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.

Hang the picture on the wall.

A sign from afar.

You get to meet.

Oh, it feels good.

This 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.

That's a fork in the road.

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

Tree there is room for I.

Stand.

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 from the low country to the hill country, we go exploring a few farms in the field, amongst the rolling hills and even in the water.

Communities in these parts rely on their farmers and truly embrace what is locally available and as fresh as ever.

So we begin in the marshes of Glen at a Bluff Island farm nestled between Saint Simons Island in the city of Brunswick and route to a destination with a top notch chef.

It's a quiet, nostalgic part of America.

In most parts of Georgia's Golden Isles, time seems to slow a little.

You often see more birds than people, but the folks you do meet down here quite often tell you why they love it.

So the days are warm with the gentle breeze coming off the marsh and the soil is rich.

And down here, off pot liquor's place, something special is in the works.

And Glen County's own Zach Gowan dreamt it all up piece by piece with a little help from his friends.

I kind of stumbled across it.

I was reading liquor papers by John Edge, and literally less than two weeks later, I came across a property for sale on Butler's place.

Kind of meant to be.

I just thought that it would work well with the sea grow and with the community.

In short, the veggies are grown here.

The fish is caught here and out here.

And much of it comes back here to create a culinary masterpiece like this.

But let's rewind a bit and head back to where we started down on Pot Liquors, the place where Zach and his farming buddy Sam McPherson are growing a variety of tasty and nutritious wonders at Pot Liquors Spa.

We have about eight acres.

We only do about two acres of production.

We're a certified, naturally grown market garden.

We grow mostly seasonal vegetables.

We try to be sustainable.

We do all of our own starts.

So you can really see our production from seed all the way to the table.

The setting right on the marsh is very cool.

Some of the mighty oaks still have remnants of shrimp nets from years past when boats would depart from this property's back rivers.

Many of these crops that Sam grows were experimented with back in the 1700s like turmeric and ginger.

And today they grow very well in this rich sandy soil.

This is actually the rise of the tomb, Rick.

And this is what people eat.

This is what people want.

And this thing will actually get about the size of my hand when it's done.

One rhizome this size can produce one whole hand.

And then we slowly seed.

Save that every year.

Show me the flower here.

The flower really is this showstopper for me.

It's it's beautiful.

Some people take the flower and use it for medicinal purposes.

If I find some of those people, I'll definitely sell it to them.

Let's look at the ginger.

Okay.

It grows really well here since we.

We're kind of tropical, so we're very fortunate.

And this, again, just like the tumor.

It's a rhizome.

You can smell it.

Actually.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

See all these?

That will all be ginger.

This is Thai basil.

This is a very beautiful, like, nice kind of spicy licorice.

Basil.

Basil.

Which is just green.

Basil is nice basil.

So down here is some real beautiful purple opal.

Basil.

You make pesto out of it.

It's going to be black.

It's nice, but it's delicious.

It has a unctuous, savory ness that regular basil just doesn't have.

And actually, all three of them combined the green, the purple and the Thai, make the best meatballs you've ever had.

So this is our melon patch.

These are all watermelons.

And then we have some cantaloupe varieties that we've been growing as well.

This is a really special melon.

This is a Sean Cross.

This is the French variety of heirloom melon.

And the first one that we've been able to grow here.

So this is a very special thing for me.

And it'll be going up to cereal tomorrow.

What's the meat like in it?

It's super sweet.

It's like if you poured sirup on a cantaloupe.

With my culinary background, I grew everything for taste and some things like tomatoes.

Like, we know they taste good, but other things like eggplant, you kind of have to entice people a lot of times to eat them.

So we like to grow these beautiful.

Rosa Bianka, Italian heirloom.

They're.

They're just they're so delicious.

And anybody who likes eggplant will love them and anybody who doesn't like eggplant will probably become an eggplant fan.

So something smells really good around here.

Yes, sir.

That's lemongrass.

This was one of the first things that started growing many years ago, was actually given to me by my father in law.

It has grown and it has multiplied into giant bushes.

You see all over the property.

Now we grow them in front and back of our hoop houses and it's just nice and pleasant and the smell is beautiful, especially when I come here and cut it all down.

We grow a variety called Sakura.

It's a beautiful, big heirloom type of tomato, and we also grow the orange variety of it.

Clementine.

So you have both of them together in a salad.

It's real beautiful.

Red peas are special because they were brought over by slaves originally to the islands.

The story is that they just carried them in their pocket because they were very hearty and they would grow anywhere and they were seeds saved every year successively after that.

We were very fortunate to have a friend that worked on Sapelo Island who was able to get us some seeds from the Bailey family.

We're very appreciative of that.

And then we also got some from Mr. Matthew Raiford from Gilliard Farms just down the road.

And we crossed those over the last five or six years, and we've been growing a crop of them ever since.

And they're specific to this area now that people really recognize, see Island Peas as being from Sapelo and the Sea Islands here of Georgia.

So now that our fruits and veggies are gathered along with the bag of red peas, we journey inland to our second Zach Gallon borne destination where he once again found the perfect friend to run the show.

Eric Miller had an aquaculture background, but Catfish was a brand new adventure, but one that seems to be growing swimmingly.

Welcome to Seattle of Ponds.

I have what we frequently pull out.

This is about average size.

Nice thick hybrid catfish.

Blue catfish.

Cross the channel catfish.

And the younger they are, the more dots they'll have.

They'll look more like the channel catfish.

When they grow out, they kind of look more like blue.

This was originally set up for you.

Catch.

We clean operation.

But I didn't run it before I was doing this.

I was actually running Aquaponics Farm.

And Zack mentioned something about a catfish pond.

I started operating it for Zack since it was already established.

It came with a lot of benefits as well as a lot of problems.

So the benefit was the ponds were established.

There was a mature ecosystem that could support the fish.

You got to have a balance between the plants in the ponds as well as the fish.

As you can see here, we have these aerators here, which is definitely not industry standard.

I repurpose these from wastewater treatment.

We went with this style of aerator because of the depth that it's allowed to irrigate.

So it makes it more efficient, especially when we're consuming power 24 hours a day.

Eric stays quite busy, but on Sundays he's usually not alone.

How often do you get out here fishing?

Every weekend?

Yeah, every weekend.

Hey, man, I've been through it.

Good days and bad days.

He's had his family out here.

I've had my family out here.

And by no means this was the initial plan for us to fish together every Sunday.

But it happened for me.

It's been cool because I come down here, I catch the fish, the cleaning and the cooking, like it's it's a cool it's a cool experience.

And I'm 100% glad I've been a part of this.

What are you looking for?

For the best eating here?

Honestly, for about the four pounders, we have no problems.

So there's guys.

That's the biggest.

He's a big boy.

So I don't want in the solely rely on the feed.

I try to encourage them to eat their natural diet here in the ponds, which is which is brim.

I like to think it contributes to more of a natural taste when they get to eat something that's a natural diet.

Tell me about this yummy stuff.

On the grill.

No, definitely not and would not allow it.

They're really finicky, so they switch between Bram, which is in the pond to these wonderful homemade hot dog bait that's dyed from the Kool-Aid we put in.

It also has got garlic powder.

It's got a little bit of fish sauce, a vacuum, seal it and leave it in my garage so it ripens.

Tim won't even touch it.

He only uses pliers to put it on hook.

He says it ruins his.

Palate for garlic.

That's not even that is ruined Kool-Aid and hot dog.

But it works.

Eric is out here quite often maintaining this private property and keeping nature's hungry critters from feeding on the catfish crop.

And as we soon found out, sometimes other friendly pond dwellers get involved in the underwater feeding frenzy.

Oh.

Oh.

Get out of here.

This is the kind of stuff.

You ready for this one, Tim?

Here's a new one.

Got a turtle.

That dude.

He took the bait also.

Yes, sir.

Now, this is the first move.

All right, buddy, you're free.

So as the soft shell scurried back into the pond to share his tale with his fishy friends, Eric and chef Tim got back to work.

You see, Chef Tim loves to fish, but it's his camaraderie with Eric and being a part of building his weekly fresh farm menu for the Georgia Sea Grill.

One catch at a time that makes this endeavor so special.

When Zach and I first talked about it, Zach's number one priority was quality.

He wants the best that can be produced, and I like to think that quality is definitely up there.

But quantity is something I'm going to work on and make sure that it's comfortably done for both Zach and I as well as Tim.

This is a guy that I got to satisfy because any dish that this man produces, you can taste it.

You can taste his efforts.

You're not going to get any better than what you can get it at Dorsey Grill.

I can't wait for you to try it.

You're not going to you're not going to forget it.

So I wasn't leaving without baiting a hook and catching a catfish for myself.

And that I did.

Adding one more to the cooler to earn my keep in supply.

Chef Tim for our next leg of this Lowcountry adventure off to Saint Simons Island and the amazing Georges Sea Grill.

Spent majority of my life here as a kid.

Elementary school, middle school, high school.

Been with the Sea Grill for six years.

This amazing place helping Zach create a story that is special.

It is awesome to work with somebody like Sam that is super knowledgeable about what he's growing, but also has a knowledge about what it takes when it comes through the kitchen.

And.

During the week you can find up to six varieties of different fish.

All depends on what's in season.

What I'm getting off certain charter captain South super popular all fresh.

Well what we have today there's a small chance it's my catfish but I'm just going to say it's me.

It's your catfish, man It's your get.

All All right, all right.

You singled out my catfish.

I did.

I did.

And it's fresh.

It's fresh.

It's going to be, you know, a lot of days on Monday.

You're eating what I caught on Sunday, both catfish dishes that I've come up with since we've started this venture with the catfish.

One is a blackened taco.

It has a Serrano cilantro slaw, black beans from Rancho Gordo and some lime pickled shallots, and then our fried catfish dish over grits.

That's six ounces.

We have our tasso gravy.

Tasso ham, red pepper, celery, onion and cream, our potluck, your red pea salad, and then just a little bit of green onion.

This is the best.

Part for you, my friend.

Okay.

Okay.

I got to get a little everything here.

Please don't be scared.

My catfish.

Mm hmm.

It's outrageous.

And I haven't had fish and grits like that before.

I love the peas on top.

It's great, man.

Oh, yes.

And I saw it all comes through, but I'll get back to work here in a second.

You're good.

You're fine.

Enjoy it.

So much of what we experience from the farm to the pond goes into the special dish.

Just one of many local culinary creations dreamt up by Chef Tim, supplied by his friends and supported by a hardworking dreamer with a creative vision that sustainable and fresh.

Let's now head from the low country up to the hill country, Chattahoochee Hill country, to be specific, and the farm friendly community of surrounding the city of Atlanta is located in the heart of Fulton County.

But in the south, into Fulton, a few miles down the road, folks have opted for a different style of living in a setting that seems like a world away, a development orchestrated piece by piece, by a man with a vision and a drive to create a healthy, happy place for his family to enjoy.

And this vision has since grown to accommodate the wishes of an entire community.

The beginning of what we today call therapy did not have a lot of forethought.

It was simply bringing our three daughters when they were three, five and seven to see the countryside.

We'd seen a historic farm listed for sale.

We arrived and bought the farm.

We'd come out a couple Saturdays a month and it seemed like a good investment.

I was amazed that there was this much open land this near the center city, and that was the only for fun.

There was absolutely no forethought.

Those Saturday weekends turned into complete weekends every weekend, and the time in the country really seduced us into changing our complete life.

Life was great.

First reaction, of course, is to start buying more land.

And at 900 acres, I realized we couldn't keep doing that.

And so that led to thinking about how we could do this differently.

Now, luckily, I was chairman of the Midtown Business Alliance back in the eighties.

Woodward funded opportunity for us to re change the zoning in midtown Atlanta.

I didn't realize that that was my tutorial on what we could do here.

I use that playbook and bringing 500 landowners together to look at how we could have balanced growth rather than either development or preservation.

We use the countryside of England as our example.

They were able to put a lot of density in the hamlets, villages and towns with the regulation they put in place so that they wouldn't destroy the whole island with asphalt and housing that resulted in a overlay with Fulton County that required all development to happen on 30% of the land and then to preserve their remaining 70% for agricultural use.

And there is nowhere in the United States this close to an urban center where that kind of balance exists.

This wasn't about developing.

This was about finding a balanced growth solution to save the majority of this land.

So this was really kind of revolutionary.

Of course, having a food background where we understand the importance of setting the table and what happens in building a community when you come together around food.

So when we broke ground for the first house, we also broke ground for the first restaurant, the Blue Eyed Daisy.

And by the time the fourth resident had moved in, we had a restaurant.

So all my friends in Atlanta thought I was really crazy.

How is a restaurant going to survive out here?

Food is all about placemaking.

So we realized that that if we were going to create a place, we had to have a place where you could come together for food and beverage and conversation.

And that's how you build community.

What started with one restaurant, the dining options along with the shops and boutiques, are now quite plentiful.

De Jay works at the Hill and is one of the friendly faces in the surrounding community.

It's a very slow paced, environmental friendly community where everybody kind of just takes care of each other.

And you can't forget about the bar here.

This is definitely the resident's favorite spot.

It's close to the town is secluded and locked off, and not to mention we just make really, really good drinks.

Steve's daughter, Gani, is the director of operations at Sarah and B, but also co-owns one of Sharon B's businesses known as Bambu, where they create raw, cold pressed organic juices and milks.

About seven years ago, someone introduced me to the founder of Bamboo Juices, Kelly Sibley, who's an Atlanta native, and had moved back to Atlanta from Los Angeles.

And when she got to Atlanta, she found that there was no cold pressed use.

And someone said, Well, you should meet Gani.

That's R&B, because the Jeremy is all about wellness, and bamboo is a great brand fit.

So we make all of the raw, cold pressed juice here and this RB kitchen, we have about 650 square foot production and with two producers we have a small retail front here in the area that we sell out of, so you can pop in and get a juice seven days a week.

The benefits of raw juice are tremendous.

So if fruits and vegetables haven't been introduced to any type of pasteurization, they have 100% of their health benefits intact.

We have our own distribution and we have our own trucks and our own delivery team.

And we deliver juice throughout metro Atlanta seven days a week, same day.

And then we partner with UPS and ship to about half the country overnight.

Every single bottle of bamboo juices is raw.

We're required in Georgia to do our own delivery because Rogers can't go into someone else's hands from a distribution point.

And along with the flowing of bamboos juices, the gardens of Sara and B are truly the heart of this community.

Sara B Farms provides for this community, and many of the restaurants like The Hill and Blue Eyed Daisy, but also the Farmhouse and chef Nick, who looks after all the restaurant operations in this community.

Chef Nick often visits his friend Ian, who manages the farm operations.

Chef Nick is always welcome at the farm.

It's always good to have a good laugh.

It's allows us to really kind of put our heads together and really work through what we're currently growing at the farm and how he can incorporate it into our really farm to table menu.

The farm itself is about 28 acres or currently farming about a half of that right now, with the other half in the preparation of future expansion, we grow up to 40 different types of crops and we're a year round and the harvest that we are taking is going to the restaurants like Chef Nick at the farmhouse, as well as Hauser, the Hill.

And then we also bring product in bulk to bamboo shoots through our common area landscaping.

80% of it is all edible.

I hear I'm at the crosswalk where we have blueberry bushes at every crosswalk.

So now that we better know this community and the folks who devote their lives to making it all work, we reunite with Chef Nick in the kitchen of the farmhouse for a special treat, including a few freshly picked treasures from the farm farmhouse.

The ceremony is a very special place, and we rely heavily on the product from that farm, and I base all my menus on what the farmers are growing.

Farmer In especially, he tells me what he's passionate about.

I let him know what I'm looking forward to cooking and we take it from there.

I go over there sometimes when he's not there, I climb over the fence and just pick stuff and I will let him know.

So he charges me for it.

But I was picking these tomatoes and I was like, Wait a second.

He planted basil in between all the rows, which is really amazing.

It kind of draws away some of the pests that love to eat these tomatoes.

So I just snagged this kind of a big handful on my way out of there.

But I buy about probably £10 of this at a time.

What I decided to do today was kind of keep it vegetables only vegan.

Here I slice those and kind of let them air out and marinate in this olive oil that we were tasting earlier, some torpedo onions that and super passionate about these things.

Then what I did is I took them, I split them and put a little olive oil and just put them on a grill.

So I'm making a risotto.

This is an early rose from Italy.

Excellent quality, the integrity of the grain.

Even though when you cook it heavily, it's still intact.

This grape juice read kind of like the tomatoes and then actually this tomato, kind of like a puree.

But I strained out the skins.

So this rice is parka.

It's important to cook your rice.

A lot of times you'll see outside, you know, cream and cheese and mascarpone and all that stuff.

We're completely avoiding that.

You want to cook it slow and let let the first round absorb.

I'm going to go ahead and put some basil just into the This is going to lend a lot of acid to the dish.

These babies here, these are the ones I stole off the trees over there.

Audience or the bushes as the end was giving me.

This corn is onions and radishes, basil buds.

I've never eaten a but very intense flavor, and some of them have little flowers and stuff on it.

Olive oil get crazy with it.

And then finally, this beautiful salt that I brought here.

So there we have it.

This is our Sarah B Farm's risotto.

Everything picked this morning.

It doesn't get better than that.

So whether you go the vegan route or all out with one of the best burgers on earth, chef Nick has you covered.

And the friendly ceremony, community grips guests with open arms and an array of options for those looking to stay in play and for those who choose to stay a while longer and make this life their life.

So from the low country where farm fresh grows and flows to the hill country where a vibrant earth friendly community has forged strong roots, the state of Georgia delivers yet again with an abundance of healthy options for a variety of folks.

I'm David Zaleski.

See you at the next fork in the road.

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 to perfection.

And the picture on the wall as sign from afar, get to meet.

Oh, it feels good.

This has been just the best.