Let's visit Nashville, Georgia, in Berrien County to see how cold-hardy satsuma mandarins are reshaping local agriculture and school nutrition. You'll hear from growers and packers who walk us through varieties, frost protection, and the journey from orchard to classroom lunch trays. Discover why cultivars like Xie Shan, Brown Select, Owari, Kishu, Cara Cara, Sugar Belle, and Shiranui are taking root across South Georgia.

The Satsuma Company Logo

 

This episode takes you to Nashville, Georgia, where a team of growers is betting big on citrus that can handle colder nights. In rows of glossy trees at a family farm, partner and marketing director Will McGee explains why satsumas work here and how peelability, segment uniformity, and that sweet-acid balance make them a favorite for kids and cooks alike. “The reason this is such a significant variety is that it’s cold-hardy,” he says, while branches bent with fruit tell the rest of the story.

History weighs in. Researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Georgia helped identify cultivars that would thrive in this climate, reviving a century-old dream that had been put to rest by cold winter freezes. Growers talk through frost events, irrigation, and the patient three to four years it takes to bring a tree into marketable production, then continue the lesson at the packing line where washing, waxing, sizing, and routing send different fruit to bags, farmers' markets, or the school program.

Out among the rows, names become flavors. Early Xie Shan and Miho led to Brown Select, then Owari. You meet tiny Kishu mandarins that must be clipped by hand, rosy Cara Cara navels, mail-friendly Sugar Belle, and knobby Shiranui, often called Dekopon, plus mellow Ruby Red grapefruit. The pride is local and practical, with an eye toward nutrition. “We know that children are getting to enjoy the fruits of your labor,” McGee says, as boxes labeled for schools fill with South Georgia sunshine.

 

Georgia Grown Logo