- [Announcer] "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by.

- I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

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

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

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ (gentle music) ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me, you are the star ♪ ♪ All right, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Get the feeling, pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on, na na na na na na ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

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

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

- 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."

(singers vocalizing) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ - [David] Georgia farmers, artisans, merchants, and producers, we depend on these men and women every day of our lives through the choices we make and the food we consume.

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

(bluesy music) (bright music) The coastal marshes here in Georgia are an earthly treasure, (bright music continues) and even though the creatures within have always known this to be true, it's a comfort to see that so many folks living here have that same appreciation, and when preserving the quality of these salty Georgia shores, good results can follow, not only ecologically, but economically.

(bright music continues) This week, we explore the businesses of these coastal Georgia treasures.

(singers vocalizing) We begin this week on the nutrient-rich water of the Bull River near Savannah, where an oyster farming couple hopes to bring new life to an old industry.

(bright music) You've gotta love this to do it right, and it's obvious to me that Laura and Perry Solomon are doing just that.

(bright music continues) It's at times labor intensive, and requires quite a bit of problem solving since they are pioneers in this particular method of oyster farming.

(bright music continues) - They call this a subtitle lease, so there's six subtitle leases in Georgia right now, and it's called subtitle because the lease never dries out, right?

So the farm equipment, everything is attached subtitley to the ocean bottom, to the river bottoms, versus historic wild harvest leases for oysters are intertidal, you know, you're farming the mud bank out there that dries out twice a day.

That's what makes this different is that these oysters are always in the water.

- [David] The Solomons are not alone in this endeavor.

Since 2015, the University of Georgia Marine Extension and Sea Grant have been doing the necessary research to properly revive this once massive Georgia oyster industry.

Ernest Macintosh Senior and Junior have been at it for quite a few years with a different method of oyster farming with impressive results, however, the Solomons are the first in Georgia to use the floating basket technique.

(bluesy music) This site is known as the Bull River Ranch.

That makes this tool their lasso, and this boat, their trusty steed.

- [Perry] So the advantage of the floating basket system, or any sort of floating aquaculture systems is that it keeps the oyster right there in the top foot of the water column where all the phytoplankton and diatoms and all the stuff that they're eating is, and that's why they grow so fast and they stay so clean, and the meat quality's so good, because we're staying right here in this nutrient-rich, fast moving water, versus the wild oyster that's grown on the bank, it's only in the water a few hours a day.

It spends half of its life outta the water, and so it grows slower, but genetically, it's the same.

That's one of the things that's really fascinating about it.

(bluesy music continues) One of the aspects of it is that it's not just silt in the water, it's the nutrients.

I mean this is, that's rich organic matter, algaes and colonial algaes that are growing there, that are the food source for these oysters too, so they are loving it as much as we are.

(bluesy music continues) - [Laura] So we use a system called FlipFarm, and one of the reasons you have to flip the farm is to desiccate things that grow on both the cages and the oysters.

So we wanna control barnacle growth, wild (indistinct) all on the oysters in the cages, but also keep maximum water flow through the cages since that's the oyster's food and nutrition.

So if they get, you know, you can see how it starts to kind of close up the holes if you don't take care of that.

- [Perry] Not only do our oysters take off pressures on the wild oysters on the banks, but even while they're in the baskets that you saw, they are providing habitat for juvenile fish, shrimp, and crabs.

They're a floating reef.

There's genuinely no downside to it.

It's an awesome, awesome thing.

(bright music) - [David] What are you looking for, Laura, in the oyster?

- [Laura] Well, you can see how this one's obviously bigger, but it's narrow.

We like 'em when they're a little bit more round, and you can see it looks a little bit fatter here than here.

This means that probably the meat to shell ratio is a little bit better in this one.

So we're looking for the cup, the deep cup to hold the brine, the nice shape that's a little bit wider, and then a good meat to shell ratio, so when you open it, it should be full of an oyster and the water.

- [David] And that's some of the science that the folks at UGA Marine Extension were working on?

- [Laura] Right, they've been studying it and collecting data, and so they have a lot of good insights into how you do that.

(lively music) - People that share all their experiences and information with you, they do it knowing that even if you just copied and pasted their recipe for their oyster, it's not gonna turn out the same here.

It's gonna gonna be different.

There's so many similarities to growing grapes and wine.

You know, the wine people talk about terroir, how it tastes like the earth that it comes from, well, the oyster industry's adapted the term marroir.

You're tasting the place that it's from.

I'll encourage people like taste a little salt water, spit it out, and then taste the oyster.

It's gonna taste very, very similar, 'cause a big part of what you're eating is what's in the water.

(lively music continues) What we're waiting on is this color, and the meat to fill out in the oyster.

So this is still a juvenile oyster that's not quite ready for market yet.

Nice shell size, but what's gonna happen over the next couple months is that meat's gonna really pump up and fill out the shell.

Still tastes very good, though.

- [David] Thank you, oh yeah.

- Big salt?

- [David] Mm-hmm.

- [Perry] This one looks a little nicer.

That creamy kind of color is starting to fill out all the way through the gills and out to the mantle.

- [David] And explain the mantle, why is that important?

- The mantle is the outer edge here, that frilly edge, and that's where the oyster's growing from.

That's where it's putting, the mantle is what puts on the shell and produces the oyster, the oyster shell, so very important part of it.

So take this one now, and we'll dump some of the salt water out.

You can enjoy the flavor a little more, and you'll taste the sweetness of the adductor muscle, and kind of the creaminess of the body.

- [David] Oh yeah, and the aftertaste is great.

- It's sweet.

- [David] Yeah, it's a sweet aftertaste.

- It's all there, like all the flavors are there.

- [David] Yeah.

You get the salt at first, and then the sweet comes.

- The cup allows, you know, the consumer to decide how much or how little liquor they wanna have, because it holds it nicely.

And on a flatter one, it oozes out, so it doesn't make it to the plate.

- [David] And what you all are working on is to get more meat taking up that shell?

- [Laura] Exactly.

- [Perry] Yeah, we like the good meat to shell ratio.

These are just about market ready, it's just about time.

- [David] As this industry continues to grow and the ranches multiply, the researchers at UGA will continue their pursuit of perfection, and no better place to grow them than the nutrient-rich waters of the Georgia coast.

(bright music) - This estuary is definitely untouched by industry, and it's almost untouched by man.

I mean, the Bull River, its tributaries, all the way up to the Wassaw Sound is a well-preserved gift to us from the people that back in the '70s took the time to pass the legislation and protect it, and I think we're set to start reaping some of those benefits in a sustainable and non-destructive way.

I think that's what's really exciting.

- [Laura] So much like bees, they're considered a keystone species.

They provide significant benefits to their ecosystems.

Not only do they clean the water, an adult oyster is commonly cited as filtering 50 gallons of water a day, when they are attached to the shorelines, they help protect from erosion.

And we're optimistic that by educating and involving people at a young age, they can start to learn about how important that is, and pay attention to the fact that we have this great pristine resource here.

But if they're informed about it, they'll be more likely to be advocates for it in the future, and see what it's helping to protect.

(bright music continues) - [David] Perry used to fly F-14s, so navigating the curvy back rivers of coastal Georgia comes with ease, and so for our journey home, the Solomons and I took the scenic route back to the docks.

What a fine way to end the day.

(bright music continues) (singers vocalizing) Let's now head to the neighborhood market at Grant Park in Atlanta to meet a friendly man who's bringing fresh Georgia shrimp to folks all over the state.

(bluesy music) This man is a snob.

Okay, maybe I didn't start that right.

But when it comes to picking the best shrimp for his customers, it's fair to say that Biram Chapman is a shrimp snob.

(bluesy music continues) - I started off about seven years ago getting shrimp from my cousin, who is a commercial shrimper off St. Catherines Island.

Just the story there and the connection to the family back to St. Catherines, his family were superintendents on the island, my grandmother worked on the island, my father was over there as a teenager off and on, and just getting the shrimp from there, I just decided with the family ties to name it St. Catherines Island Seafood.

- [David] Yeah, not many people live on St. Catherines Island.

- Not many, yeah, it's a barrier, privately owned island, so with no access, so a lot of people don't know much about it.

- [David] So I see St. Catherines Island, but right next to it, I see Shrimp Snob.

- Shrimp Snob was kind of the aha moment.

I had a customer a couple of years ago, came up Saturday, she bought shrimp every Saturday, and she said, "I'm not gonna get shrimp next weekend."

I said, "That's fine, no problem."

She said, "We're going to the beach."

I said, "Well, great, enjoy that," and she told me where, and we just kind of had that odd look together, and she said, "Would it be too bad if I took your shrimp with me?"

And I said, "Are you a shrimp snob, Susan?"

And she said, "Your shrimp have made me a shrimp snob."

So that's, I'm not the shrimp snob, but hopefully, my shrimp are turning people into shrimp snobs.

It's just super fresh, and that's just the way nature intended it to be.

(lively music) - [David] Biram seems to have a great time doing this, and what he's doing is quite unique.

- [Biram] It is typically caught on Thursdays.

I'm from Vidalia, I go down and pick up on Friday and drive up.

I sell in Macon, Lake Oconee, Hiawassee, and Blairsville, sell up there, Dublin sometimes, and then here at the market in Atlanta.

It's amazing, like I say, just to get 'em outta the ocean that quick and then up here, and then hopefully into somebody's frying pan or in their sauteed supper that night.

- [Customer] Who fishes for it?

- Actually, I started with my cousin about seven years ago.

He's a commercial shrimper, and I would get the shrimp from him, but now I'm buying from another group at this point in time, but they're usually caught on Thursday.

I'll pick 'em up on Friday afternoon and bring 'em up to the co-op on Saturday, and they come up on Sunday.

- [Customer] Yeah, I always wondered about how many days.

- How that works?

- I let 'em, well, yeah, and I let 'em go, this past week, I let the fresh ones go till Wednesday.

I don't usually let 'em go that long.

- [Biram] 'll go as late as Wednesday.

I don't want to go too much past Wednesday, but they're just, when they're this fresh, they last.

(lively music continues) - [David] You live in Vidalia?

- Vidalia's home.

- [David] How does this shrimp go with sauteed Vidalia onion?

- I was gonna say, sweet onions, it's a real good combination.

It's a good combination.

- [David] Biram, however, has family history on this island, and keeps a book for customers to explore as they peruse his shrimpy selections.

- I'm Biram Chapman, this is my father, George.

He was there as a teenager.

This was a wrecked World War II plane that crashed on the beach during the war, and they just left it.

It wasn't worth salvaging, so they left it, and my dad and his- - [Customer] Where'd you grow up?

- This is St. Catherines Island, Georgia coast, but this was in the early '50s, and it was their play toy.

- [Customer] That's a amazing.

- When the the tide would go out.

- [Customer] Yeah.

- They would climb in it and just play in it.

- [Customer] This is wild.

- [Biram] That's my cousin Johnny and my grandmother.

Johnny on the tractor, now he drives a boat, 64 foot boat.

(lively music continues) - [David] So keep an eye out from markets all over Georgia from the mountains to Macon, all the way down to the coast to meet the Shrimp Snob who's helping deliver fresh Georgia shrimp from the sea to your kitchen table.

(singers vocalizing) Let's now venture back down to the Georgia coast, to the city of Darien for a little less in the town's history, and dive into a classic southern seafood dish.

(bright music) The city of Darien has always been about its access to the river.

As coastal historian Buddy Sullivan explains, it's an up and down history going back almost 300 years.

(bright music continues) - Darien has had an unusual history economically.

There's ups and downs and highs and lows, but probably the biggest low that ever happened to Darien was the burning of a town during the Civil War, and this occurred in June of 1863.

Totally undefended town, the town was looted and burned, hardly anything left, including the waterfront buildings were totally destroyed except for a portion of the Strain Building, and this was the town's low point, but a lot of people came back and said, "Well, we can do this again," and this is what I mean by the ups, and it's all predicated on the river.

The story of Darien is closely entwined with that of the Altamaha River.

(bright music continues) The Altamaha is to Darien as say the Nile is to Egypt.

The town regrouped, built back, built sawmills, and the idea was let's get into the timber business in a big way, and Darien soon, by the mid 1870s, had reached a new economic high, and so Darien was the leading seaport on the Atlantic East Coast, and it became an international port, but then guess what happened?

There was another down.

They over cut the forests upriver, so gradually, the sawmills closed up, but then soon after that, people had discovered there was a lot of money to be made in seafood, and again, the river came into play.

And all of this was based on the local ecosystem, and Darien once again became a very prosperous community again economically, but this time, based on commercial shrimping and oystering.

- [David] And then was there another low?

- [Buddy] There was another low.

Costs skyrocketed, marine insurance went up.

About the same time as the oil embargo caused fuel to go up, you had a gradual infusion of foreign produced shrimp, and the foreign shrimp gradually undercut the domestic American shrimp market, both on the Gulf Coast and the South Atlantic coast.

But Darien has sort of come into a new cycle, and the town has understood that there can be an economy based on ecotourism, (uplifting music) our ecology, our natural environment, the recreational and hunting and fishing opportunities afforded here in Macintosh and Darien, hand in hand with the culture, the local history, it all goes together, and now a lot of people in the community, myself included, are understanding that this could be very well the way to the future for Darien.

(uplifting music continues) - [David] What's amazing is that you can visit and envision the grid of the original city plan of Darien.

A couple of beautiful original squares have grown back, still boasting those majestic oaks draped with Spanish moss.

However, the original buildings were all destroyed in the burning of 1863, except for one, a cotton warehouse located right off the water.

Barely standing now over 160 years later, the Adam Strain Building and its array of stories and relics amazingly still remain, and that building and the history within and all around it are being saved, restored, and in a sense, reborn.

(uplifting music continues) - The Adam Strain building is the single most important historic structure in Darien, largely because it is the only commercial structure that survived the burning of Darien.

And Adam Strain came along 10 years or so after the burning and restored the building, and turned it into a thriving business.

And what's being done to restore this building, to make it a center for culture, for eco information, historical information, as well as for commercial purposes, is gonna be a real, real boon to this community in the long run.

And it's one of the most important rehabilitation projects that I can remember of around here, and I've been here most of my life - [David] And we were so close to losing it.

- And were so close to losing it, that close to losing it.

(bright music) - We were driving through town, saw it, and became very interested in it and found out that it had been on the Georgia Trust places in peril, and that was probably a couple years before we ended up purchasing it.

It took a while to get that done.

- Yeah, we had some conversations with the then owner, who was also local.

Those conversations were time consuming.

Then the beginning started (chuckles) of the resurrection of the Adam Strain.

(bright music continues) - [Marion] Adam Strain will remain mostly what I call clean, I guess, so that everybody can see and enjoy that.

We're gonna put a nanobrewery in the first floor, and the second floor will be a museum of Darien history.

(bright music continues) - [Fred] Fred Ecker, I'm project manager with Landmark Preservation.

I've been overseeing the Adams Strain project here for roughly two years now.

- [David] You are not from this area?

- [Fred] No, I live up in New England.

My whole career, I've traveled primarily the East Coast, specializing in conserving, restoring museum buildings and plantations.

- You work in Cape Cod and coming here, I can't imagine the stories and history you obtained doing this.

- I've worked on some phenomenal buildings through the years, but this one, I've been waiting 27 years now to do.

I've been looking at this building hoping for an owner, so I really came back outta the woodwork to oversee this project.

(upbeat music) It was built somewhere between 1814 and 1816, probably took that much time to build it.

This building burned twice.

There were a whole 20 some of these warehouses up and down the river here.

This is the only one left.

I've been told it was the biggest port on the East Coast at the time, and the building next door, which is part of this structure, it was a two story tabby building also, it was an early bank.

- We're now next door.

- We're next door into what was the Bank of Darien at its time, was one of the largest banks, if not the largest bank in Georgia at the time.

- So we've come from the bank.

Where the brewery and kitchen are, we've come through.

Now we're in the Adam Strain building.

- Yeah, we're in what's gonna be the main bar and restaurant, and then outside here will open up to a brick terrace with two levels of dining and drinking out there also.

- It's gonna be gorgeous.

- Overlooking the river.

- Yeah.

- It's gonna be beautiful.

(lively music) What's interesting about this space is if you look behind us, the windows and doors were all bricked in at one point.

They're gonna all be opened up again.

- So people can't, like that brick wasn't there originally, so people don't need to worry about that coming down?

- [Fred] Right.

They'll really see the building as it originally was, and it'll be full of light, which right now, it's pretty dark.

(lively music continues) - So Fred, you're talking about how this was built, and how long it takes to do this tabby work, and those holes give kind of a clue of how it was done.

- Yeah, so imagine the way we pour concrete now in wooden forms or steel forms.

Each one of these holes was the height of one pour, and the little holes were sticks that came through that were pinned, that held the form together.

- Okay.

- So they would pour a level all the way around.

It had to cure for a week and a half to two weeks, and then they would go to the next pour, the next pour, the next pour, so you can- - So you come back a month later and it's gone up that much.

- Right, you can do the math.

This building took a long time to get built.

(upbeat music) - Now that we know more about Darien's history and the importance of seafood, timber, and agriculture through the years, it's time to indulge in a little seafood treat.

Just a short walk from the historic Adam Strain Building and nestled right along the river and old shrimp docks is the Oaks on the River Resort and the Oaks Club Restaurant, where I met my new friend, Chef Santiago Silvano.

Well, this is exciting, chef, we have shrimp.

We know where the shrimp comes from, but all kinds of other things go into this award-winning dish.

Tell me about this dish.

- So we are doing our classic shrimp and grits that we have here.

It is finished with our Creole sauce.

We get our shrimp locally from Eckerd's and Anchored Shrimp Company.

Their boat is the biggest one usually out.

- Just the one right there?

Oh, that's as fresh as it gets.

- [Santiago] So we make our own Cajun seasoning in-house too.

- And that's y'all secret?

- Yeah.

- Okay, okay, all right, all right.

I'm trying to figure it out.

- And then we have some green and red bell peppers, a sweet onion, a little bit of garlic, and our Creole sauce that I'm gonna keep a secret too, - That'll make people come here.

They can't do it at home, they gotta come here.

- Our dishes are always changing, so don't be surprised now you have a favorite, and then two weeks you come back, and there's a new favorite on the menu.

That's what me and Chef Chris are pushing for here.

- That makes it fun for y'all.

- Yeah.

- That's awesome.

All right, let's get started here, I'm getting hungry.

(upbeat music) - Little bit of peppers, little bit of onions.

(upbeat music continues) Get my shrimp, get my seasoning.

Get a nice- - [David] Secret seasoning.

- Get a nice little coating all over it, making sure it's all nice.

- This is just such a classic low country southern dish here.

- [Santiago] Yeah.

There's gonna be always like a million iterations on it, but I'm the biggest fan of the Creole style.

So you get your little Creole sauce, 'cause you got your heat, you got your grits.

We do our cheese grits here.

We do a smoked cheddar, smoked gouda.

Everyone's a fan of it.

We're trying to do something here people can remember.

I'm gonna add a little bit of garlic.

I didn't want to add it too early, and I'm gonna let that because a little bit.

- [David] Oh, there's the smell, oh yeah.

Now, the shrimp won't have to cook long, right?

- [Santiago] Nah, it won't take long.

So I'm just gonna let it cook for a little bit and then I'm gonna finish it off with the Creole sauce.

- The secret Creole sauce, and with the shrimp that's just off of that boat.

- This is honestly my favorite way of the shrimp and grits, the Creole, the spice.

Just a modern rustic feeling is what we're shooting for here.

We do a lot of our stuff in these cast irons, 'cause everyone enjoys 'em.

- So what are you putting on it now?

- And this is just our microgreens.

It's just a little garnish that we source locally from here.

We're trying to get as much stuff locally here and keep everything fresh, and we're looking at local vendors for meats, and we're looking at local vendors for our seafood, and then we just started working with this company that does really cool stuff that we use to finish our plates.

- [David] I think that's why people travel to places like this, they want that local flare.

- [Santiago] Yeah.

- From the chefs to the food, just to help them understand this area.

- I grew up on the coast, I've been here my whole life.

I'm enjoying being able to put a little bit of a flare on it.

- Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

I'm gonna take this right to that table I was eyeing - No problem.

- Thanks, buddy.

- You enjoy it.

- All right.

Here we go, get some of the sauce, get some of the shrimp, a little bit of that grits in there.

(pleasant music) (bright music) So from oysters farmed within the nutrient-rich water of the Bull River, to a farmer's market vendor that is bringing fresh Georgia shrimp to folks all over the state, and a talented chef at a beautiful waterside resort who transforms this legendary coastal treasure into an award-winning dish, the seafood of Georgia boasts a wealth of flavor, and these dedicated shrimpers oyster farmers, vendors, and chefs are delivering the goods for all of us to enjoy.

(bright music continues) I'm David Zelski.

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

(bright music continues) (bright music continues) - [Announcer] "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by.

- I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

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

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

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me, you are the star ♪ ♪ All right, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels fine ♪ ♪ Get the feeling, pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on, na na na na na na ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

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

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