The American shad were once as plentiful in the water along the east coast as the buffalo were in the west. But after decades of overfishing and pollution, their numbers plummeted.

The weekly ritual of baking burekas at the Or Ve Shalom Synagogue is a testament to the preservation of Sephardic Jewish culture in the American South.

This Gravy episode looks at the women of the Civil Rights era who opened their homes to the architects and strategists of the Movement, providing home cooked meals, places to rest, and safe rooms for plotting attacks on Jim Crow.

What happens when a white family in the American South adopts an 11-year-old Chinese girl who’s never eaten a meal other than Chinese in her entire life and has no intention of starting now? Writer, blogger, and adoptive mother Taylor Holliday shares a story of how fear and frustration on all sides give way to a solution in this fiery story of creating a family from strangers by cooking Sichuan food.

In this episode of Gravy, reporter and producer Sarah Reynolds brings us to the northwestern part of Lexington, Kentucky, just inside the city’s loop road, where there is a little bit of Mexico. In all directions, there are signs in Spanish – a bakery, a restaurant, a grocery store, a daycare, a church. And just down … Continued

How many of us would be lost without our regular coffeeshop? In the age of wifi and telecommuting, cafes have become more than purveyors of lattes and cappuccinos. They’re the office, the community hub, and the conference room as much as the provider of our caffeine fix. And now—are they also a surrogate for the … Continued

On this episode of Gravy, we go global to explore the spread of a prolific Southern food to an unlikely place: pork barbecue in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

While Texas has an outsized reputation for many things, wine is not at the top of that list. Yet thanks to one Texan viticulturist named Thomas Volney Munson, you might remember Texas the next time you enjoy a nice Bordeaux. During an agricultural crisis in France in the late 1800’s, Munson’s tough grafted Texan vines saved the … Continued

In this episode of Gravy, Caroline Leland explores the challenges of finding and affording farmland, along with some of the keen individuals and organizations working to overcome them.