A Fork in the Road

The old-fashioned country store is alive and well in South Georgia. There's the typical stuff: a butcher counter with fresh-cut meats and handmade sausages, products from local producers, private label jams, jellies, fruit preserves, sauces, seasonings, chow-chow, and more. And at Carroll's Sausage and Country Store in Ashburn, GA, you can even stay in the RV park next door.

Family and farming seem to go hand in hand. On this episode of the Fork in the Road podcast, we’re visiting Baker Farms in South Georgia where the family, the farm, and the business have been growing for more than 50 years.

Family fun on the farm. This is what you'll find at Calhoun Produce in Ashburn, GA. There's a little red barn full of animals, duck races, pig races, slides, swings, a combine to climb in, delicious butter beans, fresh strawberries to pick, and more varieties of peas than you can shake a stick at.

Fresh-from-the-garden vegetables, a wide variety of oysters, and expertly crafted cocktails all in one of the 10 best-designed bars in America. In this episode, you'll learn how one restauranteur's passion for the aquaculture of the South has made Decatur, Georgia a prime destination for oyster lovers everywhere. Plus, which is better: oysters from a farm or oysters harvested in the wild?

Does your retirement plan include creating a 100% sustainable farm utilizing agricultural by-products to produce fresh gourmet mushrooms and organic compost for land farmers? It is certainly an option and it is exactly what the owners of Green Box Mushrooms in Gainesville, GA did when they left their corporate jobs.

Peanuts are close to sacred in Georgia.  And making peanut butter is a serious business. But peanuts don't hold a monopoly on the nut butter game. There's pecan, almond, cashew, and hazelnut butter, too. In this episode, we'll learn how Georgia Grinders in Chamblee, Georgia has the nut butter process down to a science.

Sapelo Island is home to the last intact Gullah Geechee community in the Sea Islands of Georgia. It is comprised of direct descendants of enslaved people who were brought here in 1802. In this episode, we're going to learn how exactly a green plant turns into the bluish-purple color used to dye denim and how that plant is helping to revive a small island community off the Georgia coast.

Sapelo Island is home to the last intact Gullah Geechee community in the Sea Islands of Georgia. It is comprised of direct descendants of enslaved people who were brought here in 1802. This episode of the Fork in the Road podcast is about the revitalization of an African-American community that has existed in Georgia for more than 200 years.

Special bonus episode of the Fork in the Road podcast where we'll look back at the first season to tell some of the behind-the-scenes stories and answer a few questions from you.

How do cattle farmers ensure their cows will produce tender and tasty beef?  FPL Food in Augusta achieves it by employing a business school concept: vertical integration.