- [David] "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by... - I'm Tyler Harper, as your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia grown.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet, to me you are a star ♪ ♪ All right, Baby ♪ ♪ Hey, feel good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feeling pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ ♪ Na-na-na-na-na-na ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper, as your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge, try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

- [David] 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 "A Fork in the Road".

(rhythmic humming music) ♪ 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.

(upbeat music) (bright music) For the past 12,000 years, the ways of agriculture have constantly evolved changing the way society operates.

And in today's age of agriculture, what we grow and how we grow our fruits and veggies have drastically changed, but the end goal is in most cases the same, consistency and quality.

Every year, several fruit and vegetable farmers in the Southeastern US meet with others who share this passion for farming.

But you see, it's not just the growers, it's also those who build the machines and help them do their job, the big ones, the small, the simple devices and the smart ones.

I had the opportunity to journey down to Savannah to join Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and several others who share this passion to understand why meetings like this are so important to our farmers and our region as a whole.

(gentle music) - Well, it's great to be in Savannah at the Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference with the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, and it's just a opportunity for growers and producers to come together and see new and innovative technology in the fruit and vegetable industry, but also have opportunities to find ways to continue to market their products and find ways to ensure that they can do it in the best possible way.

Keeping their costs as low as they can on the farm, and obviously, getting the best return that they can at the same time, but gives farmers and producers and also the industry opportunity to get together and discuss issues that are going on in agriculture.

And I'm just glad to be here to participate in that and see what those issues are from those farmers, producers in the industry and how we can help them ensure that our state's number one industry continues to be successful.

- The farmers by trade are sort of individualists, but we come together here all under one roof.

You can get everything related to agricultural production of fruits and vegetables.

We've got growers, we've got researchers, we've got experts from Cooperative Extension and land-grant universities.

So, it's really a chance for the folks to come together and meet with the experts, then meet with each other, then learn the valuable skills that they can take home and put to work on the farm for this growing season that they're all about to start into.

So, having the chance to come together and be in person is critical.

(gentle music) - So, my name is Russ Goodman.

I'm a blueberry farmer in South Georgia, as well as I serve the people of South Georgia and the State Senate, the eighth district, and I'm the secretary of the Agriculture Committee.

So, we grow blueberries.

We've been growing blueberries for about 22 years.

We also, our family, we own the Great American Cobbler Company.

We make blueberry, apple, peach, blackberry, and cherry cobblers.

We call it the Great American Cobbler Company, because we use all 100% American-grown fruit.

And so coming to this show, it's just a great networking opportunity for us.

It's a great opportunity to learn what the latest technologies are in agriculture and find what's working for other producers and that kind of thing.

It's an indisputable fact that the American family farm is the economic engine of rural America.

Having a healthy farm sector it's everything when it comes to rural America.

- Agriculture is national security and what we're working on behind us here and what farmers and producers do every day in the state of Georgia helps ensure that our state, and our nation, and our communities continue to be safe and we can continue to provide the safest, most abundant food supply in the world, which Georgia and American producers do every single day.

(rhythmic humming music) - [David] We now follow the mass of cargo ships just a few miles down the river to Garden City to learn all about the imports, exports, and overall wonders of the Georgia Ports Authority.

(upbeat music) Behold, the Port of Savannah.

At 1,500 acres, Savannah's Garden City Terminal is the largest single-operator container terminal in North America.

Watching these massive cargo ships flow in the narrow, but deep section of the Savannah River, is a sight to see, but how it all works is even more impressive.

- The Georgia Ports Authority was actually founded in 1945.

This was a massive Navy depot many, many years ago, and today, it's been converted to what you see now.

We are the single, largest container terminal in the Western Hemisphere.

There has been just a herculean effort over many decades now to build what we have here today.

We've had a river deepening that took about 20 years to happen, and that deep water is what allows these vessels to come in.

We're investing billions of dollars in our facilities.

Right now, as you drive around this 1,500 acre terminal, there's $1 billion of construction happening, building new berths, buying new cranes.

These cranes have to get larger, because the ships are being bigger, building new capacity.

The largest rail facility on any terminal anywhere in North America can handle 1 million containers a year.

So, we're importing and exporting a lot of containers, 5.8 million containers a year or TEUs a year, that's 20-foot equivalent units, and we're servicing the entire state of Georgia, the Southeast and beyond.

The amazing thing about the Georgia Ports Authority, within 48 to 72 hours, we can service more than 60% of the population of North America.

(upbeat jazz music) - [David] If you're wondering about the economic impact of these ports, here's a few numbers to soak in.

The annual statewide economic impact of Georgia's deep water ports include, 140 billion in sales, that equals 12% of Georgia's total sales, 33 billion in income, roughly 6% of Georgia's total personal income, 561,087 full and part-time jobs and over 10 billion paid annually in federal, state, and local taxes.

- One out of every 10 jobs in Georgia is linked to the Georgia Ports Authority indirectly, whether it's warehouse, manufacturing, on the terminal itself, agricultural.

The amazing thing is that this is the largest exporting port in North America as well.

We handle more exports here than anywhere else, and a large driver of that is our agricultural business.

The beauty of Georgia is we have a match of cargo.

Imports coming in.

And the great thing is, if we can find a home for this container to go back overseas, and we do now, because we have a massive amount of exports, that's a great solution for our customers.

Georgia is one of the most connected ports in the world, and that's determined not by the Georgia Ports Authority, but the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

We're ranked 44 out of 1,000 ports.

That's because we are a gateway for the Panama Canal.

So, these ships come from Asia, they transit the canal, and we're the first major port as the ships come up the East Coast.

We're also a gateway for the Suez Canal.

So, it's a great last port of call, which is wonderful for their exports departing the country.

(upbeat music) - [David] After learning the numbers from Griff, I had a chance to explore the workings of containers themselves with senior director of operations and projects, Susan Gardner.

And these containers are quite fascinating.

We'll start with the refrigerated containers.

- All of these containers require power.

We export a lot of poultry, pork, and beef out of here, large Georgia products.

We also import a lot of fruit from Peru and Chile.

Those that are not refrigerated are regular containers that can have anything from household products to TVs to paper, as well as breakbulk commodities that require extra handling in order for us to lift.

- [David] Explain breakbulk.

- So, breakbulk is anything that is not containerized.

Think of a yacht, think of an excavator, things that can't be put into a nice neat 40-foot container.

(upbeat music) - [David] This is quite a fascinating, but organized process.

There're giant cranes moving around.

It's gotta be down to a science.

- [Susan] Right.

Well, we have a terminal operating system that helps guide where every container should go, on and off the vessel, in the gate, out the gate.

And so it basically, communicates to our equipment operators what container to load to every single truck.

And that enables the truck drivers to get their cargo as fast as possible.

- [David] And it is interesting, Savannah and Brunswick each have their own little niche.

- Yes, we are sitting here at Garden City Terminal.

Ocean Terminal, which is one of the other terminals that we have here in Savannah is a mixed-use terminal that handles containerized and break bulk cargo.

And down in Brunswick, the majority of the vessels that we handle at Colonels Island are roll on, roll off vessels with auto shipments.

So, every ship that we have down there is either importing or exporting four to 5,000 containers every week.

(upbeat music) - [David] And what's even more fascinating is the logistics behind them, from the ship to the trucks and vice versa.

- Every driver has a ticket that has the container number that they're gonna be picking up.

And once the RTG travels over that truck, their equipment in the machine will tell them which container to put onto that truck.

- [David] And making that all possible is the 18 working tracks on the Port Authority's Mason Mega Rail terminal.

This 85-acre rail yard is the largest of its kind for a port terminal in North America.

This port alone can build and receive up to six 10,000-foot long trains simultaneously.

And after watching these amazing mega rail operators in action, I was given the chance to put my hands to the test.

But with the right man training me, operations continued without a hitch, and it was a little bit slower.

And a lot of buttons.

- This is your down to make the spread embargo down.

Take right there, push it to your right.

- Just a little down.

- [Brad] Oh, here we go.

- Here we go.

Brave to let me do this.

- [Brad] Ain't no different than having to train somebody up here.

- Yeah, and good point, good point.

Does it give you a warning if it's not lined up perfectly?

- [Brad] That's true.

- Okay.

- [Brad] You gotta do it all yourself.

- Do it all right.

That's why you get trained.

Look at there.

Oh, that was fun.

Brad, I think I need another 100 hours, but I'm getting there.

(upbeat jazz music) (bright music) - We know every container that's on this facility exactly where it is, and it's a well-oiled machine.

It's all about efficiency and our goal is to make sure that we are the most efficient we can be.

When you look at these containers behind me, one might forget that there are people behind those containers, customers waiting for cargo that's important to their business.

And that's not something that's lost on us.

So, the faster that we can move and the more safely we can move, the quicker we're going to service our customers.

We're not noticed until something is not on the store shelf and we wanna make sure that it's a seamless transition and no one's even thinking about us behind the scenes.

- Keeping the supply chain flowing, helping drive the economy, and training new mega rail operators like me are just part of what the Georgia Ports Authority brings to the table.

A fascinating and necessary operation that will continue growing, keeping our goods coming and going.

(rhythmic humming music) Let's now journey inland to Ray, Georgia to explore a family business whose growing one of Georgia's native grapes, the sweet and tasty muscadine.

(bright music) It's a grape that loves the South, thick skinned, sweet and hearty.

The muscadine is meant to be grown here.

And there's one family that's been doing just that since the early 1970s.

Meet the Paulks.

- My late grandfather started growing muscadines in the early seventies.

He planted the first ones in 1970, so his first harvest was three years later.

My grandfather's name was Jacob Paulk.

He pioneered the fresh muscadine business.

So, nobody at that point had sold muscadines as a table grape.

He had to get out there and convince people that this is a grape that you wanna buy.

Of course, to the decision makers at the store level, he had to convince them that it's something that they could sell.

And of course, a lot of times it was just taking fruit to the store to the produce stand and saying you know, "Taste and see, just try it, give it a shot.

Pay me if you sell 'em."

There's a lot of risk in those early days.

I jokingly say that muscadines are good Southerners, like a good Southerner, they don't like the cold and they can thrive in this hot humid climate.

Muscadines are resistant to some diseases that other grapes are fatal.

Of course, with muscadines they'll die if it gets too cold.

Like I said, they're good Southerners so they like it hot and humid.

They don't deal well with the cold.

So, you don't find them outside the deep south, but they do thrive where other grapes won't grow.

- [David] There are several operations going on here amongst the over 600 acres at Paulk Vineyards.

There's the wine side of things, which brings visitors from all over the world to the small town of Ray.

There's the fresh fruit that is sold seasonally at major grocery chains all over.

They make juices, and jams, and even vitamin supplements.

That's because this humble little grape is one of nature's most healthful foods.

Chris took the time to explore all of it with me, starting in the vineyard.

(upbeat music) When it comes to the grape itself, you say the muscadine, but there's not just one type of muscadine growing on these vines.

- I've read there are around 150 different varieties of muscadines.

University of Georgia has the oldest muscadine breeding program in the country.

We grow about a dozen varieties here at Paulk Vineyards.

Two of 'em are used for the juice and wine.

And then the other 10 we handpick like you're seeing today, and those go to grocery stores.

This afternoon we're picking fresh muscadines in this location.

We're picking them, they're packing 'em in the little containers in the field and so, they'll give 'em a once over looking at 'em to make sure that they meet the quality, and then we put 'em into these trays.

So, we're packing eight containers in every tray and then they stack 'em up on the truck once the the stack is pulled and we will bring 'em back and unload them and take 'em directly to a cooler to go to grocery stores.

These are ships to Florida, all over Georgia, up East Coast, out in Texas.

- [David] And this is what kind of got Paulk going.

- And this is what we've done for 50 years.

This is what my late grandfather pioneered, was the fresh muscadine industry, and this is kind of our bread and butter.

- [David] How long do they stay good for?

- Get 'em cold quickly, they'll last for several weeks.

- [Chris] Can you see them picking some and not picking others?

- [David] That's right.

So, what they're doing is they're picking the ripe muscadines, leaving the ones that aren't ripe yet.

Of course, anything that may be overripe, we're also not picking.

- [David] They might be coming back another day and get some of the ones?

- [Chris] Yeah, so muscadines, most varieties don't ripen evenly.

So, these we'll pick 'em once a week for say, four or five weeks for this variety.

- [David] And what kind is this here?

- This variety is Supreme.

So, large, very juicy, super sweet.

After we bring 'em in from the field, we apply a sticker with a pack date on every tray so that way we know when they were picked and know where they were picked.

Apply that to every tray that goes out.

We're turning into the cabin and it's an A-frame cabin my late grandfather built back in the seventies.

This A-frame cabin is what's depicted on our wine bottles.

And we've had all kinds of fun, you know, gatherings down here through the years.

This variety is called Noble.

And this is what we use for all of our red wine production and purple juice concentrate.

Looking for ripeness, you know, good berries that are high sugar content.

These ripen fairly evenly as well, not in a cluster like other grapes.

- [David] And I'm noticing that giant harvester coming through and I guess the skin's tough enough where it doesn't tear it apart.

- Correct.

Yeah, muscadine have a tough skin.

The harvester taps them off and they come down as loose berries and then we put 'em in the bin to go to the winery.

(upbeat music) The first thing that we do, of course, is unload the muscadines from the trailer that were coming from the field.

These were on the vine 10 minutes ago and we get 'em off with the forklift, we'll set that bin in, and then we'll grab it with another forklift to pour those into our hopper.

So, this is our crusher (indistinct).

So, we pour the muscadines out into the hopper and now we're feeding them in to be crushed.

And it's also kicking out little stick stems from the vine that came from the field so that it doesn't go into the press.

And then we're pumping the slurry, the crushed muscadine, onto the holding kettle.

Yeah, that's just free run juice coming out of the muscadines.

We can press about 100 tons a day continuously, receiving, crushing and pressing.

(upbeat music) So, the next process, we crush and pump the muscadines into a kettle.

And in this kettle we're heating the muscadines up.

We extract the color from the grape.

We're extracting the color from the muscadines skin.

And that way we'll give it some deep, deep red color to make a red wine and the dark juice.

So, we can walk around here and I'll show you that juice.

It's heated in the kettle.

We heat it up to around 130 degrees and then pump it into our press.

And you can see that deep, deep colored juice coming out.

Of course, the juice is hot, 'cause the grapes are heated up.

So, we take the juice and pump it through a chiller.

Of course, the skins and seeds, the juice goes into the chiller and the tank.

The pomace comes out the other end of the press, and we collect it to make muscadine extract, cold-pressed seed oil, all kinds of dietary supplement ingredients.

We'll collect it in these bins and then immediately freeze it.

We use it all.

We take the skins and seeds, we'll dry them, we'll extract them to get the polyphenols out, we'll take the seeds and press them to do muscadine seed oil.

We use it all.

So, over here we're running the muscadine juice through our centrifuge.

And so, we press the juice, chill the juice, and then start clarifying it.

Pulp, (indistinct) through the skin, that kind of thing.

Go out on one side and then clear juice comes out on the other.

From there, we are pumping all of that juice into a 12,000 gallon tank.

The juice that was pressed 10 minutes ago went through one centrifuge, a second centrifuge, and is now in this tank being chilled.

And then it will go into our evaporator and turn it, and this will be processed into juice concentrate.

So, that we sell to beverage formulators, folks all over the world making like healthy, functional beverages.

We can walk back over here and I can show you the wine tank where we have our wine fermenting.

We heated the muscadine to 130 degrees so that juice is hot when it's coming out.

In fact, it is 130 degrees on its way out and we're chilling it down to a whopping, what does that say?

108?

- [David] Yeah, 108.

- [Chris] The goal is to cool it down as fast as we can.

In this tank, we have red wine that we started fermenting yesterday.

So, there's 6,000 gallons in here and then in the next room over, we have a tank of white wine actually being fermented.

The initial fermentation will take place over the course of about a month and then it'll take another four to six months depending on how fast we need to go until it's ready to bottle.

- [David] And how many days a year are you going through this?

- So, the harvest lasts for about 10 weeks total, but a lot of that is for fresh muscadines.

But this happens towards the end and it's like the last three, maybe four weeks.

- [David] So, from the wine making to the tasting room we went.

Popular spot for visitors from all over the world where folks with a curious palette can find one of many tasty wine lines produced here at Paulk Vineyards, - We produce six wines that we call our family series.

We have Jacob and Juliette here.

These are our semi-sweet, red and white muscadine wines.

So, not too dry, not too sweet, but that classic, really wonderful muscadine flavor that you find in each of those.

They're named after family members, Jacob was my late grandfather, Juliette my late grandmother.

And when people come visit our tasting room, we like to share their stories, invite people into this story here at Paulk Vineyards.

- [David] I noticed those ladies yesterday, they're really enjoying it.

It was probably fun for them to experience a different type of wine than what they're used to.

It's gotta be fun to introduce these new flavors to people.

- [David] It is, and really to find something that everybody likes and that's what we really set out to do.

Our goal is to share a lot of Southern hospitality with you, but to find something that you like, you know, here while you're doing a wine tasting.

- [David] I see peach, we're in Georgia.

- Yes, we're in Georgia.

That's right, we're in Georgia.

So, Sweet Tree is the series here.

These are muscadine wines with fruit infusion, so peach.

And then we have red sangria as well.

Red sangria is a muscadine wine with strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, and a hint of watermelon.

The other series we like to say we have the family, and there's six wines here.

The Sweet Tree series, which we have 10 wines right now within that series, and then the Farm.

County Line Road is our sweet blackberry wine.

So, we grow around 100 acres of blackberries.

So, this is blackberry wine through and through.

So, there's no grape in this at all.

This is started here, grown here, estate bottled, if you will.

- [David] Can you use some of the same machinery to create the blackberry wine that you do for the musket?

- [Chris] Yeah, great question.

So, all of the blackberries are handpicked.

Then after that, it is the very same equipment to make our blackberry wines.

So, it's the same just off season.

So, it compliments the other things we're doing really well.

- [David] So, instead of taking a break, you find other work to do.

- We're gonna keep, we're gonna stay busy.

That's right, that's right.

(upbeat music) - [David] All right, so it's obvious we're, you got a lot close to here.

- [Chris] Here, and here we are.

Right down there in the middle of the, yep, stack of pins.

- [David] I looked at Hawaii.

- [Chris] Yep, so we've got the folks, that's right.

- [David] And Alaska.

- [Chris] And then Alaska up there.

- [David] And then, you finally got that last state.

- [Chris] Oh man.

Yeah, they finally came down to visit from West Virginia.

- [David] But they're all covered now.

You've gotten everybody.

- So, everybody, yeah.

What I need to do now is get a global map and have a smaller version of it here, because we've had international visitors and they go, "Hey, I can't put a pin up there."

- [David] Do they grow muscadine in Europe?

- No, no.

See Muscadines, really they grow from Southeastern Virginia except for the upper elevations in the mountains.

They'll grow out to East Texas, and that's about it.

- [David] After spending a couple of days with Chris and the fine folks working here at Paulk, you can't help but fall in love with this amazing Georgia grape.

A fruit that defines the South, keeps us healthy, and is oh so amazingly sweet.

(upbeat music) So, from the grapes of Ray to the port of Savannah and a gathering of like-minded farmers and merchants and researchers who have fruits and veggies foremost in their minds, Georgia can proudly boast about the role we play in supplying healthy food, both locally and all over the world.

I'm David Zelski.

See you at the next fork in the road.

(upbeat music) "A Fork in the Road was brought to you by... - I'm Tyler Harper, as your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge, try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia grown.

- [Speaker] 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.

- I'm Tyler Harper, as your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge, try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia grown.