[Capri] When Fall arrives in the heartland of southern Georgia, leaves aren't the only thing dropping from the trees.

A cherished and delicious delight lies just under this tough shell.

These are all fantastic.

Georgian nut growers cultivate pecans in the highest quality and have deep culinary traditions they love to share.

[woman] I feel like pies are just the heart of the South.

It's a lot of work and it's a lot of process.

[Capri] It's a food that reveals history.

[woman] Losing land was still a major problem for Black farmers.

[Capri] With a decadent flavor that continues to inspire.

I'm Capri Cafaro and I'm on a mission to uncover the incredible stories of the foods we grow... ...harvest, create... ...and celebrate.

Beautiful, amazing meal.

So, I'm traveling America's backroads to learn our cherished food traditions from those who make them possible... Look at that.

...and are helping keep them alive.

There is so much more to learn.

[man] It's just a tradition here in this area.

-[gunshot] -[woman] Mmm hmm.

[Capri] On "America the Bountiful."

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.

[Capri] The state of Georgia produces one third of the total pecan harvest in the United States, and the commercial cultivation of this nut is a long - held tradition in the southern half of the state.

Brad Ellis has known pecans his entire life and is the third generation of his family to farm these groves, some of the most abundantly producing in the region.

Their orchards and roadside confectionery store have been attracting travelers for nearly 75 years.

What makes Georgia so special that it's a great place to grow pecans or pecans ?

There's only 15 states that have the climate for pecans where it doesn't get too cold.

But we have enough chill hours to support the trees.

They need some chill hours in the winter.

What's the general kind of harvest cycle?

We start pruning in January, February, March, and we put out fertilizer and then the trees put out in spring.

And our harvest starts around September, October, and goes on into the fall.

[Capri] How old are these trees?

[Brad] These were planted in the 70s.

[Capri] And your family has been doing this a long time, right?

My grandfather bought an orchard in Georgia in '44.

My father went off to college and became an extension agent.

His two brothers were farming with my grandfather, and they had kind of expanded into pecans a little more.

My father came down and retired pretty much from extension, and he started growing into pecan business.

He started the actual store where we sell now.

And it was right on I75 and it kind of caught on with the We're Nuts logo of getting people off the interstate.

So, walk me through it, you know, step by step.

You said there's a lot of moving pieces.

How does the pecan get off the tree through this harvest process?

Well, we've got a shaker that'll reach up and grab a tree.

It's got belts in it that vibrate and it'll just shake the tree and the nuts will come down.

Then we have another piece of machinery I'll show you.

They'll come by and it'll blow them up out from around the tree and the sprinklers, and sweep them up in a window.

Then another machine will come by and it'll blow off a lot of the leaves and all that.

So, shaking, sweeping, and... -Harvesting.

-Harvesting.

Gathering it up.

That's right.

Do you think I could jump in the cab of that shaker?

Oh, sure.

My two-year-old does it all the time.

Well, I'm not that much taller.

All right, it's all yours.

[Capri] Alice Brothers has about 3,000 acres of pecan orchards, and they produce 3 million pounds of pecans annually.

They process on site, and the pecans are cleaned of any remaining sticks and debris.

And then are shelled, halfed, and sorted by variety and quality of the halfs.

Now, I know you grow a lot of varieties in your grove and you've chosen a few to share with me.

What do we have here?

Well, we're trying to fit our varieties into the categories that industry uses.

The industry uses mammoth, fancy mammoth, junior mammoth and bakers.

To the naked eye, to the untrained eye, I would say, I don't know really how I could tell the difference.

So, explain to me.

How would you be able to tell the difference between these two?

Well, a lot of it is determined by the shell thickness, and that determines the price.

Can I try this?

-Yes.

-All right.

Yum.

It's sweet.

But you take-- The junior mammoth, you just crack them with two of them.

That looks hard.

I'm going to try that.

I don't think it's going to work the same way as I try it.

No.

Kind of.

A little bit.

And then desirable?

-Desirable -Okay.

This is good.

It's really good.

A lot of our girls in the store would recommend a bakers half over a desirable because if you're going to cook it anyway, you're going to cook the oil out.

My grandmother, it was no way.

It always had to be the Elliot.

Anything she cooked, you had to use Elliots and you had to go whole nuts on top of the cake.

She's not skimping.

Not skimping.

I know you have a lot of convection in the store right behind us, right?

Yes, we do.

You make pie and candy and all kinds of things.

If you can do it with a pecan, we try it.

[laughs] [Capri] The story of the Ellis family operation wouldn't be complete without great grandmother Irene and her candy kitchen.

Her passion for pecan delicacies helped put their farm on the map.

And now her great granddaughter Jenna continues the legacy of many of Irene's original recipes.

[Jenna] Irene was my great grandmother.

She started the confectionary side of things.

She was a force to be reckoned with.

She was quality control.

And basically, until she died at the age of '88 back in 2006, she stayed in the kitchen and she was right on top of everybody and everything that came out of that kitchen.

Wow the growth from a roadside stand to, you know, over, what?

Six-hundred-and-fifty different products that are offering?

[Jenna] Over 650 different products.

Most of these recipes here are my great grandmother's recipes or her friends that she brought in and incorporated into the business.

[Capri] Wow, so we have a chance to actually taste the history of Georgia here at Ellis Brothers.

Out of all of the things that your great grandmother Irene and her friends helped develop, what's your favorite today?

My favorite has always been the pralines, but I have friends all the time asking me to bring turtles and the white chocolate turtles, because we do a couple of different variations of those.

[Capri] Pralines, that classic southern treat composed of sugar, butter, cream and of course, Georgia pecans.

Turtles, invented here in the South combined roasted pecans with caramel followed by a chocolate bath.

When it hardens, the chocolate resembles a turtle shell.

Marjorie Black has been crafting pralines, turtles and other pecan delicacies for 12 years.

She's one of the expert candy chefs here at Ellis Brothers.

Thank you for taking me back here.

You've humored me because I always want to see how things are made.

I also want to eat this stuff, but I want to learn a little bit about how a turtle becomes a turtle.

You start out by roasting your nuts and then we line them up in these trays and get them all prepared and ready to go.

Then I mix up the caramel over here and it gets 240 degrees.

It's getting close.

Yes.

And at 240 degrees, we put it in this distributor here and turn it on and you just have to manually do the work.

And you don't think about the things that goes into making them.

To begin with, it's a lot of work and it's a lot of process, different processes, and people don't realize that at the time.

That's right.

That's why I love to see this kind of thing, because it really gives you the respect of, you know, how much work goes into the thing that we really enjoy.

And I feel like your great grandmother Irene has to be kind of-- Her spirit is in this because I feel like she's the type of woman, from what I know from you, who would be demanding that volume of pecans in each turtle.

Yes, just like her pies.

She's the same way.

Instead of using the big halfs, she wants to pack as much pecan flavor as she can.

[Capri] Two-thirty-eight.

So you're getting close.

Once the thermometer hits 240, Marjorie gives the caramel a mix before carefully pouring it into special machines that portion four turtles at a time.

Turn it down the other side and flip it around for me.

Got it.

So it was ready to go.

I can't wait to see this whole process, and more importantly, I can't wait to eat.

I got to try one.

The turtles are then conveyed to another room for a decadent chocolate bath.

So that's-- I would have not expected this as part of this process.

And this is a little different kind of chocolate.

It's a little harder on the bottom.

I see.

And that temperature difference makes a difference when it comes to the thickness and the hardness of the chocolate?

Okay.

And it takes probably about, I don't know, five or 10 minutes to go through that tunnel that dries them.

Right.

[Marjorie] When it comes out at the end, it'll be ready to go.

[Capri] The white chocolate must be applied by hand because it's a lower melting point.

So, this is the final product.

We got, what?

Milk chocolate and white chocolate.

Right.

Can I give them a taste?

-Go ahead.

-All right.

-Oh, yum.

-Delicious, right.

I can taste a little bit-- There's like a little bit of saltiness against the sweet.

Caramel is perfect.

Pecans are unbelievable.

You know what you're doing.

Okay, I've got to taste the white one.

Wow.

That is really good.

It's definitely different from the traditional one.

A little bit more vanilla forward.

That caramel is in-- I think that this kind of like lets the caramel and the pecan really shine through.

Marjorie demonstrates how to mix and spoon out pralines.

So then you dollop these out, and then they turn into these.

Wow, the butter comes through so well.

It is super sweet, but I love that butter.

That buttery taste, the vanilla, the cream too.

And of course, the pecan crunch balancing out a little bit, cutting that sweetness.

They're delicious.

[Marjorie] Thank you.

You know what you're doing.

Whether farming 3,000 acres like the Ellis brothers or 200 acres like a nonprofit called New Communities, the most essential piece of the equation is the land itself.

And for Black Georgians, equal access to farmland had to be fought for over the course of decades by civil rights activists like Shirley Sherrod.

She co-founded New Communities with her late husband, Charles, and has been fighting for Black land ownership for more than 50 years.

You know, I grew up in a community where they were all-- it was all family and all Black owned land.

They worked hard as sharecroppers to buy land.

My father was murdered during my senior year in high school.

On the night of his death, I felt I needed to do something.

And I prayed and prayed, you know, what would I do?

And the thought occurred to me that I could stay in the South and devote my life to working for change.

That was March 25th, 1965.

And I became involved in the Civil Rights movement shortly after that and that's been my life's work.

[Capri] Incredible.

So, in the Civil Rights movement, is that how you met your husband?

[Shirley] Yes.

In fact, he was here in Baker County beginning to organize before I met him.

So, he saw this picture, and he looked at my picture and said, I'm going to marry that girl.

This is both of you, right?

[Shirley] Yes.

Yes.

[Capri] What year do you think this?

That is about 1966.

Oh, my gosh, you guys are so cute, and clearly so in love.

You all were on the Civil Rights journey together then for a while.

He was one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC.

So, he came here and he was the only one who came into an area and never left.

So, that's how the idea of trying to build a community, it was natural to think of it in that way.

During the summer of 1968, seven of our people went to Israel to look at how they were resettling their people.

They came back and decided to create New Communities.

[Capri] Founded as a collective farm during the Civil Rights movement, New Communities strives to empower local farmers and support Black land ownership in southwest Georgia.

[Shirley] With a total of 5735 acres, more or less, we had peanuts, corn, no cotton.

We decided cotton was not something we would do.

We had cattle.

We had 75 groups in our operation.

We had muscadine grapes.

We grew vegetables.

[Capri] You got it all covered.

We were doing quite well once we started farming, and then we ran into droughts.

We had no alternative but to try to go to the local office of USDA Farmer's Home Administration to try to get an emergency loan like all farmers were getting.

One of the things that has been used to make Black farmers lose their land through the years, you have to give farmers and lien on all available assets.

And that local committee and local county supervisor could then engineer the whole process to lead you straight toward foreclosure.

And that's what happened to us.

When they were denying us that right, these plantations that were owned by rich people, we're getting those loans for irrigation.

But that didn't stop you.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

So, you fought back on the USDA, right?

You know, once we lost the land, our assets were worth between $4 and $5 million.

They sold it to a rich guy out of Atlanta for $1 million and then let him borrow 950,000 of that.

Wow.

Losing land was still a major problem for Black farmers and one of the main culprits was the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Home Administration.

So, that's why a lawsuit was necessary.

[Capri] The class action lawsuit known as Pickford versus Glickman was based on two suits brought against the USDA by Black farmers, alleging years of discrimination.

In 1999, the party settled and the court approved a consent decree which paved the way for New Communities to file a claim for compensation that same year.

Ten years later, our lawyer called and said, "Shirley, have you heard?"

I said, "No."

She said, "We won."

They made Farmers Home Administration give us back every penny we had paid on our loans during that time.

And so we're now sitting in this incredible room on this expansive land that has essentially been funded by that settlement money.

[Shirley] Yes.

[Capri] So, you continued your mission.

[Shirley] There was never a thought of doing something other than continuing with what we were planning and what we were dreaming in the earlier years, so the first thing was to start looking for land.

They took 6,000 acres from us and God gave us this place that was intact.

We didn't know the history of it when it was purchased.

This place was once owned by the largest slave owner and the wealthiest man in the state of Georgia.

He had nine plantations and this was one of them.

He held the largest number of slaves at this site.

So we have a copy of an ad where they were selling 150 slaves from this plantation on December the 29th, 1859.

Well, there has been a lot of resilience.

And you have, what?

Two-hundred acres here of pecan grove, right?

-Yes.

-Why pecans?

By the time we came along, there was still 85 acres.

Then those trees we document there are at least 110 to 112 years old.

We actually brought that 85 acres back into production.

They are still producing pecans and we added 115 acres to it.

That's actually brings up a question that I definitely wanted to ask, and that's about, how do you bring those pecans to market?

[Shirley] Yes, there are Black growers in the area who need to be able to participate in the markets we are in.

The issue for them is quality.

So, this is where our training comes along.

We are working with them to try to get their quality to the point where their production can be added to ours to go into the market.

That's incredible.

I mean, you're still making a difference.

You're still having this impact.

And I can't wait to take a look around here and see what you're teaching to this next generation of farmers.

Mrs. Sherrod's son-in-law, Brock, continues his mother - in-law's mission by sharing cultivation techniques with local farmers to improve the health of their groves and produce more flavorful pecans.

We have a group of farmers that comes out maybe three or four times a year.

We have different classes that we teach, different techniques that we show growers.

How to scout your grove and look for pests in your grove.

Fertilization, irrigation is important to produce a healthy nut.

So, tell me a little bit about this irrigation system that you have here.

Well, irrigation we have here is on micro jets.

Irrigation is one of the most important things in the pecan orchard.

Why is water so important to pecan trees in particular?

Because that's what's going to fill that nut out.

You want more nut then shell.

So, that's why we have it on irrigation.

We believe in keeping it up, making sure we get the right amount of water at all times.

And you help producers that have their own pecan trees or their groves learn how to irrigate and fix their own irrigation, right?

Yes, ma'am.

It's very simple to fix.

So, we teach them how to how to run it, how to repair it and water your grove.

-A lot to be proud of.

-Yes, ma'am it is.

There's a lot to be proud of.

So that's kind of our mission, just to show people, to help people, and make them fall in love with pecans like we're in love with pecans.

[Capri] These farmers will take the knowledge Brock has shared back to their groves, continuing the generations long dream, making a life cultivating rich Georgian soil.

Their pecans will find their way to market along with New Communities' and into retail and culinary storefronts like that of Southern Baked Pie Company.

Founded by Amanda Wilbanks, her top-rated product puts a caramel twist on a classic pecan pie.

You can't tell a pecan story, and you certainly can't tell a Georgia story without telling the story of pecan pie.

And I think I'm in the right place for that.

This is the place you need to be in the South to learn about the best pecan pie.

Tell me just a bit about why pie is such a part of Southern culture.

I think pie is such a part of the South because I think it brings people together.

You grow up learning to cook from your grandmothers and your mothers, and every time somebody has a family reunion, somebody brings the pecan pie.

I think pies are just the heart of the south, and they're almost like a dying art.

People just don't make them anymore.

So, having a good pie recipe in your arsenal, I think is really important in the South for sure.

What we start with is our pie crust?

So, it is two and a half cups of flour.

So, I'm going to let you measure and put the flour in.

And some of the key things with making a great pecan pie is starting with a great crust.

And the key to a good crust is that all-butter crust and really cold ingredient.

So, you start with really good, really cold butter.

Are you going to use that whole stick?

I'm going to use two whole sticks.

That's what this is.

So, this will make two pie crusts.

So, if you wanted to make a double crust, you could.

You know, what we call this is our pastry blender, so it's going to cut the butter into the flour.

If you want to make a good pecan pie, you need to have a couple of hours to let your dough chill.

You let your dough rest.

You let the gluten strands rest in the dough, so you end up with this more tender, flaky dough.

Okay, so we're getting pretty combined.

You got that kind of gravelly texture right now.

So, that so the fat's getting into the dry ingredients.

Now what?

Now we want to add the water.

So once you have your butter into pea sized pieces like this, which are pretty small right now, it looks perfect, you want to add the water and it's going to come together.

Just keep working it together and it's going to come together and form this perfect ball of dough right here.

You can see that this is a pretty good consistency.

It is.

It is.

It's already-- It's already doing pretty well.

And I love this trick right here.

When you squeeze it together and let your hands open, if nothing flicks off, then you know that, hey, it's ready to go.

We're going to let it chill for about an hour and then we'll be ready to use it.

So, this basically is this, and we're going to roll it out.

Yes.

Here, you grab two pieces of parchment, put your dough in between it.

You start in the middle and push, push, push, push, push, and you're going to roll on your rolling pin on the way out.

Hold and roll.

Let me give it a shot.

You want to give it a shot?

You can do it.

All right.

[Amanda] I'm going to hold it right here.

-All right.

-Perfect.

And then I'll sort of rotate a little bit, Quarter turn it and roll from the center out.

[Capri] Oh, there it is.

[Amanda] Perfect.

That is wonderful.

You're a natural.

[Capri chuckles] Love it.

[Amanda] Gently pull off the parchment and look at that.

So, I take it and I'm very gentle with the pie crust.

So, I lift a little and then push into the corner.

Lift, push into the corner.

We're very picky about our plates in the south.

They have to look really beautiful.

Yeah.

So, we take and we roll under.

If we have a little extra dough over here, we might put it here, and I'll let you try it.

But we just roll the edges of the crust right up and under.

So you get this nice little lip on it that you can work on plating.

[Capri] So, that's why you don't want to trim it.

[Amanda] That's why you don't want to trim it.

Because if you trim it, you're going to lose all your crust and you won't have that pretty plate.

You're doing great.

You're doing wonderful.

That looks beautiful.

Most important part of a good pecan pie is obviously good pecans.

Try it and see what you think.

They're sweet, they're crunchy, and they're going to make a perfect pie.

They're going to make a perfect pie.

And what makes an even better pecan pie-- and I'll let you start dumping these in here if you want to take to, Capri-- is adding lots of nuts.

So, we do two and a half heaping cups of pecans.

Heaping helpings.

So, there is over a half pound of South Georgia pecans in here.

Okay, what we have right here, this is our homemade caramel sauce.

That is great, and it's not too thick.

[Amanda] It's not.

It's not.

[Capri] So it's going to be a good complement.

So if you want to crack these, we have crack them together.

We're going to add them to our mix right here.

-Oh, sorry.

-Oops.

No, you're fine.

This is my favorite part, and this is when we get to cover this whole entire pecan pie with this magical mixture right here.

Okay.

And it is going-- -Here, I'll hold it.

-You want to hold?

Okay.

And I'm going to add right here.

It's the magic moment.

The magic moment.

I like to try and get all the pecans nice and covered, so we rotate as we do it.

-I'm rotating.

-You're doing amazing.

I knew that rotating-- Please come and work with me here.

-I am ready.

-We would have so much fun.

We would have so much fun.

Would have a blast.

[Capri] So, we've assembled a pie, and I guess the next step is going to the oven, right?

Of course.

That's the best step.

That's when we're going to get to smell these beautiful pecan scents that are going to smell woodsy and a little bit rustic.

[Capri] Amanda and her team scale up their pie creation in a nearby baking and shipping facility.

They ship between 600 to 1,000 frozen pies every day, pleated and baked to perfection.

Look at that.

Aw, the goo.

The goo to pecan on ratio.

This is absolutely perfect.

Oh, good.

Absolutely perfect.

You know, the pecan remains the star of the show, but that caramel is just-- it really is a secret ingredient that just like kicks it up.

Kicks it up a notch.

I would definitely say so.

Oh, it's so fantastic.

I'm going to have to bring one of these home.

[Capri] The delicious interior of the Georgia pecan does not come easy.

From stewarding the groves and trees to managing their complex harvest, getting this product to market takes skill and passion as it does incorporating the pecan into a vast array of confectioneries and desserts.

The knowledge of its cultivation has the power to uplift communities as it contributes towards a powerful vision for justice in the fight for land equality.

But why take my word for it, when you can come experience it for yourself.

"America The Bountiful" is waiting for you and me.

For more information visit Americathebountifulshow.com.

[announcer] America's farmers have nourished us for generations, but today they face unprecedented challenges.

American Farmland Trust works with farmers to help save the land that sustains us.

Together we can work to keep America bountiful.