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Cured South

Curing is not for the hasty; it cannot be rushed. It demands patience and memory…

Ya-Ka-Mein in New Orleans

Ya-ka-mein. Yakimi. Yet-ca-mein. Yak e mein. Yacamein. Ya-ka-meat. Yaka mein. Just to call out a few of the ways you might encounter the protein-and-noodle soup spelled around New Orleans.

Women at Work in San Francisco

We traveled to San Francisco to visit with female culinary entrepreneurs whose stories mirror the ones already in our archive. Their stories are our stories. They are the stories from the Global South.

Women Who Farm: Georgia

For anyone who’s stood in front of a woman farmer and said, “You don’t look like a farmer,” you probably haven’t been to Georgia.

Pie in Arkansas

Being a Southern pie lady is no task for the faint of heart. These women work hard to earn the title. These are their stories.

Women at Work in Charleston

One idea echoes throughout Charleston’s food traditions: modest, humble beginnings, stretching a pot as far as it can go.

Women at Work in RVA

In Richmond, Virginia, women grabbed the reins of entrepreneurship and paved their own way.

Dockery Farms Oral History Intro Photo

Dockery Farms

At its peak, Dockery Plantation covered 40 square miles and was home to more than 400 families. Charley Patton made a name for himself playing guitar at Dockery. So did other bluesmen like Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson, and Son House.

Down the bayou intro picture

Down the Bayou

The people of Bayou Lafourche and Grand Isle, Louisiana, live and work smack dab at the center of nature.

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Trails & Regional Projects

Southern BBQ Trail - SFA Documentary

Southern BBQ Trail

Barbecue, barbeque, bar-b-q, BBQ: there are almost as many spellings as there are kinds of barbecue, as if the proliferation of words could express the mastering tastes and aromas of the food, all the experiences that can fill the mouth, the place where also words begin.

Southern Gumbo Trail a Documentary from Southern Foodways Alliance

Southern Gumbo Trail

Gumbo. So many versions, so many cooks, so many contradictions. Such as: Only use a roux with poultry, filé with seafood. Use okra in the summer, filé in the winter. You have to have a chaurice in your gumbo. You must use andouille.

Southern Boudin Trail

Food is a tie that binds, a constant, an equalizer, or in the words of James Beard: “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” Food can also function as one of the defining characteristics of regional and cultural identity. Boudin, a unique but simple culinary concoction of pork, rice, onions and various other herbs and spices squeezed in to a sausage casing and served hot, is one of those foods.

Hot Tamale Trail

Hot Tamale Trail

Better known for its association with cotton and catfish, the Mississippi Delta has a fascinating relationship with the tamale. In restaurants, on street corners, and in kitchens throughout the Delta, this very old and time-consuming culinary tradition is vibrant.

SFA Founders Oral History Project

In the fall of 2004 the SFA launched its Founders Oral History Project. This important undertaking will forever preserve the history of the SFA through interviews with the organization’s fifty founding members.