(bright guitar music) - [Announcer] From the soil of our family farms to your table, there's something special about Georgia, something you can taste in every bite.

Fresh flavors, local farms, unforgettable experiences.

Georgia has it all.

Support local, taste the difference, and make memories along the way.

Look for the Georgia Grown logo wherever you shop, or visit georgiagrown.com.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Community, learning, working, playing, celebrating, doing life is always better together.

At GPB, we aim to provide you with the tools to be able to do life together well.

Our mission to educate, inform, and entertain inspires everything from our wide range of programming to our stimulating radio conversations, to our fun in-person events.

We've got something for everyone.

Visit gpb.org/community to learn more about our upcoming events.

- 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".

(intense country music) ♪ I dig from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ I'm 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 and the food we consume.

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

(intense country music continues) (stirring music) Sometimes, a change in life creates a rejuvenation of the soul.

Many are born on the farm, learning the lay of the land at a very young age.

But here on "A Fork in the Road", we have discovered several folks who have unearthed their love for farming as a second or even third career.

This week, we meet a farmer who is living his best life on the farm.

(stirring music continues) We then tour a couple of towns with a local restaurateur who has found success serving farm-fresh food in these North Georgia hills.

(intense country music) Let's begin this farm-fresh episode around Gainesville to meet a banker-turned-farmer who's successfully figuring out farm life and enjoying every minute of it.

(bright country music) Farmer Phil Bonelli has a knack for this whole farming thing, and I learned within a few seconds of meeting him that he truly loves it, every part of it.

From his majestic cattle to his gorgeous pigs, his chicken, turkey, you name it, he knows all about it and he loves to share his story.

(bright country music continues) - [Phil] I am Phil Bonelli.

I am the owner and founder of the farm.

- [David] So, this is a one-man show.

(farmers laughing) - Definitely not.

This is Logan Smith.

He's our director of operations.

He's many things.

He is from right here in North Hall.

He runs our animal care, our general farm care.

He just does whatever and I do what Logan tells me to do, as well as what Khurry tells me to do.

This is Khurry Bullard.

Khurry, she started, she runs our organic garden, and does a killer job.

She is also over our online order fulfillment.

So all our online orders, she packages them up.

She manages our online store, does a great job.

This is Hank the cow dog.

He's over keeping Ruby the Bernedoodle mini in line.

And this is, uh-oh!

(all laughing) - I knew that was coming.

- I know.

This is Bri van Voorhis.

She's in charge of our pet food line, which we're very excited about.

(rousing country music) - [David] We started our day with a scrumptious BLT, where he shared some of the best bacon I've had in my life.

I actually even snagged a little bit more for my drive home.

Yes, it was that good.

But it wasn't just his enthusiasm that made this place so special.

It was the overall purpose that may have stood out the most.

- If you'll see our cow herd, right here, this is exhibiting a great example of how cows operate.

And they're eating the grasses.

They're also eating legumes.

We have a lot of clover in the pasture.

And they're going to be eating some things that we might traditionally think of as weeds.

You'll notice, these cows in the shade, some of them are chewing.

So, what they're doing, they're ruminating.

They shovel that food down to the first chamber of their stomach.

Then, they go hang out in the shade when it's hot or in the sun when it's cold and regurgitate that leafy plant matter.

Then, they really chew it.

Then, it goes down to the next section of their stomach and it goes to their rumen.

Their rumen is a complex fermentation tank.

They have to eat tons of this very fibrous plant matter to ferment out enough nutrition to keep growing.

And the cows are amazing.

Each and every one of these plants in our pasture is a solar panel.

It's photosynthesizing light from the sun using chlorophyll, so it's turning the energy from the sun into solid starches and sugars that I can do nothing with, but my cows are then eating it and converting that into bone-in ribeyes, blue cheese burgers, chocolate milkshakes, leather belts, and baby cows.

So many cool things, all that come from the sun, through the plants, to my cows.

(bright country music) I'm such a believer in the all grass-fed.

I think it tastes significantly better, and I also feel very confident it's better for the environment.

They're just eating what's here and they're building up our soil as we do it.

(upbeat music) Right here, we've got a cow pie.

The cows were just here, so this is a day old, and you'll notice this crumbly clay here, okay?

And this is an awesome sign.

We've got this all over the place.

These are dung beetles.

So, what happens is the mama dung beetle flies over to freshly-laid cow pies.

She digs a vertical shaft 12 to 18 inches deep, lays her eggs at the bottom.

And then, this little pile of clay which I spread around is the individual ball.

She balls up the clay and carries out these balls to dig this hole.

So, they lay their eggs at the bottom, then stuff the holes full of manure.

This might sound gross to us, but it's great.

The baby dung beetle hatches, crawls out, eating the manure on the way up.

Then, pupates, puts on wings, flies off to do it again.

So, why is that so great?

Well, we're building up topsoil.

Underneath, the topsoil is that hard Georgia clay.

Georgia clay is not a living medium because it's compact.

There's not oxygen or moisture.

So, the dung beetle aerating the shafts all over our pasture, all over in the clay allows oxygen or moisture to get in.

And, then by putting that cow manure in, that inoculates that clay with the healthy bacteria from the cow's rumen.

So, it just jump starts the soil creation process every time they dig a shaft.

It also breaks the crust of the cow pie and makes it less hospitable for fly larvae.

We don't use any chemicals.

We don't use any fly sprays.

Nature is set up to keep insect and other populations in check.

If I were to give my cows dewormers that would kill intestinal parasites, their manure would become toxic to earthworms and dung beetles.

(upbeat music) We're in this part of the pasture, here, where the cows were.

They were just here maybe 10 days ago, and already, you cannot see any cow pies in this pasture.

So, you might've been in a cattle pasture before where there's just all these old crusty cow pies.

So, because of all the insect life which is able to proliferate, that cattle manure is broken down into the soil where it can feed the plants, which is just what we want it to do.

And the more that I am on the farm and see it, the more it's apparent to me that there's an intelligent designer that's set up this system.

And it's just so cool how large herbivores are perfect for grasslands, and grasslands are perfect for large herbivores, and large herbivores are perfect for me and you to eat.

(cow mooing) (smooth music) This is what we use to control the cows and move them.

So, you can see these temporary posts.

Every morning, we go and step these in a line.

We hook it up to a solar energizer, and that keeps the cows in.

And every day, they just move contiguously.

During the growing season, we just keep moving around.

And the speed that we do that just depends on the rate at which the grass is growing.

In regenerative ag and in our practice here at Hopewell Farms, we're moving the animals every day.

By moving them every day, they get fresh grass, fresh forage, and we keep them clean and sanitary.

We do all grass-fed and grass-finished beef.

The finishing stage is the final, let's say 90 to 120 days of a cow's life where it is putting on more fat right before you harvest it.

I also think that it tastes better.

Our cows, we harvest them at two and a half to three years of age, which is when they're getting the size we want naturally.

The older an animal gets, the more flavor it gets.

So, both between its diet and the older age that it inherently will be harvested at, I find grass-fed be of a significantly better flavor.

In the wintertime, they eat hay.

And you can see we've got our hay in here from a spring cutting.

We feed them with these feed bunks.

The cows are gonna eat an average of 28 pounds per day of this, per grown cow.

The majority of that is going to come out their rear ends as fertilizer, get inoculated with the healthy bacteria in their rumen, in their tummy, and it's gonna be the perfect soil-building material.

So if we swing the camera around, you'll see what we just cleared out, some of it.

And all that is gonna get spread with a manure spreader in our pastures.

(easygoing country music) - [Logan] These are feeder pigs.

So, these pigs are a variety of ages.

From birth, they're with their moms anywhere from three to five weeks.

We have a variety of breeds, a lot of cross-breeds.

These are Berkshire and Tamworth mixes.

If you haven't spent a lot of time around pigs, you should.

They're fun.

- [David] They seem to like you a lot.

- [Logan] Yeah, they're- - Pied Piper of pigs.

- Mm-hmm.

- Pigs, he mentioned, move every week, versus the every day like the cows, and there's two reasons for that.

One, they have a much more substantial fence that it just takes more time to move.

But two, we want them to have a little bit of a heavier impact.

The pigs are forest creatures and they're made to root things up.

So, they really tear things up, and then we reseed.

But even if we don't reseed, it just pops back better than ever because they're stirring up seeds in the seed bank that get released by their rooting around.

They're fertilizing, 'cause they're gonna inoculate this with their manure, their fertilizer, and stir it up, and it's gonna make great soil.

We treat them with the utmost care, the utmost respect, and the lowest-stress, all-natural environment.

So, I love that we get to pet them and we get to have this bond with 'em.

And again, I'm very comfortable with the fact that, unless they are a sow that's gonna reproduce for us, they are going to be harvested for meat.

But that's okay, 'cause again, they get to live the best life that there is.

And so, I feel really good about it.

Hi, sweetheart!

So, this is Caroline the sow.

I have two daughters, Caroline and Libby, and we got these two gilts, so a girl pig that is not a sow yet.

I was joking around and I said I'd name 'em Caroline and Libby.

And I thought I'd get pushback, but I didn't, so it just stuck.

So, they're named after my daughters.

(upbeat music) This is one of our chicken tractors.

We have 20 some-odd chicken tractors on the farm.

The chicks come here when they're a day old.

They live in our brooder.

They need specific heat conditions for the first two and a half weeks of life.

75 chicks goes in every tractor.

You can see we've got a lot out here.

And they're built out of PVC and chicken wire, and then we've got some old barn metal on the top.

This is keeping the chickens safe, so I think of it as a moving Fort Knox.

Everything, David, wants to eat chicken.

They've got local dogs and foxes and coyotes and hawks during the day, and at night, you add on possums and raccoons and owls.

So, they have to be protected, but also, they're out on the pasture.

We want them to get fresh pasture every day.

So, we come out here and we just pull each one of these its own length.

So, every day, these birds are safe, but they get fresh grass, bugs, and weeds.

And it's so fun, David, to see.

You gotta move 'em real slow when they first come out, 'cause you don't wanna run any of 'em over.

But after a week or two, they know the drill, and they are rushing ahead because they are in a race to get the grasshopper or whatever bug.

People forget chickens are omnivores, and if they had their druthers, they would eat bugs all day.

They love to eat bugs.

Birds are part of what nature uses to keep insects in their proper amount in the environment.

Being out here, again, the chickens move every day.

They're fertilizing our pasture as they move along.

They're getting a healthy, all-natural diet.

And then, you get the tastiest chicken on the planet.

It tastes so good because they're outside every day, eating a natural environment.

And then, they're even harvested in a superior way in our plant.

(bright country music) - These are your turkeys.

- These are the turkeys.

They're going out on the pasture this week.

This is our brooder, and this is that 200-year-old church, David.

- This was a church.

- This was a church.

It was picked up and moved here.

We moved here, we turned this into our brooder.

The guy I bought this farm from, my good friend and neighbor Ricky, his great uncle and great-aunt, or his great-grandma and great-grandma, they got married here.

And we put all this infrastructure in here, and this is our brooder.

So, turkeys stay in the brooder a bit longer.

They go for six weeks, and then they are fully ready to go on the pasture.

There's about 350 turkeys here.

We are the largest producers of fresh turkeys in the state.

So, we harvest these the Monday of Thanksgiving.

People pre-order them and then they come pick 'em up the Tuesday of Thanksgiving.

We have to do it that week so that they never have to be frozen.

They could be fresh.

Turkeys have a special distinction at Hopewell Farms.

They're the only animals that make chickens look smart.

- [Logan] That's hard to do, dude.

- [David] The chickens aren't smart.

- [Phil] Chickens are, ooh, man!

- [Logan] That says a lot for this guy, right here.

(turkey gobbling) - [David] The store here is packed with farm-fresh goodness.

And in the back, they're even making one more treat for the store.

Dog treats, that is.

- We sell boneless, skinless breasts, thighs, et cetera, which get packaged in here.

But then, we take the organs and the feet and dehydrate them in this dehydrator so that we can sell them as dog treats.

All these organs, we don't wanna waste them, so we wanna utilize all the parts of the animal.

And also, we have several dogs, and we like to feed our furry friends.

We're a regenerative farm, and part of that, for me, is that we want to utilize all parts of the animal.

So, from our processing plant, there is zero waste.

All of the meat is utilized.

Those organs and feet are dog food.

All that would be left are the backs, or the frames, of the chicken.

We're starting to turn those into dog treats.

And then, the feathers and blood, we compost and then use in our garden to grow veggies.

So it's a complete zero-waste operation.

(uplifting music) It's difficult to be a farmer, and there are lots of challenges to being a direct-to-consumer farm, which is what we are.

We want to feed people, and we do.

We sell through our farm store, we go to a variety of local markets, and we have a few restaurant accounts.

But our primary activity is that we deliver to people's doors every Wednesday.

And there's two sizes.

One has two dozen eggs, one has a dozen eggs, and then it's full of meat.

And we put in a mix of beef, pork, chicken along with the eggs.

So, we just deliver it every Wednesday, fresh to your door and all from our farm.

We also have a veggie box.

And then, during the season, we have a weekly flower subscription.

I love feeding my local community.

That is important to me.

My community has been so great to me and I wanna be great to it.

I also want to control the client experience and maximize it, so I don't want the meat that we have raised the cows for up to three years, pigs, eight months, chicken, eight weeks, turkeys, four and a half months.

We've done all that work.

So, by keeping it local, we deliver to customers' doors so we can control that.

But the third reason is, I truly believe that this sort of agriculture is so beneficial for human health and for the environment.

- [David] Now, if there's one thing I've learned about Farmer Phil during my time on Hopewell, when he commits to something, he makes it work.

And in this case, he's passing along what he's learned so the next generation understands not just where their food comes from, but why farming the right way matters to the entire community and our future.

- We have free farm tours the last Saturday of every month.

Nine o'clock, bring the whole family.

We do have school groups that come out.

And we do paid corporate team-buildings, and those are a blast.

I didn't have some plan to be a farmer.

It blew my mind that, wow, I have 43 acres of my own.

So, I very much look at it like, God didn't give me this just by accident for me.

So, we love to share it with everybody.

I would encourage everyone out there listening to go figure it the heck out.

I mean, I learned what I know from books, YouTube videos, workshops, talking to others, and trial and error.

And just don't be scared.

I've failed at so many things at the farm.

But just keep learning and keep growing.

So, if you're passionate about it and you wanna get after it, you can.

(intense country music) - [David] Let's now journey from Gainesville to Flowery Branch, and eventually back to Gainesville, to meet a restaurateur who brings farm-fresh food from Hopewell and a few other local farms to not one, not two, but several great dining spots in the region.

(upbeat music) I met Roland Stanley at a Farmers & Fishermen event in Atlanta.

Roland was searching for some of the best family farms from Georgia and beyond to offer at his array of restaurants.

Like many, Roland started with just one restaurant, but formed solid relationships, had dedicated partners, and the high-quality food and great service has helped his vision expand quickly, properly, and successfully.

- So, this is historic downtown Flowery Branch and this is a really special part of Georgia.

And it's just all locally owned and operated businesses.

It really started with the St.

Clair family, my business partner Chef Nick and his wife Alison St.

Clair.

And they opened Antebellum Restaurant 13 years ago, and that really kickstarted this historic downtown area and really helped to revive it.

Since then, there's been a lot of other small businesses that have opened, and we're fortunate to have multiple of those other businesses.

(upbeat music) - [David] All right, this is fun.

We're just walking around town, seeing a little of what you and your team has done to really enhance the food experience in this area.

We got Better Days coming, right?

- That's right, absolutely.

So, this is Better Days.

It's just a craft cocktail bar.

It's such a fun, fun place.

And it's right next to our wood-fired pizzeria.

- So, we've had our drinks at Better Days.

There's the pizza you're talking about.

- Peyton's Pie Company, wood-fired pizza made from scratch.

It's a Neapolitan style with a flair.

We call it American wood-fired pizza.

That's because it's got that soft Neapolitan from the 00 flour, but we have a little something extra that Nick adds into it which gives it a little bit of crunch, which you're not gonna get in a traditional Neapolitan-style pizza.

(upbeat music continues) - So, this is where it all began.

- Yes, this is Antebellum Restaurant.

This is really what helped revitalize this historic downtown area, here.

Chef Nick and his wife Alison moved up from Atlanta, and they never owned a restaurant, but they'd been working in the industry their entire lives.

It's kind of a contemporary Southern fine dining, so you get that Southern hospitality feel, but you get the Southern food, but just elevated.

(bright country music) - [David] When people come to Caroline's, what can they expect?

- [Roland] It's a small Southern breakfast restaurant, but it has a really nice twist and flair to it.

We make beignets from scratch every day.

We make pan-fried banana bread.

You can also get just a classic two-egg breakfast with nice fried potatoes.

It's very approachable and it's just a really nice time.

- [David] And it was here at Caroline's on Main where farmer Phil Bonelli of Hopewell Farms rejoined us for a menu favorite.

I talked to Phil, I asked a place he thought would be a good representation of his meat.

He said Caroline's.

- Absolutely, so we love supporting local when possible, and Gainesville, which is not far from here at all.

His burgers are incredible.

It's all grass-fed, grass-finished beef.

We have one of the best burgers in the area by far, and a lot of it's thanks to Phil Bonelli.

- This is the moment of truth.

I got Roland.

I got Farmer Phil here with the grass-fed beef burger.

Guys, I'm so excited about this.

Now, Roland, before we eat, I know it's hard, you're doing great holding off.

- It's so hard, it's so hard not to dive in.

- I know how good it is.

- He was staring at it, I am, too.

This is a gorgeous presentation.

Let's start with the chicken and waffles.

(intense music) - This right here is one of our signature dishes.

It is a fried chicken with a waffle.

We have some hot sauce creme fraiche.

We have egg cooked over medium, some fresh herbs.

It's got powdered sugar on it.

It has a little bit of bacon grease and pure maple syrup, finished with just a little bit of chili flake.

Every single morning, we make beignets from scratch.

This is a chocolate ganache that I'm just gonna pour it right on top, guys, I hope you don't mind.

Do you mind?

I hope not, I hope not, 'cause I'm doing it anyways.

Look at that, oh, wow!

Look at that chocolate ganache.

This is our grilled sourdough toast.

It's got a bruleed grapefruit, a whipped ricotta with orange blossom honey, some pistachios, and then, of course, powdered sugar.

We can put powdered sugar on just about anything, can't we?

But over here, guys, this is the highlight.

This is our number one seller.

This is a Hopewell Farm grass-fed, grass-finished burger.

And we get it from Philly B, the one and only.

And now, when you take this burger and you put some homemade pimento cheese on it, we've got some bacon, we have some pickled red onions over here on the side.

I gotta show you those.

Some house-made creamy horseradish.

You put it all together, it just, it's the perfect burger, guys.

It's the perfect burger.

And not only is it the perfect tasting burger, but you feel so much better with just that grass-fed, grass finished product.

Wow.

- Mm.

Hey, your meat's pretty good, Phil.

- Good.

(David laughing) - [David] We now journey from Flowery Branch back up to Gainesville to hit one more spot that we featured in a previous episode.

Fire up the grill.

It's time for the Stag.

(upbeat music) - [Roland] We are in Historic Gainesville.

It's a really pretty area.

It's got a lot of just local shops, bars, restaurants, boutiques.

- [David] Tell me about the Stag, why this is special, and what you serve here.

- So, the Stag is a really great restaurant.

This is my restaurant, this is my baby.

We do steaks, chops, seafood.

We have great craft cocktails, an amazing wine list.

We make everything from scratch.

All of our beef is prime, which we actually get from Farmers & Fishermen.

They get the best product shipped in from all over the world.

And we get it delivered five, sometimes six days a week, so it's always fresh, it's always constant.

It's always coming in nice and clean.

- [David] What do you think the Stag Chophouse means to this Gainesville community and downtown area?

- The Stag has really become quite the staple in Downtown Gainesville.

I mean, we are packed just about every single night of the week.

I mean, we're here at lunch right now and just about every table's filling up.

It's still pretty early.

The service is friendly.

It's not all stuffy and uptight, but it's laid back, and it's fast-paced and it's exciting, 'cause that's what I look for when I go out to eat.

I like to have a nice, energetic atmosphere.

Just put that Southern hospitality flair on it as well.

- Thank you so much.

- Absolutely.

- The Stag Chophouse.

I'll be back, guarantee that.

(bright country music) So, from a dedicated farmer sharing knowledge and high-quality food with loyal friends and neighbors, to a young restaurateur who has that same love for healthy and local, their passion and dedication is clear, and the results benefit folks in these North Georgia communities and beyond.

I'm David Zelski.

See you at the next "Fork in the Road".

(bright country music continues) (bright country music continues) - [Announcer] "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by... (bright music) - [Announcer] Community, learning, working, playing, celebrating.

Doing life is always better together.

At GPB, we aim to provide you with the tools to be able to do life together well.

Our mission to educate, inform, and entertain inspires everything from our wide range of programming to our stimulating radio conversations, to our fun-in person events.

We've got something for everyone.

Visit gpb.org/community to learn more about our upcoming events.

(bright music) - [Announcer] From the soil of our family farms to your table, there's something special about Georgia, something you can taste in every bite.

Fresh flavors, local farms, unforgettable experiences, Georgia has it all.

Support local, taste the difference, and make memories along the way.

Look for the Georgia Grown logo wherever you shop, or visit georgiagrown.com.