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.
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Tending Episode 2: Georgia
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 of Pigford v. Glickman—once the largest civil rights class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Ammons—an eastern North Carolina native with deep farming roots—travels across seven Southern states to meet Pigford claimants and their descendants. Their stories paint a vivid picture of injustice and an ongoing fight for restitution.
Visit the “Tending” website here to learn more.
The first episode in this series profiles North Carolina.
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Tending Episode 1: North Carolina
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, “Tending” is a six-part narrative series that explores the ongoing struggles of Black farmers through the lens of Pigford v. Glickman—once the largest civil rights class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Ammons—an eastern North Carolina native with deep farming roots—travels across seven Southern states to meet Pigford claimants and their descendants. Their stories paint a vivid picture of injustice and an ongoing fight for restitution.
Visit the “Tending” website here to learn more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Tending: A Preview
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/adchoices
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The Long Recovery: Farmers and Hurricane Helene
In “The Long Recovery: Farmers and Hurricane Helene,” Gravy
producer 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 flood-prone bottomlands and steep slopes in the high country, suffered catastrophic losses.
There are thousands of farms in the region, which prides itself on its local foodways and strong network of producers. On many of these
farms the floodwaters either deposited feet of sand on fields or washed away topsoil, sometimes to the bedrock—it just depended on where in a creek’s bend their land lay. Soil takes hundreds of years to form and is a farmer's most important asset, but it's not yet clear how to address the effects of such dramatic land shifts. Extension agents are recommending farmers try planting special crops that help pump nutrients back into the dirt, but these cover crops can take years to show results. Many farmers would have a hard time financially taking fields out of production for extended periods. They also worry that their buyers may not wait that long before seeking produce from
other farms.
Still, it's not all bad. The storm did such dramatic damage that some farmers are starting almost from scratch and using that as an opportunity to build back better. Maybe that means putting in modern apple varieties, updating trellis systems, or changing the crops they grow. One farmer we spoke to is refocusing her farm on agribusiness and increasing her flower plantings. Another farmer is working to develop a method of growing raspberries that would use an annual rotation, like with tomatoes, rather than maintaining shrubs for a decade, which requires labor-intensive pruning and would leave
them susceptible to potential future storms.
This year, farmers have largely been cleaning up, evaluating, and figuring out how to proceed. The longer work of rebuilding could stretch for years to come.
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Gravy shares stories of the changing American South through the foods we eat. Gravy showcases a South that is constantly evolving, accommodating new immigrants, adopting new traditions, and lovingly maintaining old ones. It uses food as a means to explore all of that, to dig into lesser-known corners of the region, complicate stereotypes, document new dynamics, and give voice to the unsung folk who grow, cook, and serve our daily meals.
Ireland