Gravy

The fourth installment of the six-part Tending series explores the power of the USDA's county committees, recounting a Black family’s tragic story of land loss and harassment and examining why these local committees are often called "the last plantation." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the third episode of her six-part Tending series, host Shirlette Ammons visits Nicodemus, Kansas, a historic Black settlement, to learn how one family’s decades-long battle against the USDA’s discrimination began and how their case became a foundation for the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second episode of Tending, Shirlette Ammons travels to Georgia, where she meets two Black farmers whose stories illustrate the emotional and physical toll of fighting the USDA's discrimination. About Tending Hosted by award-winning musician and documentary producer Shirlette Ammons, Tending is a six-part narrative series that explores the ongoing struggles of Black farmers through the lens...

In the first episode of “Tending,” host Shirlette Ammons begins a journey to reclaim her family's legacy by exploring the largest civil rights lawsuit in U.S. history, Pigford v. Glickman, in which Black farmers fought against discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to save their family land. About “Tending” Hosted by award-winning musician and documentary producer Shirlette Ammons, “...

Listen to Gravy's preview of “Tending,” a 6-part weekly narrative series debuting October 15, 2025. Hosted by award-winning musician and documentary producer Shirlette Ammons, “Tending” explores the ongoing struggles of Black farmers through the lens of Pigford v. Glickman—the largest civil rights class-action lawsuit in U.S. history.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

In “The Long Recovery: Farmers and Hurricane Helene,” Gravy reporter Irina Zhorov looks at how North Carolina farmers are building back after Hurricane Helene and finds that many still have a long way to go. The storm hit in late September, 2024. It killed at least 250 people and left nearly $80 billion worth of damage, the majority of that in mountainous western North Carolina. Farmers, who work...

In “An Orthodox Jewish Congregation Keeps on (Food) Truckin' in Birmingham,” Gravy reporter Margaret Weinberg Norman documents the story of JJ’s Sandwich Shop, a glatt kosher deli on wheels operated by the oldest Orthodox Jewish congregation in Birmingham, Alabama. In the Magic City, food trucks are familiar, but both kosher restaurants and authentic delis are rare. Knesseth Israel, founded in 188...

In “Southern Cooking Comes to Portugal,” Gravy reporter Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong takes listeners to Porto, the second-largest city in Portugal, which anchors the northern region. Porto is famous for its wine and its hearty francesinha sandwiches. But this city of a quarter million people has a food scene whose depth might surprise you. Porto runs the gamut from picturesque century-old markets to hips...

In “We Sure Eat Good When Someone Dies,” Gravy reporter Caleb Johnson takes listeners back to August 2024, when his extended family gathered inside a Baptist church in Arley, Alabama, to mourn the loss of their matriarch—his grandmother, Celia Sampley. Before the funeral service, the church served lunch for the family, including chicken and dumplings, green-bean casserole, and plenty of desserts....

In “Virginia Public Schools Serve Indigenous Cuisine,” Gravy reporter Anya Groner takes listeners to the second annual Indigenous Peoples Feast at the College of William & Mary. The evening’s menu showcases indigenous food–foraged wild rice, duck confit, acorn grits, and a four-corn stew. But these dishes aren’t just for enjoying tonight. With the help of a USDA grant, they’ll eventually be served...

This week, Gravy is excited to share a special episode from a show we think you’ll love: Culinary Characters Unlocked. Hosted by David Page, the creator of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the show highlights bold food makers whose stories might surprise you.  In this episode, we meet chef Marisa Baggett, a Black, Jewish, female sushi chef whose journey began in a Mississippi café where she’d never ev...

While immigration is at the forefront of today’s news cycle, it’s hardly a new issue in Southeast Texas. Since the 1800s, Galveston has been a major port of entry for foreign newcomers. That pattern continues today up Highway 45 in Houston, which ranks among America’s largest destinations for refugee resettlement. While Harris County has many resources for assistance, transitioning into the workpl...

In “What's Brewing in Memphis?” Gravy reporter Brandi Hunter takes listeners to Memphis to explore what it takes to build a craft beer brand in an industry where less than one percent of breweries are Black-owned, and systemic barriers continue to limit growth. Kelvin Kolheim, founder of Beale Street Brewing Company, is at the center of this episode. A former economic development executive for Mem...

In “There’s No Business Like Hansen’s Sno Bliz-ness,” Gravy reporter Eve Troeh takes us to New Orleans, home of the sno-ball. In the South you need strategies to beat the summer heat, and ice plays a big role. Street vendors used to shave big blocks of ice by hand and add flavored syrup—a treat that became known as a sno-ball in the Big Easy. In the late 1930s, a local man, Ernest Hansen, invented...

Few companies have inspired more fanatical devotion among Texans than the convenience chain Buc-ee’s. Described by the New York Times as both a “Disneyland of roadside capitalism” and the “through line of America’s second most sprawling state,” its iconic, buck-toothed beaver mascot has been spotted not just on billboards, but on wedding cakes and tattooed arms of its most loyal customers. Founded...

In “Oh, Snapper! Mislabeled Mississippi Seafood,” Gravy reporter Boyce Upholt takes listeners to Biloxi, Mississippi—a town that has long called itself the Seafood Capital of the World. But in May 2024, shocking news hit the community: Mary Mahoney's Old French House, an iconic restaurant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to misbrand fish and wire fraud. For years, the iconic 60-year-old establishment...

Gravy podcast is excited to share a special episode of a new podcast called Buzzkill, from our friends at FERN, the Food and Environmental Reporting Network. Buzzkill explores the dramatic decline of pollinators, including the American bumblebee, whose numbers have plummeted by 90% in just two decades. The series, hosted by Teresa Cotsilos, delves into how industrial monocultures, rampant chemical...

The Cuban sandwich. If it’s made with ingredients different from someone else’s recipe, you might find yourself in an hours-long argument in the middle of Little Havana. In Miami and Tampa, Florida, restaurant owners, historians, and Cuban Americans recount their own memories of the Cuban sandwich, as well as the story of its origins. In this episode of Gravy, reporter Kayla Stewart explores the s...

In “A Muddy Future for Louisiana Crawfish,” Gravy reporter Eva Tesfaye traces the aftermath of the summer of 2023, when a severe drought in Louisiana devastated the 2024 crawfish season. The dry soil and extreme heat killed the crawfish while they were still burrowed underground, meaning when farmers flooded their fields in the fall, they found their harvest would be dismal for the spring. That ca...

In “Fruitcake in Space,” Gravy reporter Bronwen Wyatt explores a bizarre footnote in the annals of human space travel. In 1968, a scientist at a military research facility developed a very unusual recipe: a nutritionally-fortified fruitcake designed as an emergency ration for astronauts. It might be easy to dismiss this fruitcake, but we’re here to argue that it’s part of a larger story—one that t...

In “Got (Raw) Milk? The Small Family Dairy Farms Behind a Big Controversy,” Gravy reporter Bianca Garcia takes listeners to Milky Way Farm, the last dairy in Anderson County, South Carolina, where raw milk sales are keeping the Peeler family afloat.   Their neighbors have succumbed to the pressures that have defined a generation of farmers. Between 2003 and 2022, South Carolina—where the state bev...

In “What’s in Store for the Pawpaw Patch?” Gravy reporter Anya Groner examines the pawpaw, a long-overlooked fruit that’s now being domesticated, making its way into farmers’ markets, restaurants, and even beer. What plant has leaves that smell like green pepper, fruit that can taste like pineapple or turpentine, and bark that can be woven into baskets? Enter the poor man’s banana, also known as t...

In “Flambéed! The Art & Theater of Bananas Foster,” Gravy reporter Eve Troeh takes listeners to Brennan’s, the iconic restaurant in New Orleans’ French Quarter, where skilled servers pull off one sensational culinary feat, table after table and day after day—Bananas Foster, flambéed tableside. Brennan’s opened its doors more than seventy years ago, and its early years coincided with a hot trend in...

In “Conch: Queen of the Florida Keys,” Gravy reporter Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong takes listeners to the Keys, where queen conch is plastered across menus: conch fritters, conch salad, even conch chowder. The shells are a visual icon in Key West, even gracing its (semi-joking) flag as a sovereign nation: The Conch Republic. Which is fascinating… because conch hasn’t been fished on the island in fifty ye...

In “South Asian Food Makes Northwest Arkansas Taste Like Home,” Gravy reporter Mackenzie Martin heads back to Northwest Arkansas (NWA), where Walmart began, to look at the retail giant’s influence on the region’s demographics and culinary landscape—specifically, spurring a boom of South Asian restaurants and food shops.   Walmart is seen by some as the king of genericness. Most of the products it...