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

- [Narrator] 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.

- [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 homegrown goods, to the latest and most important farming news.

- The fascinating and ever changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bankers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more.

Straight ahead at A Fork in the Road.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] 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.

- [Narrator] The seeds of life.

We've had the knowledge to grow our crops for thousands of years, but it seems in modern times, at least in every generation, something new comes along to enhance and often economize these prior techniques.

The farms may grow in size, but the end goal of quality remains.

Let's begin this episode in the fertile fields of Norman Park, Georgia, where a long time farming family has kept it in the family.

And as that family grows, so does the farm.

(lively music) - My name is Joe Baker, I'm one of the owners here at Baker Farms.

Started off with my dad.

We was probably growing three to five acres of cabbage, a few acres of squash, traditional row crops and south Georgia peanuts and cotton and so forth.

Now we've gone from that to where we're at today.

It is very humbling to just look back over the years and see where we've come from.

- Me and my brother and my sister, we grew up, all of us working on the farm, all of us trying to provide and make the farm grow, always keeping that family oriented aspect to it.

We've never fell away from that, which is important to all of us.

(lively music) - I married into the Bakers.

Some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet.

When I finished my college degree, I came out with an accounting degree and my brother-in-law offered me a job just helping part-time while I was finishing school.

And by the time I had finished school, I'd made my mind up that, hey, I wanted to farm and farm with this family.

And at that time, my father-in-law, he had the wisdom to let me and my brother-in-law take over a lot of the farming stuff.

And, they just, have always been at the type of people to let people go and reach their potential and not hinder those people by standing over them and making decisions for them.

So it's been a great relationship with this family.

- I've always stressed quality and my children worked hard to make sure we had that quality and I think that's been a big part of our success.

(lively music) - I pretty much oversee all the guys that works in the fields on the tractors.

Yeah, it was pretty much 24 hour, seven days a week, but it's a lot of fun.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

- Every time another family member has joined the operation, the operation has continued to grow.

I mean, I would not be where I'm at today, if it wasn't for family.

And then when I say family, I don't mean just siblings.

- It's been great working with the Baker family.

I've been here for 24 years and they brought me in and I felt like I was at home from the very beginning.

The way Terry planned this business from the start, we think more about the quality of product that goes in it than the market, that's the first thing.

It's made it easy for me to sell because of the quality, it helps sell itself.

- If it's turnips, if it's curly leaf, if it's kale or Collards, when it's ready, I just tell him it's ready and we start harvest.

- Jorge has been with this company for 30 years.

Some of his story is so unbelievable.

How we started at the very bottom.

Was working actually with some of his uncles that were overseers at the time.

In 30 years, he's just taken on more responsibility.

- I started from cropping, greens, squash, cabbages, now I'm supervisor of the crew on the field.

They've got some people, they've been working for Baker Farm for 22 years on a S to A program.

I train them in Mexico and then by the time they get to Baker Farm, they've got a little experience and we teach them some more.

I got two, three families, I had the grandpa hear and then the son, and then grandson.

Today he teach the son of the uncle, teach the nephew, so it's why you see what you see is.

They get the practice and experience quicker.

- The people are the backbone of an organization and we can't forget that and what Jorge is so good at doing is not just giving directions to those people, but ministering to those people when they have certain needs, whether it be family or personal.

That's a big part that a lot of people seem to forget is that those, those guys, they have families at home that have things come up.

They have issues that they're dealing with and he does a great job of taking care of a lot of those needs.

- I feel good, real good people and I never thought we was going to be here all these years, but we're here for 29 years with Baker Farms, I'm so proud.

- We're harvesting curly mustard.

We grow collards, kale, mustard, turnips, we grow cilantro, we grow parsley, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, today as you can tell, we're harvesting curly mustard, which when we get through, it'll go to our packing facility.

Some will be packed and shipped out directly to retailers, some to wholesalers, we ship all the way from, gosh, Miami, pretty much all over the country.

- One thing you notice walking around a greens packing shed is the water on the floor.

There's so much ice used to cool those greens.

- Basically when we're busy, it takes around 200 to 220 tons of ice a day just to do, to do our, with our grains and our and our other wet items that it takes us to do.

My brother can tell you more about the ice machine and the daily activities that go on at a processing plant.

I mean, he manages that and looks after that.

- I went into medicine, worked in ICU, CCU, took a lot of sciences, obviously, with that particular background.

So for me, it was important to come in and try to help that, build that foundation with regards to the science and the engineering and the computers so that, that next generation could benefit from that.

(lively music) Well we start off with, as the product comes in, the products is cooled for 24 to 48 hours.

That is in a bulk aspect, that is then placed on conveyors.

It goes through multiple staging areas where it's graded.

They grade out any bad leaves they may find and things like that.

It goes through a first wash tank, everything's very computerized and monitored.

We truly wash in a triple wash system.

As you look through the process, you'll see where you got three tanks in line in a linear fashion.

This allows that green or the product, whatever that product may be to actually be submerged and cleanse in three different vats.

Some operations use one vat and they'll run it through three different times.

We actually use three separate vats.

Every product that we actually dry, we remove the water out of it, the important aspect of removing that water is you want to move enough, but not too much that gets into shelf life.

You don't want to damage that product, you want to make sure it's done proper.

So each product that we run at every drying unit we have runs through a program that I've set up that allows you to bring out enough moisture, but not too much.

That way when it goes into the bag and in that controlled atmosphere in that bag, it gives it a better, longer, safer shelf life.

To me being in the science background, that gives me a lot more control and I like control.

I like to be able to monitor and control to, again, give that cleanly aspect that we want to the products were provided to the public.

- You see in this cooler, a lot of our value added product.

That just means our bag and chopped up greens.

We made the decision to go into that venture about seven years ago and we've seen our company just explode.

We realized that people wanted a ready to eat product and we wanted to make that offering.

And we took a big chance and it's worked out well for us.

(lively music) It takes a lot of technology now to get data in front of us to make decisions and the better decisions we can make in the growing process, the better and fresher the product gets for the consumer.

That's the ultimate goal, it's to put the best looking product on that consumer's plate for consumption.

- We really feel like our product is the best, safest product there is.

I feed this same product to my family, I feed this same product to my mother, my father, my kids.

There's only one way and that's the right way.

And as Bakers, that's what we feel is very important.

- Once you get farming in your blood, you know you might get away from it, you'll come back and it gives you an opportunity to spend more time with your children, your grandchildren and that's the important thing in life.

- So where did the seeds for our crops come from and how do we know they're safe, reliable, and certified?

For those answers, we journeyed to Tifton in the Georgia department of agriculture seed lab.

So I never knew a place like this existed, but I'm glad it does.

And once I stepped foot inside, I had no clue what to expect.

And what I found was nothing short of fascinating.

Time to explore the seed lab with DeeDee and discover this amazing laboratory that tests the seeds of life.

(upbeat music) - My name is DeeDee Smith, I am the director for the State Seed Lab for the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

We test everything from December till about the 1st of May, mid May.

We test approximately 12,500 peanut samples in this lab.

It's everybody in this room doing their part to accomplish that because that's a lot of samples in a short period of time.

This is our receiving room for our receiver laboratory samples.

We have three different types of samples that come in here.

We have official samples, service samples, and certified samples.

Our official samples are pulled by our state inspectors that work for the department of agriculture.

Our service samples could be any farmer or gardener or anybody that walks through the front door says, "Hey, I've got these seeds will you test them for me?"

Sure we will.

And that's a service we perform for the consumers in the state of Georgia at no charge for a farmer.

Our certified samples are in conjunction with Georgia Crop Improvement Association, they manage the certification program for all crop comps, it's to make sure that we're putting a top quality product in the marketplace for the consumers in the agriculture industry for the State of Georgia.

This is where our samples come from the courier here, for our ingoing and out outgoing.

This is our germination lab and in this lab is where we're actually preparing the sample.

For every sample we test, peanuts, we test 200 seeds.

We do eight reps by 25 seed.

So those towels are wet with an Epithon solution for, to promote uniformity and germination and to break seed dormancy.

Once those samples are prepared, they go into our walk-in chambers here.

We have four walk-in chambers.

What we have up here, right up here, is called a humidistat.

So that's on a timer and it just pushes in moisture occasionally into this chamber.

And you can see it just came on.

These samples have been in the chamber for four days, five days, and you can see the growth as they're growing.

You look for abnormalities, you want to know what's a normal seedling, an abnormal seedling, on this towel we had all of these and you can see we had a few that didn't do anything but grow a little bit of mold.

You have one, here, this is called Aspirgillus niger and the green mold is called Aspirgillus flavus, which causes alpha toxin.

And here you see some more abnormalities.

You can see where you had that little bit of mechanical damage here and this seed is trying to grow a new root.

We record the percentage of normals of all of our reps. We report the percentage of germination to the company.

To be sold as a peanut in the State of Georgia, you had, has to germinate 70%.

To be sold as a class of certified seed, it has to germinate 75 or better.

- And those shady seeds that you hear about that sometimes come in the mail, will most likely come here to be tested.

They have the tools here and the knowledge and experience to know what seed is what, what seed is healthy.

- This is a herbarium, thousands and thousands and thousands of different kinds of seed, vegetables and watermelons and cantaloupes and cucumbers and rapes and radishes and we have a vast majority of everything that we normally see and deal with.

This as a squash and that's actually only at seven days and you can see how healthy it is.

And on this one, we have cucumbers.

This is a turnip.

If you like turnips, and in here we've got some cabbage, some red cabbage.

This is an annual rye grass, this is a cool weather grass.

You see that used a lot in the Northern counties of Georgia.

So most people would you see that has a beautiful lawn in the winter time, this is what they have.

This are a type of fescue of some kind.

This is a brown top millet sample, which is used for a forage grass, animals graze on it and feed our cattle so we can eat some T-bone.

This is what all the ladies are in here doing, they're planting peanuts.

And then Ms. Terry, if you want to watch something different, she's planting some pelleted tomato seed.

A lot of hybrid tomato seed are very expensive and these companies only send us a very minimal amount.

She uses that vacuum system.

She places the seed on there and the rolling process is the same as the peanut.

You cover it with two towels for the adequate moisture and then she's going to roll it up.

(upbeat music) In here, Marylyn is planting some actual fescue seed.

That's actually a creeping red fescue and on that head, there's exactly 50 holes.

You want adequate moisture, you want them spread out throughout the testing period.

It makes it easier on the evaluation phase when you're looking at what's normal, what's abnormal and what's dead to make your germination percentage analysis.

This is a Bermuda grass sample, and this is a blower.

And what it does is this seed you see bouncing around in here, it blows the lighter seed, maybe a gloom or a piece of trash or a small stick or some dirt.

It's going to blow it up that tube and down into this cup.

(upbeat music) And you see how it's very clean sample.

Now she's got one piece of very light trash that blew over in there and that's, that's it.

So it's a really clean sample.

Jenny is our other certified analyst.

She's actually on the screen, she's preparing a test to be evaluated tomorrow.

She's doing a TZ test, which is a tetrazolium test, on a pensacola bahia grass.

She has to take that Pensacola seed and slice it right down the middle of the embryo.

So you can see here, when you see this nice red even stain, that's the embryo of this grass seed.

So that's a very normal seed right there, and this is her abnormal section.

So when you see this white spot and you don't see that nice red uniform stain throughout that embryo, that would be classified as an abnormal seed.

Oats come in two different colors, yellow and white.

Every oat sample has to be brought into this room and put up under the black light.

So our analysts has to bring sample in here and they're physically going to separate what's white oats to what's yellow oats.

A lot of times you can see the yellow cast and see, we can turn the lights on.

- Oh wow.

- It makes a big difference, huh?

- Yeah.

- What you see?

That would be my yellow oat and that would be my white oat.

When you're talking about buying seed in the state of Georgia, we try to encourage farmers to buy certified seed because when you're buying certified seed, you're buying that seed that has a higher standard.

This required higher germination standards, higher purity standards to be sold as a class of certified seed.

So you might pay a little bit more for it, but you're getting a lot better quality.

- So the seeds come here if they want that certification and the folks here make sure that the title is earned.

A fascinating and essential lab in the heart of farm country.

Now that we know more about the seeds, let's head back to the farm.

Off to Camilla to meet a talented farmer who is making magic happen with sweet corn and peanuts.

(lively music) - Our farm border's the Flint river, which is just an incredible natural resource that we have here in Southwest Georgia.

We've had over 150 years of our family that have lived here along the river and relied on it for every bit of their livelihoods.

- When you are a sixth generation farmer, it's in your blood.

These trees and this soil are a part of who you are.

It's a part of Casey Cox and Longleaf Ridge Farms.

- We started growing sweet corn About 40 years ago.

My father had been working in the family farm operation and he was just looking for new crops and innovative ways for us to diversify our business And he started looking at sweet corn.

And at the time there was really only one sweet corn grower in the state of Georgia.

So we grew our first crop of sweet corn in 1983 And we grew in the spring from about mid May through the 4th of July, that's our primary harvest season for the summer, and then we also grow a smaller, full crop that we usually are harvesting between early October and early November.

This is actually the biggest crop that we grow on our farm, the most acreage, and one of my favorite crops to grow, it's quite tasty.

(upbeat music) - And as I soon found out, this isn't your everyday run of the mill corn.

No, this is Camilla's own Casey Morgan sweet corn.

- Corn everywhere.

- Something very special.

- You ever had raw corn?

- No, never had raw corn, okay.

You want me to taste it?

- I want you to try it, yeah.

- Okay, oh my gosh.

- It's good, isn't it?

- I'm going to finish this.

- It's a great snack.

You have to try it straight out of the field.

- Oh my gosh.

- I know.

- It needs nothing.

- I know.

I mean, cooking it enhances the flavor a little bit, but it's good raw.

- It doesn't need butter, salt, how does it get so sweet?

- It's just the variety and then picking it straight out of the field like this, you cannot beat the flavor and the sweetness and the freshness, there's just nothing like it.

- There's my corn, I'm keeping it right here.

No one take my corn.

- So this is an example of yellow corn that we grow.

- It's still yellow sweet?

- It's still sweet corn.

It's just the color is different, it's a different variety.

- Is it going to be a different flavor?

- Why don't you try it?

- Okay, got to do this again.

- Yeah.

- Oh, it's just as good.

- It tastes really similar.

Very few people get to experience it straight out of the field like this because right after it's harvested is when it is at its most delicious flavor.

It's fresh, it's sweet, it is, it's just perfect.

Most people who are buying it don't have the opportunity to taste it at that perfect freshness.

In 2021, we launched a new branch of our farm called Casey Morgans.

And one of the things that I was really passionate about doing is bringing that farm fresh flavor to customers directly so that you get to experience the sweet corn the same way I do.

So Casey Morgan's during our Fall and Spring seasons, will offer direct to consumer sweet corn.

We grow about 400 acres of sweet corn in the spring for our main main crop and then we also grow about 150 acres in the fall.

This is really what you want to see, it's just a beautiful ear that is fully mature and fully developed.

With sweet corn, you can harvest it with the machine, but we actually hand-harvest all of our sweet corn.

And that involves this giant contraption we call mule train and a crew of about 50 people who are some of the hardest working people I've ever seen in my entire life.

And it is just this incredible synergistic flow of people hand pulling the corn, people are packing the corn on top of the machine, people are assembling crates at the top of the machine, closing the crates in the middle of machine, they're stacking crates onto a field truck, it is mind boggling to watch.

I have grown up seeing this twice a year and it still just fascinates me.

- Peanuts have also been growing around here for generations, Casey and her father who taught her the ropes and is her partner in this impressive operation, both know this crop well.

He even appeared on an episode of Sesame street to help Cookie Monster better understand this crop.

So how about she shares a little knowledge with us as well?

- One fun fact about peanuts is they're not actually nuts, they're legumes.

They grow underground and they're nitrogen fixing.

So it's a great rotational crop because they produce their own nitrogen and then the nitrogen that they put into the soil as just a function of their physiology actually supports the next crops that we grow, whether it's sweet corn or field corn or whatever follows peanuts in our rotation.

- The Longleaf pines that grow along these banks are actually native to this part of the country.

And along with being an important part of Casey's family business, they are a part of their overall environmental mission.

- Longleaf pine wire grass ecosystem is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in North America.

The plant biodiversity, the wildlife biodiversity that exists in this habitat is incredibly special.

And this ecosystem formerly covered almost 90 million acres of the coastal plain across the Southern United States and unfortunately now there's only about 4 million acres left.

So we're really passionate about making sure that our little corner of the world has as much long leaf as possible in the areas where it would have naturally been.

- Sweet corn, peanuts that aren't actually nuts and long leaf Pines along the mighty Flint river, this father-daughter farming team alongside a reliable and knowledgeable crew are growing something very special down here in Camilla, Georgia.

So from a bunch of Bakers making the greens we all crave and a sweet corn, peanut and pine tree father-daughter operation sprouting goodness in Camilla, to a seed lab in Tifton doing the hard work and research to make sure the seeds of life growing from Georgia soil is the quality that we've grown to expect.

I'm David Zelski, see you at the next Fork in the Road.

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(lively music) - [Narrator] Georgia soil is rich, it's climate agreeable, it's agricultural variety, exceptional.

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

- [Narrator] 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.