- [Man] A Fork in the Road is brought to you by.

(bright music) - [Man] Georgia 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 - [Man] Since 1917, the Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin has been Georgia's primary resource for all things agriculture.

From thousands of classifieds for livestock, farm supplies, equipment and homegrown goods to the latest and most important, farming news.

- Ah, Georgia, nature's favorite state.

Let's hit the road and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bakers who keep us fed and keep us coming back for more.

Straight ahead from Metter at The Fork in the Road.

(slow music) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where 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.

(slow music) (upbeat music) Georgia's number one industry.

It's always been about the farm down here.

Just take a drive from Cloudland Canyon to the pristine marshes of McIntosh County and you'll capture the diversity.

Mountain vineyards, pine forests, cattle, cotton, fruits and veggies.

It's all here and it's all fresh.

- As agriculture goes, so goes Georgia.

Those fighting farm families every day that are out there and putting food and fiber on our table and supporting rural communities is inextricably linked to the success of the rest of the state.

(bright music) - [David] Before we explore the wonders of what's Metter Made, let's take a quick detour to the Georgia National Fair down in Perry.

Filmed prior to coronavirus, you'll see how this festival dishes out an amazing spectacle of everything Georgia Grown.

- A lot of good educational activities here.

A lot of good business is taking place here at our store back here, of course the Georgia Grown Baby Barn.

It's all kind of a one place for every year have a family reunion, you can see the family's pretty happy.

- [David] You'll find it all here.

Pigs, goats, chickens, free samples, of course and just about every day a crowd gathers around the main stage for the miracle of birth.

This is something you don't see every day unless you're here.

- Let's connect with life.

I mean up close and personal.

You get to talk about the science of it.

We've got University of Georgia and plus our veterinarians that are here explaining what's going on.

If you want to get somebody attached to agriculture, just let them hold a week old baby pig.

- [David] The calves and piglets alike have special volunteer handlers, breaking in the next generation of farmers.

- [Gary] When you have the brand, you do have kind of a platform to go different directions with that.

We're using the brand not just to run off products, but actually to promote the industry.

And it has a great pull to these young people.

We're so excited to see that.

- [David] Gracie Grimes was a volunteer here at the Georgia Grown Pavilion in years past and has now become one of Georgia Grown's junior ambassadors.

- Just hearing all the people with how inquisitive they were, they were fascinated by it.

Someone their age talking to them is probably going to speak more than someone 30 or even 20.

She's my age and she's got this love for agriculture.

- You've got great people, great institutions, great ports.

We're changing, but it's still an agriculture state.

(soft music) - [David] We now head further south to Gracie's hometown where the Georgia Grown Movement has deep roots and around here, everything is Metter made.

Located right off Interstate 16 between Macon and Savannah, Metter, Georgia is a sweet spot to stop and stay for any traveler.

Legendary barbecue joints like Papa Buck's, home of the pigzilla chow down challenge and the juiciest brisket you'll find anywhere on earth, along with a charming downtown square and strong community roots.

This town is special.

(soft music) Metter is also the state's first official Georgia Grown city and home to the state's first Georgia Grown store, where you'll find everything from salts and soaps to Georgia Grown jerky and jams.

It's definitely worth the stop.

(rock music) When you think south Georgia, you think sweet, and it's not just the onions and peaches that grow sweet down here.

Jay McCranie has been working down on the Grange for quite a few years.

He's been through the ups and downs of farming but the fruits of his labor are so incredibly sweet.

- Metter made.

Born and raised here.

This is a first generation blueberry farm, but my family has been farming in Candler and Tattnall County for three generations.

We've been very diversified from cotton and peanuts to cattle and blueberries now.

The rabbiteye blueberry's been our mainstay.

It's sweet, it's crisp.

It's just something you wanna eat.

Here in middle Georgia, we start about the middle of May, May 15th or so and we go through the week after July the fourth.

I believe too much of our food is imported and I think anytime we can show our consumers that we have a safe and better product, more flavorful product, I believe that's good for all of us in our industry.

A lot of American consumers don't know the difference in what's imported and what's not and if we can label that and to get our name out there and show them a better product, I think it's good for everybody.

There's basically two markets for blueberries, a fresh market and a large portion of those have to be hand-picked and a lot of ours are older varieties that go into processed market which goes into blended and frozen foods and such and that's what we use the machine for is to pick for the processed market and we can take four guys on this machine and pick what it would take 50 guys to pick by hand in a day.

They will be not labeled McCranie Farms, they'll be labeled anything you see with blueberries from Pop Tarts to frozen to whatever may be is where most of ours go.

Most people don't realize what it costs to get a blueberry from the ground, first year planning to when you see it in the supermarket.

It's a huge endeavor by a lot of people from picking to transportation to retail.

I think people have kind of lost touch with that.

And that's why the local movement is really moving fast.

For a time, people wanted it cheap and fast and with cheap and fast, you're not necessarily getting quality all the time.

And I think being more attached to some quality product, being attached to where your food comes from is just healthy.

It's healthy physically and emotionally.

And I think people have jumped on the bandwagon and it's really grown fast.

Most kids, even in Metter, Georgia, a small community here in south Georgia are not raised on the farm.

They're detached from it now.

So, anytime my kids' friends come out or anything, they're amazed by what we do.

From just growing the product to how we harvest it and such as that, it's a blessing to live in a small community where you can share that.

- [David] Our next stop along this Georgia Grown trail is a story where the community has embraced a different generation of farmer.

(slow music) Farm rich fields, peanuts, pecans, and it's farmers like Grant Anderson, the founder of Better Fresh Farms who are bringing exciting fresh farm products to this community and beyond.

- [Grant] Hydroponics is growing food with nutrient-rich water in a non soil-based environment.

- [David] Grant is a graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has engineered a unique, yet practical strategy for his high quality produce.

- Essentially in this environment, we control all the conditions that the plant is exposed to because it's indoors.

We can start the plants with nutrient-rich water and exclude the soil and therefore exclude the need for herbicides and pesticides and other chemical applications associated with farming.

We grow about 13 varieties of specialty hydroponic lettuce, some French radishes, and at the moment, over my right shoulder, some kale.

The taste of our produce is incredibly important.

If it wasn't at a higher level than the other stuff that we're competing against in the market, we wouldn't be able to charge the premium we can currently for our product.

Not only is it a more fresh option, but the flavor profile that we create in here, giving it a really ideal environment to grow in the duration of its lifecycle, really gives it a pronounced flavor and also improves the texture of it.

(soft music) You really find that the specific varieties of lettuce we grow in here all have very different characteristics because they get the opportunity to grow the very best version of themselves.

The lights themselves, it's just the blue and red light frequencies from a high efficiency LED.

Essentially, it's all the plants need to photosynthesize.

It gives us a way to grow plants indoors using a low energy light source.

Essentially what we do is we try to mimic in every 24 hour lifecycle, the perfect day.

So we provide 18 hours of light and an ideal temperature range for them which gives them a longer period of time every single day to grow.

And then a six hour night cycle where we drop our temperatures and change the environment a little bit to mimic a night cycle.

So, every day they get what we believe to be the perfect day that they can experience.

I'd always thought it would be neat to have a family business.

I hope one day to have my son involved as well.

At the moment, it's me and two of my younger cousins.

We've been trying to figure this out the last few years and finally, to a point where we believe we'll be able to capitalize on what we've learned.

We're very meticulous in our process.

We were raised to believe that anything you do for somebody else should be done well.

There's a conscience associated with what we do.

If we don't try our best to give the best product, then I can't can be convinced when I go to try and sell the product that it's what we say it is.

(soft music) - [David] Grant and his Better Fresh Farms team have worked hard to continue growing this valuable product and now have a home, a large one at that.

Here in Metter, Georgia Southern University teamed with the city and Georgia Grown to create the state's first Georgia Grown Innovation Center.

- I found out in late 2018 that the city of Metter was rebranding with the assistance of the Department of Agriculture through Georgia Grown and the Department of Economic Development.

Very quickly, our goals aligned.

We're all looking for a way to grow sustainably and highlight the agriculture that's available in Metter and the value of that.

Georgia Southern became aware of what we were working on and has gotten involved in the project.

So, we've got a local university, a local municipality and a private business that are all working together to not only create value for that community, but also hopefully to help get our business to the next step.

- We were looking for a way to brand this community and checked was most important here.

Agriculture is huge in this area, not only to Metter, but in the region and the state of Georgia.

- Agriculture is one of our main businesses here in the county and the city.

We grow peanuts, cotton, corn, pecan and then we got people come in to the incubator here to start up their businesses.

So, it's a win-win for Metter and the region.

- Part of what I think is so important about this project is the ability to build out this warehouse and add in containers, gives us a chance to test a high-tech approach to high volume food production and I think with population growth in the near future, it's going to be a need that we're gonna have to figure out how to meet and this project could be really beneficial in determining how do we meet population growth and provide a large quantity of food for folks like that in the future and our generation has gotta start picking up the doors and figuring out that problem.

(soft music) - We're very proud of what Better Fresh Farms brings to the community.

They are a resource for fresh lettuce and greens to local restaurants, school cafeterias and farmer's markets.

This all started with the vision of Metter becoming branded Georgia Grown community.

Once that part got established, then the vision of having an incubator here on site, in the city, providing the region a service, there's an opportunity for extreme job growth and a fantastic opportunity for the city itself.

One size doesn't fit all here and we understand that we feel like that's the, the, we we need to be successful.

The obvious things are they'll have a physical office space here.

They got a professional building that they can meet clientele in.

They've got office services, they got a hotspot for wifi.

They don't have to go to a Starbucks to do business.

So, this gives them a chance to be the professionals that they are and to progress at the speed that they need based on the business plan that we worked with them on.

- Georgia Southern and the Department of Agriculture and the city of Metter came together with a plan and went from basic planning to the end product here and we hope to have great success with it.

- The potential to increase our production right now is pretty tremendous.

There's a lot of opportunity to capitalize on what I believe is a struggling produce market.

For us to be able to regulate price by being regional and not have the fluctuation that most people see in the national food market.

And beyond that, we see an opportunity to identify different markets around the state and somewhat satellite campus those locations to provide local food near those cities.

- [David] This face of the future for Georgia Grown and Metter Made is indeed leading by example in an inspiring way.

- We have convinced people with their first bite that this is the best bite of lettuce that you can find around here.

(soft music) - [David] From a Heartland Festival where all things agriculture is celebrated to a south Georgia blueberry farm and new age hydroponic greens operation that has an entire community behind it, the world of the modern farmer is always changing and it must.

Eli Whitney was cutting-edge when his innovative cotton gin changed the world of farming and his creation is still in use here in Candler County, Georgia.

- In 1993, it was rumored that our gin was gonna close in Metter and some of the farmers would come by and talk with me and say, y'all need to look into buying the gin.

So, my brother and I were in the business together and we talked it over and we went and talked to the owner of the gin and bought the cotton gin in 1994.

I've been in it ever since.

Had some really good years, slow years, but it's been a good business.

Eli Whitney's were about that wide and it had a hand crank on it.

These have got salt blades that go between these ribs and the little salt teeth catch the lint and pull it through this little crack.

And there's a brush, brushes it off in the back but the seed can't go through the cracks.

So they fall out the bottom.

You have to rebuild a gin every year.

You need to go through every machine and check all these saws and ribs and bearings and there's just millions of parts in the cotton gin.

You need to, during the summer, you need to go through it and make sure it's all running good because you've got 90 days to make your living.

So, if everything's not in good shape, running good, you can get in trouble quick.

Cotton's very important in this area.

That's why Georgia was settled for the cotton plantations down around Savannah and Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in Savannah.

This whole top we've got groves a good, high quality cotton.

That's the soul and the climate, the hot weather.

Cotton loves sunlight and hot temperatures and we get a good bit of rain off the coast.

A good combination.

(soft music) - [David] Ronnie Flynn is also a big part of the Metter pecan industry or pea can.

Having more than one crop diversifies the farming portfolio.

If one crop is suffering, maybe the other one can step up.

Pecan trees make for a beautiful setting.

And the nut these gorgeous trees produce are the best you'll find anywhere.

- It's very nutritious, fresh Georgia grown pecan.

It's got all kind of antioxidants and it's got the good kind of fat for your blood, your cholesterol.

It's just a healthy nut to eat.

In 1988, I decided to build a house and I didn't want to live in town.

So, I came out to the edge of town and bought 40 acres.

It was all open farmland and I didn't know really what I wanted to do so I got thinking, I started planting pecan trees.

So, that got me into the pecan business and it's been good.

I've had some really good years in the pecan business.

If you put all your eggs in one basket, you'll get in trouble.

You've got to diversify and keep trying to have different things going and some of them work, some of them don't.

It's just good, clean, healthy living.

(soft music) - [David] Picturesque cotton fields like this gorgeous layout at Dutch Ford Farms are just a sample of what's going on in the heart of the Southland.

Georgia farms boast a variety of agricultural products for consumers and we've seen just a sample of everything that's going on in just one of the state's 159 counties, how be it a good one.

But the Candler County story continues with another iconic Georgia farm specialty and that's the peanut.

Candler Peanut has opened a new shelling factory and business is going quite well, but peanuts are a tricky industry.

- The climate is the reason Georgia's has such a good opportunity for growing peanuts.

Our climate is suited for them.

We get a lot of coastal showers, which helps us out a lot.

Since the beginning of peanut growing in the US, all the peanuts have been grown in the south and southeast and they're migrating a little bit toward the delta now, but not a large amount.

I've never known of having a peanut shelling plant in this area and this is not edible peanut shelling.

This is seed peanuts, the peanuts that we would plant for another year.

When you get into edible, that's a totally different program.

We let the big guys handle all that.

What we are putting in is a peanut shelling operation for seed.

We would be not only growing and shelling our Candler Peanut brand of seed that we would sell to customers and possibly other buying points.

We also would be shelling peanuts for customers that want to save their own seed as long as they follow the proper procedures and then we would shell them, bag them and they would come pick them up and take them back to their own farms.

Cotton is probably the best rotation crop with peanuts.

Cotton is also well- adapted to this area and in Georgia, of course it does move into the delta a lot and the delta can grow the cotton.

Their climate is not suited for the peanut.

So, of course you can't grow a peanut and have a high quality peanut if you grow a peanut behind peanut behind peanut.

So, the cotton is definitely a must in our area to make the rotation work right with peanuts and cotton.

- [David] Before we leave Candler County and the diverse farming region around Metter, Georgia, there's just one more stop to make.

Located right on the Candler and Tattnall County line, Handy Kennedy and his family operate HK Farms.

A wide variety of agriculture is being grown down here, but one in particular caught my eye and I'll let Handy explain yet another crop where Georgia is a perfect growing environment.

- The legacy of this farm's been in the family since 1869.

Right after slavery, my great-grandfather Handy and Elizabeth Jane bought 175 acres from a guy by the name of Cobb, which Cobbtown is basically named after.

His son grew it to like 1700 acres, but then when my father and grandfather split it up amongst his 13 kids, my father bought a thousand acres of it and this is where we sit right now is on the thousand acres that my father bought from his father, Marlton Kennedy.

My father built those barns back in 1972 for tobacco and to be able to use these barn here in 2020 to dry hemp is amazing.

That's kind of keeping the lineage and the history going on with the farm.

I believe that hemp was a revolutionary crop.

And I knew that it was gonna bring some opportunity for small farmers like ourself to give us the opportunity to make some extra revenue.

And when I really started researching and learning about the different aspects of it and what you can really do with hemp, with the CBD, with the seed and with the fiber, I knew that this was going to be a crop that we have to really invest in on the ground level.

- [David] Many foods and drinks infuse their products with CBD oil for health benefits.

Pretoria Fields Collective, a brewery down in Albany, Georgia who we are featuring in more detail later in the season, sees the benefits of Handy's healthy hemp and has developed a great business relationship with HK Farms.

- Because of my background in medicine, we try to promote health and we're promoting health through organic farming and we're promoting health through sustainable farming.

If I could get people to think about thinking that way, then maybe we can get them to think about how cannabis is a sustainable performing product.

- [Handy] When Georgia passed a law to allow us to start growing, I started researching processors that really had the best interests of small farmers in mind and I ran across Pretoria Fields.

They had a couple of presentations throughout the state.

And so I'm going to a couple of their meetings and listened to their leadership team explain to them what they were trying to do, I realized that was going to be the best fit far as processors in Georgia for HK Farms.

- [David] The cannabis plant can be genetically altered in order to differentiate marijuana from hemp, THC from CBD.

- Just for a simple understanding, the hemp varieties that we grow, the THC genes are the genes that make, that would make it marijuana, quote unquote.

They're knocked out.

They're not activated in that particular plant they're growing.

And everything has to be, as far as the state law, under 0.3% THC and the other thing that people need to realize is that we're growing it for a high CBD content and the increase in the CBD actually suppresses THC effect.

So, there's several different reasons that it both has the beneficial effects and it also doesn't have the euphoric effects.

- [David] The Green Toad Hemp Farm is another Candler County based hemp growing business that is taking advantage of this reborn industry.

Several dedicated workers believing in a reborn crop and appreciating our state's appealing climate.

Hemp grown around these parts has a promising future.

So, from peanuts and pecans to blueberries to black lights, growing lettuce and kale, and even a healthy crop of perfectly legal hemp, the modern farmers of Metter offer a diversity of styles and approaches to this ever-changing world of agriculture.

See you at the next Fork in the Road.

(soft music) A Fork in the Road was brought to you by.

(soft music) - [Man] Georgia 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.

- [Man] 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.