Southern Foodways Alliance

06/07/2026

The 2026 World Cup () starts next week, June 11, and comes to cities across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. over the next five weeks. In the countdown to kickoff, we have a great story for you about the bonds of soccer, sportsmanship, and food.

Mikeie Honda Reiland spotlights Hany Mukhtar () and Handwalla Bwana (), two professional soccer players of African Muslim ancestry, who found a taste of home in Nashville, at iftar, the fast-breaking meal of Ramadan.
Read “The Postgame Meal” at the link in our bio, and buy issues of Gravy quarterly from Hub City Press ().

Illustration by Molly Brooks ()

06/06/2026

From farmers to fry cooks, servers to sommeliers, the Southern Smoke Foundation () takes care of its own by putting dollars directly into the pockets of food and beverage workers when they’re needed most.

On October 3 in Houston, the 2026 Southern Smoke Festival brings some of the country’s best chefs and bartenders together for good food, live music, and culinary demos in a celebration of hospitality and the people who make it possible. Find more information and tickets at the link in our bio.

This film profile of the Southern Smoke Foundation was created by Ethan Payne () for the 2024 Southern Foodways Symposium.

06/01/2026

A note from SFA managing editor Sara Camp Milam:

“There were times, including unoccupied summer days, when the adults in my life had to beg me to put down the book and go outside, lest I spend 6 or 8 hours polishing off another novel. This pattern continued well into my twenties.

In recent years, summer has mostly entailed pushing children on swings, (gently) dunking children in the pool in yet another round of the color guessing game, reapplying sunscreen to children, and ferrying children to and from various day camps. But as I watch the moms with older children, reading their novels in the shade, I know I’ll be there soon.

What are you looking forward to reading this summer? Allow me to add one more title to your list: issue 100 of Gravy quarterly, coming to a mailbox near you in mid-July. There’s so much we wanted to share with our readers as we mark 100 issues that we’re releasing this issue in two parts: summer and fall. The summer issue will include a generous helping of our favorite stories, poems, and covers from over the years. Longtime SFA friend and collaborator Sheri Castle (.castle) has put together a recipe package of the ultimate summer vegetable plate, inspired by menus from SFA events.

As always, current SFA members receive Gravy in the mail four times a year. If you’re not a current member, use the link in our bio to join or renew this month and get in on the Gravy 100 fun.

05/30/2026

When kudzu ate the South, why didn’t the South eat kudzu?

For , Katie Carter King () digs into the invasive plant’s weedy reputation in our region. “But where Americans tend to revile kudzu,” she writes, “others see great potential.” Kudzu’s most useful application may be the one most underexplored in the West: the production of kudzu starch, or kudzu.

Read more at the link below.

Photos by Maddy Alewine ().

When kudzu ate the South, why didn’t the South eat kudzu?

05/27/2026

The popularity of Southern style “low and slow” barbecue seems to know no bounds, and today’s new podcast episode follows the journey of that smoking tradition across the Atlantic Ocean.

Eve Troeh () takes listeners to meet restaurateurs in Prague () and Berlin () who have gone to great lengths to import the techniques and equipment needed to bring American barbecue to their communities. Along with developing their own recipes, working closely with suppliers on the right breeds and cuts of meat, and perfecting their process for overnight smoking, they have also had to cultivate an understanding of and appreciation for BBQ among their customers. (Yes, a hot sandwich is a thing!)

Listen at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts, and don’t forget to subscribe.

Gravy visits restaurateurs in Prague, Czech Republic, and Berlin, Germany, who go to great lengths to import the techniques and equipment needed to make American barbecue.

05/21/2026

Sheri Castle (.castle) judges a potato salad as much on appearance as flavor. The best ones can be served with an ice cream scoop—like this one, which she developed for quarterly.

Made with good old brown russets, her recipe “takes its cues from barbecue restaurants in parts of South Carolina where neon, ballpark-style mustard is also a key ingredient in barbecue sauce,” Castle writes. “If your potato salad isn’t tinted yellow, you didn’t add enough.”

Try this potato salad with your barbecue, burgers, and hot dogs this weekend and all summer long.

Photographs by Forrest Mason (

05/20/2026

On October 10-11, SFA heads to Memphis for the 2026 Southern Foodways Symposium. We’ll explore food and movement across space and time, from the Mississippi River to Interstate 40, from Stax Records to Beale Street, from the People’s Grocery to the I AM A MAN campaign. Again and again over its 200-year history, groups of Memphians have come together to build and rebuild the kind of city they want to live in.

In anticipation, get to know the Home of the Blues through the eyes and taste buds of SFA filmmaker and native Memphian Zaire Love () in this film by Ethan Payne ().

Symposium tickets go on sale August 5. Follow our feed for more details and updates.

05/16/2026

On a Tuesday afternoon, pull into the Old Armory Pavilion in Oxford, Mississippi, to find the bustling Oxford Community Market (). Farmers and vendors show organically grown vegetables and freshly baked breads, while customers, friends, and family make their rounds. The OXCM illustrates the potential of a farmers’ market to address food insecurity, boost the local food economy, and bring diverse members of the community together.

Scroll to meet the people behind the produce, and see the full project at the link in our bio.

*Congratulations to Dr. Doug Davis, a longtime leader in the local farming community, who is retiring after 34 years as an educator at the University of Mississippi School of Education. And don’t worry—you’ll still see him at the market!

Photographs by Emily Williams and Sierra Dexter

05/13/2026

In Highland County, Virginia, there are more trees than people. The county is rich in sugar maples—the trees whose sap produces maple syrup.

“Sugaring”—the process of tapping a maple tree and extracting the sap—isn’t something the South is especially known for, inside or outside the region. But, as with so many food traditions, it’s something the South knows and does well.

Today on podcast, Sarah Jessee () taps into the sweet life in Highland County, Virginia. Listen at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts.

Photographs by Sarah Jessee.

Gravy explores Highland County maple syrup production in the past and present, and discusses how the County’s syrup-making might change in the future.

05/11/2026

Annemarie Anderson, SFA’s Lead Oral Historian and Assistant Professor of Practice, published an article, "The Florida Net Ban's Legacy: Aquaculture as New Waterwork along Florida's Forgotten Coast," in the Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record. The peer-reviewed journal shares presentations from Lamar University's () 2025 Greater Gulf Symposium.

Learn more at the link in our bio. Congratulations, Annemarie!