[upbeat music] - For many of us, a vacation road trip to the beach must include a stop at a roadside stand to pick up a basket of fresh, fragrant, juicy peaches.

Today I'm bringing Bill Smith, a legendary southern chef and my dear pal, along for the ride.

I was so tickled that you agreed to go on this adventure with me.

- I was very flattered to be invited.

- Well, of course.

You know we've had some good car trips over the years.

- We have been.

We've got a history.

- We do.

We do indeed.

We'll see when we get down to these peach places.

I'm hearing that this is gonna be a gangbuster year for peaches, because we didn't get that late freeze we often get.

- [Bill] There was no frost.

I know.

- So here is my plan.

We're gonna go to a million peach stands.

I've brought a basket, I've brought us some money and I have brought an open mind.

We're gonna see what they've got.

How's that sound to you?

- You're the boss.

- All right.

You ready?

- Ready.

- Alright, let's do it.

[upbeat music] [traffic noises] Hey, you must be Jan. - I am.

- I'm Sheri.

So good to see you.

- Nice to meet you Sheri.

- This is my dear friend Bill Smith.

- Hi, Bill.

- Hi, Bill Smith.

How you doing?

My Pleasure.

- So this is one of the most famous, well-known, beloved peach stands.

How long have you guys been here?

- We've been here since 1985.

- And were you growing peaches before that?

- Yes.

I grew up on a peach farm.

- You've got how many acres of peaches?

- We have 40 acres.

- 40 acres.

And you know, there's more than one kind of peach, which a lot of people never realized.

How many do you guys grow?

- We have about 40 different varieties.

- Really?

Really?

- And you have have the different varieties.

'cause each variety only lasts a week to 10 days.

- So you do 'em sequentially.

So you've always got fresh peaches.

- Yeah, we do samples.

Over here.

- Oh gosh.

Let's go do samples.

- Okay.

- You got me on that one.

[upbeat music] - This was my dad's favorite peach.

Was his name Norman by any chance?

- No, it wasn't.

But he just liked this taste of this one.

- Wow.

- It's the Yellow Freestone then we got a White Carolina Bell.

- You know, my family always had a thing about white peaches maybe 'cause they were hard to come by.

- Used to make soup out of them.

- This is the most famous peach I have Winblo.

- Winblo.

- [Bill] Winblo.

- [Jan] Everybody calls for those the whole summer.

- This is the one people call up about.

- That's just a nice classic peach.

Not too sweet, not too tart.

- This is Harvester.

This is my first free stone we get in the season.

- Look at the color on this.

It's like a sunset.

- What is it called?

- Harvester?

- Harvester, there we go.

- Mm.

Ooh, I like that too.

- Which one do you wanna choose?

- Oh gosh.

Oh gosh.

- Or a mixture of two of 'em.

- I think a mixture of the two.

And you know what I've learned?

Is let the person growing the peaches pick out the peaches.

Go eat ice cream while I'm working on it.

- Alright, we got a plan.

[upbeat music] [soft acoustic music] - Hey.

- Hello.

How are you?

- I'm good.

I'm Sheri.

- And I'm Steven.

- Nice to meet you Steven.

This is my dear friend Bill.

- Hey, Bill.

How you doing?

- Steve?

- My partner in crime on things.

- Bill Smith.

How you doing?

- And this is my father Chester Greene.

- Hello sir.

- Hey, good to see you.

- Good to see you.

So how y'all been in the peach business.

How long you been?

- I started January 1st, 1961.

- And what made you to do that?

- I grew up on my uncle's farm, you know, helping him and so forth and when I was 16 years old, I supervised getting the whole peach crop picked.

- Yeah?

- At 16 years old.

- I see you've got peach things like pie and ice cream.

How did that come to be?

- He makes peach pies every night.

My younger daughter makes cobblers every night.

- Individual cobblers.

- And she brings them here and she sells the individual cobbler for the folks.

And then she'll put a scoop of ice cream on top of it.

- Oh, my goodness.

If this is not service.

- [Bill] Thank you.

- Service with a smile.

- [Bill] Oh man, look at that.

- I feel like I ought to take a picture of myself.

- So is this an old family recipe?

- Yes.

That is, that was my mother's recipe.

- Really?

- Where she got it.

I don't know.

- Well, I'm glad she didn't let it get gone.

'cause this is delicious.

- It is good.

It's good.

- So much peach.

Not too much bread.

Thank y'all so much.

- No, this has been really fun.

Fun to meet you guys.

- There is no better place to get something than from the people that grow it, 'cause they have the most pride and the most knowledge.

And you corroborated that and I thank you so much.

- Yes ma'am.

Thank you.

[soft acoustic music] [upbeat music]