PREMIERING THURSDAY, NOV. 28 at 7:00PM

What does the “heirloom” in heirloom tomatoes, okra and corn actually mean? This is the question the latest episode of Journey Proud scours the state to answer.

The Alabama Public Television series Journey Proud will return with “Heritage Seeds,” a special, 90-minute episode set to air on Thanksgiving Day at 7:00 p.m. This is the first new episode to air since the 2018 special “Alabama Pottery,” where show host Joey Brackner explored the state’s pottery-making heritage.

“Most people refer to these as heirloom varieties of vegetables. And the reason they refer to them that way is that usually these seeds are passed down within a family like an heirloom,” Brackner said. “And so there are families who have developed certain varieties of tomatoes or okra, or beans and peas, and there are varieties of corn that go back to [Native American] varieties...”

In this new episode, the Journey Proud crew travel from the Tennessee border to the Gulf of Mexico, covering more geographical ground than ever before, to talk to expert horticulturalists dedicating their lives to keeping heirloom varieties of traditional Alabama fruits and vegetables alive.

Brackner talks to gardeners like Pat Smith, who uses social media to find and share heirloom plants, and Charlotte Hagood, co-founder of Sand Mountain Seed Bank.

The Sand Mountain Seed Bank is an example of community sustainable agriculture where 1000s of varieties of seeds are stored in refrigerators to extend their “shelf life.” It could also be seen as a response to big corporations who patent seeds and plants for economic control in lieu of diversity, Brackner said. Seed-saving gardeners rotate hundreds of seed varieties and grow them out every few years. This process is explored in the episode.

“For example, if a blight comes in, it might affect one variety or two varieties, but if you have many, many varieties, you're safe. Right?” Brackner explained. “There's a lot of reasons for that, but part of it also was just heritage. It’s like you have an appreciation for the fact that generations and generations of folks liked this variety of apple, this variety of tomato, enough to make sure that it continued on.”

Alabama’s diverse geology and abundant waterways support the rich soil that has helped to cultivate these traditional plants for generations.

“The whole vision with Journey Proud in general was to understand the continuity of the traditional practices around our state,” Director and Producer Chris Holmes said. “Some of which are dying off, some of which are not, but to just understand the context of where these things come from, where they're going. How they're evolving, what they look like now. And so there's nothing that really sort of gets to the essence of that more than seed saving and the cultivation of heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables and even flowers.”

A diversity of people and challenges are showcased in this episode, but one thing remains constant. Each seed has a story and a history, and these Alabamians are on a mission to preserve those histories for the next generation.

“We think we have mastery over the environment,” Brackner said. “I think we're beginning to learn that maybe we don't, but we at least have a relationship where we can grow the things that sustain us, and that's really what this show is going to be about.”

Watch the Journey Proud series finale “Heritage Seeds,” premiering November 28 on Thanksgiving Day at 7 p.m. on APT and the PBS App.