let's continue our journey with Chef Nutter to stop number two in Lyons, Georgia, where, just like the ancient Greeks, a hardworking Georgia couple is also striving to achieve mastery of the other.

Tommy Williams has been farming in the land of Lyons for decades, learning what can be accomplished in this rich Georgia soil.

And after he and his wife and business partner, Stephanie, spent a few years in Europe learning more about the amazing uses of the olive.

This farm took on an entirely new and unique look.

After living in the Middle East for a while in Europe and just love the olive tree and then when I saw that some guys in southwest Georgia were able to grow olive trees, I had to plant them.

So we planted them about five acres, not really knowing much about what to do, except that we I knew how to farm.

Then they made olives and then we won an international award with it.

So then we got really out in favor.

These olives are bikinis for Spanish variety.

It's a very common variety and it's good for high density, but it's more delicate than some of the olives from, say, Italy that will have more pungency.

We're fortunate to have just a touch of pungency, but on the whole, a mile oil.

And sometimes the flavor does vary year to year based on what percentage of different olives we have in it.

This year we had a lot of corn.

Nicky that produced well.

So there is a little bit more pungency, a little bite.

When you swallow the oil, you can kind of feel that peppery finish on it.

What we're hoping is to find an ideal variety for Georgia.

It makes a bigger olive that makes a good flavor at all, and it makes a lot of oil per ton.

And as well with the climate.

Yeah, it'd be nice for us to have several different varieties.

When we do tastings, people could tell the difference.

The one thing that people can tell the difference of if they've never had fresh oil, it's nothing like you're buying at Wal Mart.

It is totally different.

It's not blended with all old oil or been sitting on the shelf a long time and it's definitely better.

Chef Nutter knew all about this tasty Georgia product before making his journey to Lyons, but getting a hands on, eyes on and taste on experience was definitely a feast for the senses.

So, Chef, these are trees that are pruned back.

I've got a harvester that goes over the top of them.

Okay, so you've got to put them down.

Prune, and then you get a nice gentle shake and they kind of come.

Off into the bottom and then they're all going up into the top.

You can't eat olives off the tree if you measure it.

You can look at that oil, come out and feel.

The hole in it.

So we have a few different varieties of olives.

This is a great variety here.

This is called a Courtney Key.

These are basically see all of the different shape.

It's more of a oval shape.

But at the point at the bottom.

Yeah.

And it's a bigger olive.

What I like to do is just squeeze a few of them and.

Then just go.

What I've discovered is my best fruit is made on the end of the row or where are missing some trees, which tells me that the tree is on the end of the row, are getting more air, more sun.

And so I'm going to take out every third row in every other tree.

I think George is going to have a better chance of growing olives.

If we do the traditional planting rather than high density, we're going to go look at the middle.

Middle and process, right.

For olive oil to keep for several years.

You've got to keep it away from oxygen.

Okay, so this tank has a floating lid.

It will sit down on whatever the level is, and then you take this cup and pop up an inner tube around that.

So it keeps the air away from the water, from all I filter all my old because new oil is tastes really good for a few days, but then it starts going bad.

And if you filter, if you don't have any problems with it.

The other thing we do, you put two bottles on there that right there puts liquid nitrogen in the bottle in that when the bottle fills up, fitness places all the options in a dark bottle like that, it should keep three years.

We also do flavored oils.

This is basil, rosemary, lemon and garlic.

So after the tour, it was time to taste.

So Tommy and Stephanie fired up the pizza and began kneading the dough to create a perfectly perfect circle drizzle.

The terra dolci back and forth, sprinkled a few extra seasonings and let Chef begin his experience.

One of the things that we see a lot is people don't really understand what good olive oil is like because we've maybe grown up tasting what we consider bad olive oil.

So we tried to educate people when they come out to the farm.

This is cold pressed extra virgin.

This is what it's supposed to taste like.

So we're going to try this.

Just milled last week.

So what you want to do is get it to come across your palate, sipping it up.

Similar to.

Wine.

Very much similar wine.

Kind of let it go around your mouth and then give it a smaller and you should feel a little bite.

Yeah, small bite.

Not much peppery bite.

Right?

It is milder than some of the other oils you will find in different parts of America.

We attribute that to the soul, the climate, different things like that.

We made some pizza, Bianca here and we have some fig and BlackBerry.

The Blackberries came from across the street in our garden over there.

And this is plain oil.

And this is.

Herbs.

Mm hmm.

Mm.

Well, they're all.

There.

Yeah.

You don't need anything else, right?

So we eat.

Olive oil pretty much every day.

It's got a lot of great properties, as you are, I'm sure familiar with it.

So we're trying to extend life a little bit by enjoying the olive oil.

We're committed to make it work, but we have to find olives that produce more tons to the acre, more gallons per ton, good flavored olives.

We're finally at that place where we're not just trying to get to the next year's crop.

We are actually able to try new varieties and try different and growing and planting techniques and different pruning techniques as well.

We hope to discover the tree that works for Georgia so we can grow the whole industry.

And still maintain good quality.

So now that we have the oil and the cheese, it's time to appease the chef's palate with a variety of veggies.

After Mansfield, to discover the farming world of love is love.

It's a farming cooperative with a mission in mind.

Joe Reynolds and Judith Winfrey believed a carbon neutral farm like this one that provides for their community and beyond was possible.

And it appears they were correct.

They have a dedicated team of partners who are all in with them to help this farm grow through farming methods they believe are best for the future.

My name is Demetrius Milling.

My position here is worker owner.

A lot does not cooperate far from is love.

Cooperative Farm was really started in 2008 by Joe and Judith and Douglasville, Georgia and after a few years they moved on to a property in Decatur.

There there was one and two and a half acres and we serve two CSA restaurant customers and a little bit of wholesale clients.

But we were really limited by our capacity on space.

So we were approached by an opportunity with the Conservation Fund and they have a program called the Working Farms Fund, and that fund has the goal of buying farmland and metro areas to conserve that farmland as cities grow, to have farmland saved in perpetuity.

Chef Nutter worked with these talented farmers at love his love when his former Atlanta restaurant was looking for fresh veggies.

And now he has returned to tour this new farm to learn about the daily farm operations and the tasty crops in season at Love is love.

Love is love of God themselves.

The bigger location and being able to help chefs like myself and everybody else in the city that use them as well as home cooks, all that good stuff.

That recognition from chefs about our high quality really inspired us to take the opportunity with the working class and find to expand.

We want to have the opportunity to provide for a longer period of time and be on the menu a little bit longer for chefs in a more permanent spot.

Provide that quality and that certainty.

Demetrius We got hired right when I left the city and I was kind of cool.

See, they expand it and you showing me around some of their staples that they love to grow and they grow very well.

And then some new a few new items because they have more space.

I want to use my imagination.

We're starting all the seeds here in the greenhouse.

A couple of things get started outside.

More of your radishes, your turnips and beets.

But all the leafy greens just started here.

Okay?

And it also what it does, it allows us to get a jump start on the season with it being in here.

And we can still be growing outside.

Yeah, Russell's right now is harvest in that pan.

He shoots there about three inches tall and that's when they're real tender.

And so we got him at three inches there, seed around two weeks ago.

This is a really quick turnaround for that crop.

You guys doing like a rotation of Microgreens you might do or.

Yeah, we do.

Well, this is what we're going to do if you're interested.

Exactly.

We do have a rotation, so mainly it's basil, kale, Mizuno, Rugal, red mustard, and then we have these species.

There is a kind of our go tos.

I see.

We got tomatoes starting.

Yeah.

So these is our late crop, the cherry tomatoes.

It's like my favorite smell.

All the stuff on your fingers.

Yeah, I see some bok choy.

One of my favorite veggies.

Yeah.

So what we're looking for in them, bok choy is a lot of size, right here in the middle part.

What is your favorite part of the plant?

The bees.

And I like the the stock.

Mm.

Because it can take a lot of flavor and take a lot of high heat as well.

And the delicate ness of the leaves, it's like two textures.

And we were with you previously, we're around two and a half acres and now that we have this lease with the conservation fund, we've expanded to six acres and we look to expand even more.

We have around seven more acres.

We can expand into eggplant.

Yes, we only grow the Wong Japanese type.

We don't grow like the Black Beauty, kind of like your.

Big.

American eggplant.

So we just grow the longer type of eggplant.

They are kind of similar in flavor, but these right here could be a senator plate thing where the the big one is more of an ingredient type of thing.

And we want, you know, our customers to feel like they can take this and add it in a dish or even make it like a side on a dish and is manageable instead of a commit to a big large eggplant.

But you got there's you.

Have the world famous okra, the life sustaining love it or hate it, either rocking them or you're not.

Okay.

I love sunshine.

Okra loves heat.

We got both of those and love the South.

In a location on the field.

You gave it the maximum amount of sun.

Yes.

Highly underrated or highly underrated.

The mission is simple, but that in no way means that implementation is easy.

However, it is obvious that the team here loves what they are doing and truly believe in the why.

We now head a few miles to the capital city of Atlanta, where chef Dwayne Nutter has gathered his fresh ingredients from all the farms and joins forces with another great Georgia chef.

So now that chef has gathered his veggies from love, his love, his olive oil from Terra Dolci and the tasty goat cheese from decimal place farm, he joins Georgia grown executive chef Holly Shute in her kitchen so we can all discover just what was brewing in his culinary mind as he toured the great farming state of Georgia.

So what you got here, chef?

Well, today I'm working on an idea.

All right.

I got some Japanese style eggplant from love's little farm.

What did you drizzle on that?

I went to the farm as well.

That does the Georgia olive oil, Taro, don't you?

Yeah.

And then you brought me some salt.

That's good.

Samphire from beautiful briny sea right here in Atlanta.

Oh, this stuff is so awesome.

I'm a big smoke, smoke soaked situation person.

I got a cast iron in here.

Real nice and hot, and I just wanted to simply just blister them with some of this George olive oil and this campfire song.

And what are you going to do with them once we get them out of the pan or nice and blistered?

Well, you show me some of this bourbon fig jam.

Yeah.

And I also went to decimal forms and I got some of her goat cheese and I mixed in with some four minute black garlic.

Smoke and up nice.

It was broken up nice and tender, loving this skill to a touch more olive oil.

And then I want to just give them a little flip.

Since we're going in this point here.

How are you going to do all that fancy chef stuff?

And oh, no, we're just going to just dollop nothing too fancy, just enough so you can get in there and you get some goat cheese, whatever, a little bit of the eggplant.

And then I got the bourbon fig jam.

It's going to just kind of a few little pops.

That's going to be awesome with the goat cheese.

As its chefs, the.

Fancy guys.

See, I knew you couldn't.

You could not do it.

And then I want to give a nice little dollop on top and with my Georgia pecans, pecans, corns, nuts.

Beautiful.

I call it blistered eggplant with campfire salt, black garland, goat cheese.

So next time you want a tasty treat in Atlanta full of fresh local ingredients, swing by the Summerhill District and visit this friendly and entertaining chef.

He'll keep you laughing with his quick wit and friendly disposition.

And he's always thinking up great new culinary ideas with a little help from his creative farming friends.

I'm David Zaleski.

See you at the next fork in the road.

The fork in the road is brought to you by.

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.

And the picture on the wall as sign from afar.

You get to meet.

Oh, it feels good.

This has been the best.