(country music) - [David] The Fork in the Road is brought to you by... (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Georgia's soil is rich.

Its climate, agreeable.

Its agricultural variety, exceptional.

That's why we're nature's favorite state.

Georgia Grown supports the farmers and producers who work the land and keep us fed, because we all grow better together.

Find out more about Georgia agriculture at georgiagrown.com - [Narrator] Since 1917, the Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin has been George's primary resource for all things agriculture, from thousands of classifieds for livestock, farm supplies, equipment, and home-grown goods, to the latest and most important farming news.

(upbeat music) - 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.

(exciting music) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ This week, we explore a few farms and factories of the legendary North Georgia mountains, beginning at a picturesque vineyard and winery in Blue Ridge.

(upbeat music) Blue Ridge, Georgia, an amazing little Georgia mountain town with a perfect blend of outdoor activities, art, scenery, history, fine dining, and of course, fine wine.

(peaceful music) Michelle Swim, who goes by Mick, is the founder of Bear Claw Vineyards and has beautifully taken the reins of this Georgia-grown gem that perfectly personifies the region.

(peaceful music) - Basically, I was looking for a business to start that would be a generational business that would be here forever.

- [David] Mick took this project as a second career and she ran with it.

She had the financial background to keep the books in order, and being a person who analyzes everything, with a fine tooth comb, the business of growing vines and barreling wine was a challenging yet perfect fit for her skill set.

- That 200, 300 year old farm is generational, but then when I looked into it, as far as financially, there weren't a lot of options if you have a mortgage.

So if grandpa gives you the farm, it's a great, great life, but if grandpa doesn't give you the farm and you have to buy the farm, it's a little harder.

They always say, if you want to own a winery, you should start out with millions of dollars first.

That was not the case for me.

(upbeat music) - [David] Tasty grapes have been growing throughout Georgia for decades, and those are usually the sweeter muscadine and scuppernong variety.

Fantastic in their own right, but along with a select few other North Georgia wineries, Michelle has realized that particular pockets in these Southern Appalachian Hills indeed can be a great environment for Chardonnay, Cabernet, Sauvignon.

and other celebrated varieties that have traditionally been linked to the West Coast.

- We have alluvial plain soil in our vineyard, which is an old riverbed, basically.

If we did not have this, I'm sure we would have a lot more problems.

Also, we are one of the few vineyards I know of in the Southeast US that is densely planted.

Normally, when you go to a vineyard, it'll be 10 to 12 feet between plants, and ours are two feet apart.

So we are definitely packed in there, and it also is a great thing, because in order to put almost 5,000 plants here, it would have taken like nine acres or so, and now we've only planted like four.

So we are spraying only four acres, not nine or 10.

So it's financially a lot better for us.

It's better for the environment, also.

Fortunately for me, I have a little history in the HVAC industry that enabled Bear Claw to have some state of the art chillers and tanks, and we have crack units, they call them.

We are using our chilled glycol from our tanks in these boxes that are up on the ceiling and they actually provide free air conditioning to this room for our facility.

We're reusing our glycol, so that's a plus.

We also cold stabilize all the wines at Bear Claw, meaning we're going to take these down to about 27 degrees and hold them there for about two weeks.

That gives the wine a nice quality, I believe, and we finish off our reds that way too.

We cold stabilize those.

(exciting music) - [David] Bear Claw's back porch overlooks the vineyard.

It makes for the perfect setting to enjoy this Georgia-grown refreshment.

- I do love the seasonal tourism that it brings.

The agritourism is our main selling point.

The tours are usually on Saturday.

They are an awesome opportunity, but we basically take you from January through December outside, and then we take you through harvest, and we take you back in the winery building, and we explain how wine is made.

We literally spend a lot of time with people to make sure, when they leave here, they fully understand how the grapes were grown, how they were processed, and how we put it in the bottle.

(exciting music) - [David] And if you look out into the woods, you spot another unique feature of the Bear Claw experience.

Their quirky, rustic, and magnificent tree house.

- I didn't think DIY Network would pick us when I applied online, but they did, and The Treehouse Guys came out and built our tree house, which is now basically a hotel.

Agritourism, again, is awesome for us.

That brings many people to our vineyard, and that way, they can stay in the tree house overnight.

We had no revenue.

We were not open to the public.

We did not have a wine in the bottle, but we had a tree house sitting over our vineyard, and when that show aired, we immediately had revenue because we rented the tree house.

So that paid for two vineyard workers for two years prior to us opening.

It was a gift.

(gentle music) - The tree house is a hidden gem for sure, but it's the wine that keeps me coming back.

The Bear Claw Treehouse Chardonnay is just one of many wines I got to experience my first time visiting the winery in 2018, and made such an impression that I had to come back to relive the experience.

Okay, this is the sweetest, the Dreamcatcher.

- Yes, the Dreamcatcher.

- With the Georgia peach.

- We boast that it pairs well with lime.

- My life just got better.

- Good.

- Yes.

(somber music) Bear Claw was hit hard by the pandemic, and in May 2019, freeze did not help the situation with the Chardonnay, but those are the kinds of setbacks that drive folks like Mick to adapt and persevere, keeping Bear Claw flowing for those who love the wine from these Georgia-grown vines.

(upbeat music) From tree houses and fine wine to a farm where the rainbow trout shine, let's hop a few hills over to Suches to explore this unique farm full of fish.

(exciting music) North Georgia's gorgeous mountains, along with pristine rivers and streams, bring visitors from all over the world.

The views alone are well worth the trip, but there's a wondrous fish inhabiting those cool streams who double as both the sportsman's trophy or a chef's best friend, the rainbow trout.

(exciting music) And there's a man in these mountains who understands this fish probably better than anyone, and what it takes to raise them right, keep them healthy, and at times, grow them to record side.

(upbeat music) - This land has been in my family for generations.

I have great, great, great grandparents buried here.

We were thrilled to get to come back here and earn a living raising trout.

We've been raising trout for 40 years now.

Started in 1980.

We're blessed to have the quality of water that we have here.

We've controlled the watershed, so the water is as pure as it gets, and that is one of the contributing factors to the quality of the trout that we raise.

We have some customers that want trophy-sized trout.

I grew up fly fishing for trout, and I never caught anything that even approaches what we're raising here now, but the largest fish that we produced here weighed 26 and a half pounds.

That's unheard of.

(upbeat music) - [David] The process is a lot more complicated than it seems at first glance.

We'll start in the nursery - The process begins with the hatching of the eggs.

We have 'em put into the feed that they eat.

It's an incredibly pure product because there's no room for pollution anywhere along the line.

(piano music) They are a bit finicky when they first start up, and if you don't get that initial feeding in them, then sometimes they may not survive.

So we're very cautious about providing a very small amount of feed for them throughout the day so that they get started.

Once they get started, they get very enthusiastic about eating.

We have to go through and separate the large fish from a hatch because there's nothing a trout would rather eat than a smaller trout.

And once they get started, they become super fish.

That's what we call it, but we have to go through and grade those out and separate them from the rest of the population because they'll continue to eat those fish, and the first thing you know, you've got a handful of large fish and all of your small fish are gone.

(peaceful music) - [David] And from the tanks, they go to this well-circulated pond.

Many in here are good eating size.

Chef preference varies.

- [Terry] Our restaurant business, very size specific.

We will have orders for 16 ounce, 18 ounce, 20 ounce, 22 ounce, 24 ounce fish.

It takes us a year to produce a one pound trout, 16 ounces, and that's with good growing conditions.

We can harvest these fish and have them to the kitchens in the Atlanta restaurants in three hours.

- [David] But this farm isn't only about the appetite.

It's also about the angler.

That's much of what's going on in the lower pond over here.

- [Terry] If we can keep the fish to the second year, then we can go up to three pounds, and of course, we keep some fish up to trophy size for stocking purposes.

(exciting music) - [David] Watching these trout swim around is hypnotic, seeming at times like an oil painting, watching them swirl in spiral patterns or exploding to the surface in a feeding frenzy of epic proportions.

It's a beautiful sight indeed.

And to a fishermen like me, this appears to be an angler's paradise.

Desperately wanting to drop a fly line in the pool, no doubt Terry and Ruth could make some additional money running this kind of business as well here in these beautiful hills, but in running an operation like this, that action could endanger the entire farm.

Many things could go wrong.

(peaceful music) - We can refer you to customers that do that, but we do not offer fishing here.

First of all, we don't want to compete with our customers.

Secondly, we've been very concerned over the years about the possibility of introducing a virus or any type of disease organism.

So we're pretty restrictive about who we allow in and what we allow in.

People make fun of me.

So, you've been raising trout for 40 years, and what do you do on a day off?

Go fly fishing for trout.

I spent yesterday morning with a dear friend on the Noontootla stream nearby, and we had a great morning fly fishing.

And in fact, I got to play some of those trophy-sized trout just before they spit my fly out and saluted me about 40 yards downstream.

It is still fun and I still enjoy fishing - [David] And lucky for me, I chose to come on a good day when the fire pit was burning and the smoker was heating up, and you wouldn't believe what was on Terry and Ruth's backyard menu.

- Eating trout is one of the best things you can do.

It's one of life's enjoyable foods that's great for you and is great tasting.

High in omega three fatty acids, and we make sure of that with the diet that we feed them.

We've got some filets that are 15 minutes out of the water.

We typically use a salt and brown sugar brine and I believe Ruth incorporated some Georgia-grown pecan oil in this batch as well.

She also discovered that we have some roe starting to form.

This is not quite mature yet, but when it does mature, the chefs in Atlanta absolutely love it.

They cure it and they use it as a garnish on salads and dishes.

It's a premium product.

(upbeat music) And we leave the skin on, because it just holds the filet together.

- [David] What are you looking for here on the final product?

- It's a nice firm product, but not too dry.

The brown sugar salt kind of helps prevent it from drying out, and we like a hot smoke.

About 40 minutes at 200 degrees is ideal for these little filets.

Again, they turn just a nice golden hue, and farm-raised trout or fish in general kind of got a bad rap for a while.

People didn't want farm-raised product, but the fact is we control the watershed.

The water is as pure as it gets and we control the diet.

We know what the fish eats.

So there's no room for contamination of any kind.

It's just nature's bounty.

- [David] Branlett Trail Farms has accumulated many awards and highly acclaimed culinary customers through the years.

It's a fascinating business and operation, growing many schools of George's finest rainbow trout.

(gentle music) (exciting music) From the farm to the river, let's journey east over the Appalachians to Clarkesville, where the trout, yet again, take center stage, along with Abby J's award-winning gourmet.

(upbeat music) These mountains and this river have a secret recipe within.

From the walls of this adorable farmhouse in Habersham County, Georgia, comes the origin story of two successful businesses from the mind of one woman with a dream and a passion, Abby Jackson of Abby Jay's Gourmet, headquartered at Blackhawk Fly Fishing, two very different businesses that somehow make a perfect combination.

- We are at Blackhawk Fly Fishing, north of Clarkesville, Georgia on Highway 197.

We have two miles of private water on a 125 acre farm, and Abby J's Gourmet got started out of the passion and love for cooking for my fly fisherman here at Blackhawk.

- I met Abby J during a fly fishing segment I produced over 10 years ago, and still remember my first trophy trout, and more importantly, my first taste of her amazing chili, not even realizing that my appetite helped inspire yet another Georgia-grown success story.

(peaceful music) - I really wanted to get back to my roots and it was a passion for growing my own food and cooking for my clients.

And actually, David, you were a part of that inspiration, and I was making chili for my clients and I thought about a gourmet sauce, but then the chili was so popular here that I decided to do a salsa.

After I developed my first one, it took off.

I just got more inspired to do it.

I became the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011.

After that, I got back to my roots with my grandmother, spending time in the kitchen with my grandmother on the farm, and I developed my sweet fire pickles, and they happened to win the Flavor of Georgia in 2016.

- [David] You can find Abby J's products all over the state, from Kroger's Georgia-grown section, in the Atlanta area to areas up in the mountains, in the suburbs, and places in Southern Georgia, like Carroll's Sausage, Stripling's, and White Oak Pastures in Bluffton.

- A lot of different places, but the main place is here at Blackhawk.

- [David] It's dedicated team members like the incomparable Soque River fishing guide, John Rice, and family members of Abby who have helped support her along the ups and downs of running two small businesses in completely different fields.

- We put our hearts in it.

After 22 years of being here and taking care of the property, we're great stewards of the land.

(exciting music) - [John] Got him.

Let him run, let him run.

Yeah, perfect!

- Whoa!

I'm teaching him how to dance on the river.

- [John] Trout stream dancing.

- John Rice has been with us a long time and he loves fly fishing.

He loves to share his passion, his knowledge.

- And we got us a nice little rainbow.

- He is just so devoted to making sure that fly fishermen have a great time.

- Give me a kiss.

Thank you.

- [David] Abby continues to produce and supply during this turbulent time, and fly fishing can fortunately be a six foot distance experience.

- [Abby] Yes!

- [David] My friend Abby J keeps a positive attitude and still keeps doing the two or three or four things that she does best.

(inspiring music) - [John] Yeah, perfect!

(exciting music) - [David] Our next fork in the road takes us back through the winding mountain roads to the land of the shrooms.

Welcome to Ellijay Mushrooms.

(upbeat country music) This is Howard.

He's a fun guy who grows fungi that you can put in your soup or your chicken pot pie.

These Georgia-grown mushrooms are funky, tasty, trendy, and most importantly, nutritious, and it's here in these picturesque mountains of Ellijay, Georgia where you'll find Howard and his fresh mountain shrooms.

(exciting music) So how'd you get into mushrooms?

Everybody knows them.

Most people love it.

- Well, besides being a fun guy, no, that's a mushroom joke.

(record scratching) I just love growing things.

One thing led to another.

I met my first mushroom partner with Two Fun Guys.

With Two Fun Guys, we enable you to become a mushroom grower at home.

In 2018, my partner here in Ellijay, Megan Cai, found me through that company, and now we grow mushrooms commercially.

Currently at Ellijay Mushrooms, we are growing two types of mushrooms.

One, we are growing shiitakes, which we'll go see in a little bit, and right now, we're in our oyster house.

(peaceful music) So, our oyster mushrooms are grown in here and this is called pinning.

So right now you can see the baby little mushrooms.

These are little oyster mushrooms that have just came out with a log.

Within the next two to three days, they will get to this next stage, a little bit bigger and a little bit happier.

About three more days later, so a total of five to six days, you'll have your mushrooms ready to harvest.

These oyster mushrooms look so delicious.

All you would have to do is just twist it off this log, put it into a harvest basket, keep it in a refrigerator.

You can order our mushrooms and then take it home and eat it.

Have a great, healthy, yummy meal.

Look how cool those oysters are.

The gills are so pretty.

So nice.

- [David] What are you looking for in a perfect oyster mushroom?

- Really, just to have a good size oyster head, like the top of the cap before it starts flipping up which would be when they dropped their spores, which would be like this.

So this oyster mushroom is still good.

It just won't have as long of a shelf life compared to something that's a little bit tighter.

(peaceful music) So now we're in our shiitake house.

It's a double-layer greenhouse.

So we have 90% shade on two layers so we can roll the sides up and lower it down to allow air to come through.

It's just a big crank that makes it go up and down.

Then we can also raise the roof, raise the roof.

(exciting music) And we have our water system here to hydrate our logs.

We can hold about 10,000 mushroom logs in here.

So these mushroom logs are a composite of hardwoods, shredded up with the shiitake mycelium and some water.

These logs can produce about three or four rounds of mushrooms before they start turning into compost.

(upbeat music) This is about two days old.

A couple of days after that, they'll start getting a little thicker and they'll start joining together.

The mushroom harvesting is very tedious.

What we have to do is we have to go around thinning mushroom logs, which that means is that we're going to have to start separating some of the pins away from the other mushrooms so that we can grow nice, big, round ones.

So there's many days where we're in here, just thinning and pinning mushrooms.

These things are actually really yummy, fried up in some batter, mixed with some hoisin sauce.

Super yummy.

Just pop them in your mouth like candy and go.

- [David] And here's something else of note.

All mushrooms are categorized as number ones or twos, based on shape and presentation at the time of picking.

- There's not a taste difference in 'em.

It's just for the industry.

They call the perfectly round one a number one, and one that's a little bit flatter, a number two.

So there's a different dollar value based upon that.

I eat them all.

It's great.

After about five days of thinning and pinning, the mushroom logs will pop out relatively quickly.

So you have tons of shiitakes on your log, all over.

Shiitakes are a really, really special mushroom, really high in vitamin D. They lower your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol.

They have a lot of amino acids the same as us.

Huge in protein, iron, zinc.

So, technically, the other magic mushroom.

They're just packed full of nutrients.

(exciting music) - [David] Mushrooms are fun to watch, fun to poke, great to eat, and will eventually be fun for visitors themselves to pick, poke, and eat as an agritourism addition to this 30 acre farm.

- So, in January, 2024, we'll have you-pick here at Ellijay Mushrooms, where you and your family, you'll be able to come in here and harvest your own mushrooms, take them home, and cook.

These are not your mom and grandma's old slimy mushrooms.

They're a different type of mushrooms that everybody needs to get reacquainted with.

They're thick, they're meaty, and your next best meal.

(upbeat music) For us particularly, we have amazing water up here.

The mountain water really makes our mushrooms stand out from everybody else, and it really makes a difference in the taste, but kind of like when you hear people say the bagels are better in New York because of the aquifer, or the crepes in Paris, or the mushrooms tastes better in Georgia, North Georgia and Ellijay, because of our water aquifer.

- [David] These mini shiitake boxes are a new addition to the Ellijay mushroom arsenal, and like many new agribusiness ideas of late, they were dreamt up and activated almost immediately as a nutritious vitamin D and protein food box option during the pandemic.

We created this box.

It's a simple 100% recyclable box, which is one of the first on the market.

There's no plastic involved.

So we put our packaged shiitakes in here.

One of our food hubs, the Common Market Southeast, got the USDA grant for the food box, which is 15,000 food boxes for families in need throughout Georgia, which means 15,000 of these boxes that we are to deliver to the Common Market Southeast so they could put it into people's foods boxes so they can have access during these challenging times to fresh food, fresh veggies from local farmers.

(upbeat music) - [David] So, as these majestic mushrooms grow from the magical mountain water of Ellijay, Georgia, Howard and his team of fun guys and girls will continue growing, expanding, and delivering his healthy-Georgia grown goodies to chefs and consumers all around the South.

(upbeat country music) From trophy trout and tasty trout, to fine wine and fresh mountain shrooms, these Georgia hills are packed with mountain-made goodness and the right people seeing to it that everything is done just right.

See you at the next fork in the road.

(exciting music) A Fork in the Road is brought to you by... (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Georgia's soil is rich.

Its climate, agreeable.

Its agricultural variety, exceptional.

That's why we're nature's favorite state.

Georgia Grown supports the farmers and producers who work the land and keep us fed, because we all grow better together.

Find out more about Georgia agriculture at georgiagrown.com - [Narrator] Georgia FSIS provides efficient and accurate third party inspection services to members of the industry.

We inspect various fresh commodities, including peanuts, fruits, vegetables, and pecans.

The use of the inspection service ensures the shipment of high quality products and enhances Georgia's reputation as a supplier of superior agricultural products.