Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: - Tiernan: Yeah, a lot of people are a little confused there.

We say, "Well, you come to the truck in a parking lot "in the middle of the summer in Wisconsin.

You'll find us."

The easiest way to get to the most amount of people was to come directly to their town.

Yeah, so when we started out with Georgia peaches, nobody thought you could do this, that you could bring Georgia peaches up and keep them and sell them in this kind of method.

And so, we had to look for the right grower that could supply what we needed, but also had the same mindset, which was we had to bring the best, we had to grow the best peaches and get them to people as fast as possible.

And so, we found Pearson Farm.

– Will: Pearson Farm grows roughly 1,800 acres of peaches, spread out across four counties here, right in the heart of middle Georgia.

You can grow a peach tree in a lot of places.

The question is, is it gonna give you that peach that's like, mmm, that's a good peach right there.

[Luke laughing] You want to try your hand at boxing a few of these bad boys?

– Luke: Can I?

- Yeah, I don't see why not.

Let's go!

– Luke: This is wild.

[Will laughing] - For this area, maybe we got lucky that this is kind of where the great-great-grandfather came and settled, but there have been peaches grown all over the state.

But really, when you look at where the majority of the industry comes from, it's right here in Fort Valley and our farm is kind of right here in the middle of all of it.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

[birds chirp] - I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

- At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

- And you can join us.

[farmer laughs] - Girlfriend's on a mission!

- Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes!

And exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin!

Learn more at InWisconsin.com [lively banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit "Swiss"consin and see where your beer is made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure; stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin!

To build your adventure, visit DNR.WI.GOV.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to onsite high-quality butchering and packaging, the conscious carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Additional support from the following underwriters: Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] - Luke Zahm: We are collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas shaped by this land.

We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie!

[paper tearing] [relaxing music, rushing water] As a chef, I'm always looking for the best ingredients, and 99% of the time, those ingredients are local, but sometimes there are ingredients we're traveling for.

And that's today's story.

We wanna follow the life cycle of this peach from its home in Georgia on the Pearson Farm, a fifth-generation farm that has a strong relationship with the Tree-Ripe company.

Bringing more than 15 million of these beauties to the Midwest every single year.

You know and love Tree-Ripe.

They're the green trucks that pull up in parking lots, at farmer's markets, in places where people gather and congregate in lines in the hundreds, all over the state.

And these are an example of how a product that's sourced in the Southeast with sunshine and love finds its way to our tables right here in Wisconsin.

- My name is Tiernan Paine, and I own Tree-Ripe Fruit Company.

And we're in West Bend, Wisconsin today, here at Fleet Farm, and we're selling peaches and blueberries.

Yeah, a lot of people are a little confused.

We say, "Well, you come to the truck in a parking lot in the middle of the summer in Wisconsin, you'll find us."

But really, what we discovered was bringing fruit directly to people... the easiest way to get to the most amount of people was to come directly to their town.

We just load up our trucks.

We come right to, say, a Fleet Farm like we are at today, and we go right off of our trucks, so it's kind of like a mobile farm stand.

I just can't believe how excited people get for peaches because you don't see this in other fruits all the time.

So for peaches, and especially because we don't get them, people are incredibly excited for our visits.

And we kind of talk about people being in a peach fog where that's all they can think about.

And so, when we come into town you feel a little bit like a rockstar.

You know, you pull in and everyone is waiting.

They're waving, they're clapping, They're just pumped up.

What are you gonna do with those peaches?

- I'm going to eat 'em, every one of 'em, too.

[laughing] Yeah, so when we start out with Georgia Peaches, nobody thought you could do this, that you could bring Georgia peaches up and keep them and sell them in this kind of method.

And so, we had to look for the right grower that could supply what we needed, but also had the same mindset, which was we had to bring the best.

We had to grow the best peaches and get them to people as fast as possible.

And so, we found Pearson Farm, that's the oldest peach farm in Georgia.

They've been growing peaches since 1885.

And more than just being around for a long time, they're just exceptional people who care about growing peaches.

They have a passion for it, and they grow, in our opinion, the best peaches that you can find.

And so, once we found them, it was just a perfect match to match what we wanted to do and how they were growing peaches.

And that's really what it took because, without that relationship, you just couldn't do this because so much of this, it's about timing, and it's about effort.

And we have...

Between our company and the farm, there's probably 250 people working on getting these peaches to the customer, so a lot of hard work goes into it.

[gentle music] So, this year, I'm actually going to be going down to get our first load of peaches.

This year, we're gonna be bringing about 3 million actual individual peaches back from the farm in Georgia, here to Wisconsin, around the Midwest.

To be on the farm is a special experience and to be in the orchard and to see what they're doing, because here we're so removed from that atmosphere to really understand what they're doing, how they're growing peaches.

And we see some things that we grow here, and maybe we go to an apple orchard, and it's that same kind of feel, but when you see what they're doing and how they're growing, you kind of get a sense of why it's special.

And so, for us, and for myself personally, I love going down to the farm.

The Pearson family is incredible, so hospitable, and generous with their time and really teaching us over the years so much about peaches, and that's something that we can give to our customers and help to educate people on that this isn't a grocery store peach, this is something special and unique that they're not gonna get anywhere else.

[indistinct conversation] - I'm Will McGehee.

I'm a fifth-generation peach farmer on Pearson Farm in Fort Valley, Georgia.

Pearson Farm grows roughly 1,800 acres of peaches, spread out across four counties here, right in the heart of middle Georgia.

My mother is actually the Pearson and Pearson-McGehee.

Fifth generation on the Pearson side, but on my father's side of the family, the Rumph family is really credited with starting the Georgia peach industry.

So, there was a family right after the Civil War... Obviously, the South's devastated, looking at ways to make money, and how to stay here and farm.

And these guys were orchardist, the Rumph brothers.

They were growing citrus and peaches and apples, and all kinds of things.

Like, how in the world are we gonna make money here?

And they're walking through the orchard one day, ate a delicious peach.

One of the guys they were showing off to says, "Have you got a name for it?"

He said, "No."

"Well, you should name it after your wife, Alberta."

And thus, got named the most iconic peach in American history, the Alberta.

And so, the Rumph Brothers ended up propagating that variety and selling them to all the folks up in the northeast, and making a killing.

They said the first year they sold Alberta's commercially, made $315 grand.

And in 1870 talk, in six weeks to make $315,000, it was a tremendous amount of money.

Really neat time in American history, and certainly, for our family.

So, I got to growin', and Pearson, which is where we are on my mama's side, but I've got all that, the history of starting the Georgia peach on my dad's side.

[upbeat music] For this area, maybe we got lucky that this is kind of where the great-great-grandfather came and settled, but there have been peaches grown all over the state.

But really, when you look at where the majority of the industry comes from, it's right here in Fort Valley.

And our farm is kind of right here in the middle of all of it.

Pearson Farm and Tree-Ripe go a long ways back.

The founder of Tree Ripe, Gordon Paine, who is Tiernan's grandfather, met my father back in the late eighties, and he was down here, poking around trying to find a good peach source.

He tried peaches in South Carolina, tried all the peaches in Georgia, was just trying to find a good home.

And he kind of settled on Pearson Farm after he went through 10 or 12 farms.

And since that day, it really has changed the way we view our customers.

Because before Tree-Ripe came along, you know, I load the truck, it goes off to a retail market, and it goes out in a grocery store, and we just lose contact with the customers.

I don't know who's buying it.

I don't know when they're buying it.

I don't know if it's good or bad.

But with Tree-Ripe, we put them in this box, it travels up to their market, and it gets handed into someone's hands who immediately takes it home and is like, "Oh, my gosh, what am I gonna do with 25 pounds of peaches?"

And they ripen them properly on the counter, and they can 'em, and they give them away to friends, and they eat them over the sink.

And so, we just start getting flooded with feedback, like, "Oh, my God, best peaches ever!

Reminds me of my childhood."

And the interconnectedness that we have with Tree-Ripe has made us better farmers because now we know where they're going.

We get immediate feedback.

Probably don't wanna send this variety next year because maybe it didn't do as well as some of the other varieties.

And so, there are varieties we were growing, and because it didn't kind of match our Tree-Ripe model, we don't even grow 'em anymore.

- Will, where are we?

- Well, we're in Fort Valley, Georgia, Peach County, right in the middle of the heart of the state.

We kind of call this "peach growing area" in the state.

[Luke chuckles] - Talk to me about the lifecycle of this peach.

- We are peach farmers, but we're tree farmers first.

So, the care of these trees, we bring guys in and we prune them, almost bonsai 'em back, so they stay low to the ground where the guys can pick efficiently and you get a full array of sunlight through the trees.

– Luke: What are we looking at as far as the spectrum of the orchard?

– Will McGehee: So, this particular variety is a Caroking.

We grow over 40 varieties on the farm.

But if you want to be a good peach supplier, your customers would like for you to have peaches longer than 12 days.

- So, the idea is you plant an array of varieties that ripen up over the summer.

So, we typically start picking around Mother's Day, around May 10, May 12th, and we'll pick peaches all the way to August the 10th, so a hundred-day season.

Well, in order to have a nice consistent a hundred-day crop, you constantly, about every other day you've got a new variety ripening and coming on.

And the guys will visit this one tree seven, eight times until it's picked.

And so, any given day, I might have four or five varieties coming into the packing house to bring to the customers.

Each one has its own personality and shape and flavor and size.

And for someone like me who likes to eat, obviously.

[Luke laughs] - I'm with you.

- It's fun.

- Yeah.

- Because they all have their own little bit of personality, you know, like a Gala apple versus a Honeycrisp apple versus a Granny Smith.

Peaches have their own personalities and that's what makes it fun.

- Sure.

Why is Georgia so good at growing peaches?

- Yeah.

- You know, what brings us to Georgia today that makes this so unique, this climate so special, that makes great peaches?

- First thing, I think, is our heritage and history.

We've been doing it on this farm 140 years.

So, you learn what to do.

More importantly, you learn what not to do.

A lot of mistakes can get made.

So, a lot of the heritage of what we do here and being the kind of the founder of the domestic peach industry, being in Fort Valley, that heritage has a lot to do with it.

But you can grow a peach tree in a lot of places.

The question is, is it gonna give you that peach that's like, "Mmm, that's a good peach right there!"?

- All right, sir, I'm actually looking for you to channel all five generations of expertise-- - Oh, Lord.

- And pick me the perfect peach.

Can you do that?

- The graph of sugar development is a straight line, right?

The graph of softness is a bell curve.

So you're trying to find that top of the bell curve where it's perfectly sized and proper, and then, the sugar crosses it right there.

And that's why we visit this tree every 48 hours, waiting on the peaches.

You see this limb right here?

These guys right here, they're just not-- You can tell they're just not ready.

You probably wouldn't buy those if you were looking at them, right?

- Yeah.

- They need a couple more days.

Maybe this guy needs two more days.

This guy needs three or four, these need about a week.

So, you've got to let the peach tree do what it's gonna do.

But when you come up here today, and you look for that peach, you see this one hanging out here, and this one says, "I'm ready today."

You see the background color is more yellow instead of that lime green?

- Mm-hmm.

- That's kind of what we look for.

And then, when you cut into it, you want to hear a little bit of snap because I've got to get this peach to all of the Tree-Ripe customers that are waiting on this peach.

But they don't want it juicy and all falling apart.

They got to have something firm that they can then take home and put on the counter and enjoy.

So, we got this peach.

You should have full flavor, full sugar, but still firm.

That's what we're going for, so-- - Awesome.

[crunching] Hmm, I don't know if I've ever had a peach this fresh, honestly.

It's snappy...

I mean, you really do get a lot of good crisp out of it.

- Right.

- But the sugars are so developed.

- They're there.

- I mean-- - They're there.

- It's gorgeous.

- That's what we're looking for.

- Oh, man!

- We're looking for, so we're trying to extend the time that you can have it and get it to your desire.

Some people like them a little more firm, you know, if you're canning with them, you like it not so mushy and gushy, right?

You want something firm.

But if you're just eating it out of the hand, maybe you want to bend over a sink and kill it.

Well, you want to get a little more soft, so that's why we're trying to get all that life to them.

- I love it that you've thought this much about each person taking a peach and eating it in their desired fashion.

- That's what it's about.

- Well, before it gets too hot out here, should we take a look at the packing shed and see what's going on there, see the Tree-Ripe truck getting loaded?

– Will: We should do that.

– Luke: All right, let's do it.

- The historical place of our packing house is very interesting.

It was an old country schoolhouse back in the early 1900s, and that's where, you know, all the families within a three-mile radius would send their kids in.

And it was right in the middle of the farm.

In the late '60s, we had a packing house on that railroad, and it ended up burning down one night.

So, we were looking for a place.

Where are we gonna pack our peaches now?

We build another packing house, and we figured out, we're gonna go back to the schoolhouse.

Let's retrofit the schoolhouse, and put a packing line in there.

And-- which is a crazy idea, but that's how we ended up ending there.

And you think about where we were then, and fast forward to now where we have infrared sorting technology, looking through every single peach, making sure the right peach gets in the right box, the electronics and the innovation that has come, but it's still in this little old schoolhouse, this brick-fronted schoolhouse from years ago.

And that really is a great parallel to how you try to grow and be a farm.

You always want to pay homage to where you came from, your heritage, your history.

You never wanna be disrespectful to what your forefathers have gone through to get you to that point, but you also can't be scared of change.

You can't be 'just stick your head in the ground' and say, "We're gonna do it like this 'cause we've always done it."

So, you're always kind of walking the tightrope of staying true to where you came from, but trying to embrace every piece of technology and innovation that's gonna give us an advantage out in the marketplace.

- So, what's our first stop here?

- All right, so we are right in front of the ice water bath.

When the peaches come in from the field, we're waiting at the packing house.

The first thing that happens, we unload the truck, and we immediately get them in, kind of, an ice water bath.

We call it the hydro cooler, and that basically stops them from getting soft too quickly.

After the ice bath, they get put on the line, where they're dumped and graded multiple times, trying to get the bad stuff out.

You know, anything that's soft, any kind of bug bites, things like that.

It's also washed, so the most important part is you're cleaning up the fruit.

You're washing it so you can eat it straight out of the box.

Once that's done, it goes through a sorting table where we put them inside of a box, and we weigh them out perfectly to 25 pounds.

We put them on these pallets.

We strap it, so they're safe for shipping, and then, we wait on the truck to get there.

We load them straight on the truck.

- So, all these peaches coming through here right now, you can see on the line, these are all Tree-Ripe?

- That's right.

- These are all headed to Wisconsin?

- That's exactly right.

So I know what varieties we're picking that day.

I know when Tree-Ripe needs their truck to be on the road.

So we're coordinating where we start picking in the morning to when the truck is backed up outside to the packing schedule.

I got to get the right peach on the right day, in the right box, on the right truck.

And today is Tree-Ripe day, so we are intensely managing.

The best peach I'm picking today is in that box right there, and that's what's headed up north to Wisconsin.

- So, from here, we go to load the truck somewhere, right?

- We got to load the trucks, but before we load the truck, you want to try your hand at boxing a few of these bad boys?

- Can I?

- Yeah, I would say, why not?

- All right, let's go.

- Alright, so this is the packing line.

These peaches have been weighed out to 25 pound drops, correct?

- That's right.

You know, this peach was hanging on a tree a couple hours ago.

- Man, oh, my God.

- Now, it's in a box, and we're about to take it, put it on a pallet and get it loaded on a truck, and off it goes.

I mean, within the same day, these truck, it'll be flowing through Indiana, headed north tonight at midnight.

[Luke laughing] - Luke: This is wild!

– Tiernan Paine: So, we're here in Fort Valley, Georgia.

Just got in from Milwaukee.

Drove almost all night to get here.

It's crazy in the pack house.

Once peach season starts, it's just pedal to the metal.

Everyone's going, and so, whether it's people on forklifts or pickers or graders...

It's exciting, and so, it's energy that you kind of feed off of.

It's hard to not get excited about bringing these peaches back and then seeing people's faces when they get to actually experience getting them for themselves.

– Will: All right, come on out here.

Hey.

– Tiernan: How's it going, guys?

– Will: What's up, man?

– Luke: Great.

- My buddy, Luke.

- Tiernan.

- Nice to meet you, Luke.

- Nice to meet you, brother.

- Hey, I'm glad you can make it down to the packing house.

It's so exciting.

- It's so exciting to be here.

To see this whole process come together, to see what these guys do with such amazing efficiency and grace.

It makes it pretty easy to do your job, I would imagine.

- I'm done, I have done my job, we got 'em picked, we got 'em in these boxes.

And now, he gets to take over and tow 'em up to Wisconsin.

So, I'm gonna get back.

Got to pack some more fruit.

If you're in town tonight, you're in town tonight, you all stop by the farmhouse.

We're going to do a little dinner and hang out, you know.

And we'd love to see you there.

- Awesome, thanks, brother.

– Will: Good to see you, Luke.

T., good to see you.

– Tiernan: All right.

- Bye.

- So, do you know exactly where these peaches are destined for?

- Absolutely, so these peaches are actually going up north.

So, it's one of our favorite runs.

We're gonna go up to northern Wisconsin with these, but we have peaches that'll be coming in every day.

So, we have over 200 locations throughout the Midwest, but most of our peaches are coming to Wisconsin.

Our peach stops throughout the state, as well as a lot of farmers' markets and pop-up events.

We work with a lot of restaurants in Milwaukee.

So, all these peaches, if you see Georgia peaches in Wisconsin, they came from Tree-Ripe.

- Thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to follow these peaches from the orchard to the processing, from the processing to the truck.

To the truck, and you know what, I have a feeling we're gonna cross paths again here pretty soon.

– Tiernan: I hope so.

- 'Cause I want to see people in Wisconsin react to the love and care of each one of these little nuggets of joy.

- Yeah, it's amazing.

Our pleasure.

- Awesome.

[bright music] - Family dinners in the south are pretty much, that's your meetin' time.

You know, that's when you get to see your family.

And so, it's funny.

Like, whenever there's anything happening, you think Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, anything, any reason on the calendar to get together, it's never a question of are we gonna all get together for, you know, on Friday to do this?

It's basically, "What are you bringing?

What are you bringing?"

And so, everybody brings what they're kind of known for and you end up getting around the big tables, and sharing food, and listening to stories from the kids.

And it's a special time.

Food is... Food... [tapping heart] It's near and dear to the heart in most southern families.

– Luke: All right, I think I've got it.

It literally doesn't get any better than this.

Honestly, being able to spend time in a family kitchen with the family that's responsible for producing a majority of the food that's in front of us here.

And hearing stories of rich cultural heritage that remind us, in Wisconsin, when we pick up a peach, it has a story.

It is rich in tradition, and it's people like this family right here that are continuing this tradition for future generations to come.

Well, I wanna raise a glass in appreciation.

Thank you so much, first and foremost, for opening up your farm, your homes, your hearts to us coming in.

It is more than just a peach.

And every single time a customer picks up that peach, I want them to know the story of your family and the love and care that you put into it, and the hard work in many, many generations.

So to that, thank you so much for the opportunity, cheers.

[gentle music] - Red solo, cheers.

[laughter] [soft instrumental] - Talk to me about the lifecycle of this peach because that's kind of what brings me down here today.

I want to know where these beautiful, beautiful bulbous nuggets of joy come from.

And you're the guy.

- Well, I'm a guy.

I'm a guy.

- Come on, bulbous nuggets of joy!

I like that one.

Tell me when you're ready.

- Yeah.

- Shoot says, [dramatic voice] "Ready, and action!"

You wanna taste it?

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

[birds chirp] - I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

- At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

- And you can join us.

[farmer laughs] - Girlfriend's on a mission!

- Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes!

And exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin!

Learn more at InWisconsin.com [lively banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit "Swiss"consin and see where your beer is made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure; stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin!

To build your adventure, visit DNR.WI.GOV.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to onsite high-quality butchering and packaging, the conscious carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Additional support from the following underwriters: Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find past episodes and special segments just for you.