#native foods

[blossomsinthemist]

The Pleasures of Wildcrafted Winter Spice Blends (Plus Forest Spice Cookies)

[bilboyagathechickenfootedhobbit]

I grew these beans and the onions.

It feels REALLY GOOD to make food with food you’ve grown.

[uispeccoll]

#Voicesfromthestacks

What does it mean to de-colonize a meal?

Sean Sherman -- an Oglala Lakota chef born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the founder of The Sioux Chef, focuses his culinary skills on the “revitalization and awareness of Indigenous foods systems in a modern culinary context.” Sherman took it upon himself to study the foundations of the food systems particular to the local Dakota and Ojibwe tribes, gaining knowledge of Indigenous farming techniques, land stewardship, hunting and fishing, salt and sugar making, the usage of wild food and harvesting, food preservation, elemental cooking techniques, Native American migration history, and Native American Culture and history in a more general sense to get a more holistic understanding of Native American cuisine and how to bring that back in the present.

The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen is an introduction into modern indigenous cuisine of the Minnesota and Dakota territories. The recipes are all focused and centered around ingredients indigenous to America. No European staples like dairy products, sugar, or domestic pork. Instead, there’s duck, venison, blueberries and wildflowers to name a few.

In his introduction, Sherman states “This book is about the joy of indigenous cooking. It reveals the delight in finding ingredients right outside our kitchen doors. … These recipes, inspired by methods handed down through the ages, generation after generation, are integral to our culture, and, as with all good recipes, the dishes will change from cook to cook. These recipes are meant to be guidelines, not formulas. … These recipes along with the stories of goodness and resilience are told with hope and joy.”

-Matrice Y, Special Collections, Olson Graduate Assistant

[clatterbane]

Prickly Ash and Spicebush: Native Shrubs for your Spice Collection - Gardenista

Many of us grow herbs at home and most of us cook with fresh herbs and use spices in our everyday kitchens. Thyme, bay, cilantro, cinnamon,

Just a couple of great (Eastern) North American native seasonings, which sadly usually get completely ignored outside Native culinary traditions. You've got essentially a different species of Sichuan/sansho pepper, and "Appalachian allspice" which especially deserves more attention.

Spicebush Berries, aka Lindera Benzoin - Backyard Forager

My spice cabinet wouldn't be complete without spicebush berries. Their flavor is warm and spicy and works well in both sweet and savory dish

As discussed here, the young twigs and leaves are also good in teas. Usually to add a nice flavor in with other herbs. You could do worse than to try it with mint or rosehips. Also good to throw some into sumac "lemonade".

Sumac: More Than Just Native Lemonade - Eat The Weeds and other things, too

Sumac, Rhus Juice, Quallah: Good Drink Sumacs look edible and toxic at the same time, and with good reason: They’re in a family that has pla

Also often combined with native bay leaves to season meats and stews!

Red Bay for all seasonings - Eat The Weeds and other things, too

Array

(I am honestly not sure what species of bay leaves grow where I'm from, only what it looks like. Not finding much info right now, on the fly. The level of biodiversity can actually complicate things sometimes!)

Another useful Eastern North American plant, which can unfortunately be trickier to grow than any of the shrubby ones above if you don't have good access to the wild stuff:

Wild Ginger, aka Asarum canadense - Backyard Forager

Wild ginger is great in both sweet and savory dishes. Its flavor is warm, spicy, and complex, and once you taste it, you're going to want mo

As mentioned, that also combines great with the spicebush berries. Usually in sweet dishes, but I don't see why it wouldn't work well in savory recipes too. They're suggesting the combo in seasoning rubs. It would probably work well with sumac for that. Throw in some bay leaf and possibly some Sichuan pepper-alike, and you're set! 😁

[fountainbeee]

Watch "Benefits of Lemon Myrtle" on YouTube

Here are some potential benefits of the beautiful plant of Lemon Myrtle, Backhousia Citriodora.

[hedgewitchgarden]

Native foods educator Valerie Segrest on marking Thanksgiving with respect

Nov. 18, 2022 at 6:00 am/ Updated Nov. 21, 2022 at 6:01 pm

Valerie Segrest doesn’t want anybody to give up Thanksgiving. As a Native foods educator and Muckleshoot tribal member, she considers giving thanks for food to be both beautiful and essential, while the act of gathering around the table with gratitude is something that she thinks should take place far more often. Preparatory to this year’s New American holiday, she generously shared her thoughts on the topic, including what non-Indigenous people can do to celebrate Thanksgiving with mindfulness and respect. Therecipes also shared herecan act as conversation starters for greater truth and understanding at any table, at the holidays or otherwise, while also prompting more gratefulness for deliciousness.

Those seeking knowledge about Indigenous foods and more recipes — and those seeking to give this gift to others — might first turn to “Indigenous Home Cooking: Menus Inspired by the Ancestors,” co-authored by Segrest and the Indigenous Food Lab, and home to two of the dishes here. The book also guides those seeking Native-produced ingredients (also an excellent gift to give) to the Intertribal Agricultural Council’sAmerican Indian Foods, among other resources. “Indigenous Home Cooking” isavailable on-site or online from Seattle’s Arundel Books. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

On what Thanksgiving — and thanksgiving — means to her:It’s a contentious subject within Native communities, just because the story isn’t really fully accurate. Some people call it Thanks-taking, in fact. But I think what I’ve gleaned from it, personally, is the importance of sitting around a table and connecting to food, and connecting to people through food, which is the broader story. And that is probably something we all need to do more of. In our standard American cultural patterns, we’re sort of eating from one thing to the next, and oftentimes isolated, and oftentimes on the go, and so slowing down and eating a meal with other people is a great unifying moment. And that is something that should be considered a thanksgiving. 

It’s a tradition that we all need so badly in this country that I don’t want to vilify it. But I do want the truth to be told, not to romanticize it. 

On the Thanksgiving myth and the reality: How we tell the story is really important. I think that not feeling dominion over people, or place, or things, but in community with them is better — that could have been a better outcome of that first Thanksgiving. And then I also think about the people showing up and setting the table, and that it must have been a really scary time, and to show up with a response of generosity and kindness says a lot about a people. And that’s because our foods teach us to be generous and to be kind. So maybe that’s the one right thing that happened — how do we show up in this real world with generosity and kindness, and include food along the way?

On the current traditional Thanksgiving meal, giving thanks for food and what food gives:A lot of the dishes are First Foods for this country … Every [Indigenous] community here has ceremonies that are similar to this meal, where you focus on the food and what it represents, and then you might say a prayer or sing a song to it, and then you eat it, and it’s intentionally honoring that life that’s been given for you to continue to live. And we consider our foods our greatest teachers. They’re more than just commodities and resources to be extracted from the land — they really help us to figure out how to be good humans, or how we might show up in the world as social change agents, or intervene in an environment and make it better.

A lot of our foods do that — salmon is a great example of just being an ecotype in and of itself, its own force that goes in and out of different environments, and returns to ancestral rivers, and gives its life for the health of the land. How can humans be more like that? And I think if we look at those foods through that context, and provide value and connect them to the people who have been stewards and advocates of them for so long — for thousands of years — then that is really what Thanksgiving could be all about.

On making food choices on Thanksgiving: You could take it a step further and say, I’m going to put one food on my table this Thanksgiving that’sproduced from a Native community— that has, like wild rice, for example, cultivated it for thousands of years, has origin stories around it. It’s incredibly nutrient-dense. And I’m going to support that food producer, because they were the original food producers of this country. And I want to give thanks for that, because without that stewarding, it wouldn’t be on the table today. 

On the first Thanksgiving, what unraveled from it, and trying to heal:I feel like we all come from generational trauma, and for Native people — that’s the history that I am versed in. But I always think about the people who were coming to this continent and what they were leaving behind. And I think that’s part of the pervasive idea of what we have in American cultural patterns today: It’s like we’re all about progress and change … we have our manifest destiny that we’re trying to pursue, and [we’re] not necessarily taking into account the value of the knowledge of the land, the knowledge of the people who have dwelled in that place, and their own ancestors. And the traditions globally that we share are beautiful and uphold health. And we have lived in 600 years of escaping trauma and violence in this country, and we can do a lot of healing through looking at foods in a different way.

We can all be a part of this, and it’s going to take all of us, really — us valuing everybody’s knowledge to be able to save this world

[brianachristine]

Tips From A Traveling Vegan

Links included

I’ve been eating an entirely plant based diet for 15 months. In San Diego, very close to La Jolla, this was pretty easy. When I first converted some friends were concerned I wouldn’t be able to maintain this lifestyle as a frequent traveler.

I love when “friends” project their personal inadequacies on to me.

Unsolicited advice anyone?

Well you’re already reading so I take it you’re interested.

I’ve traveled to London, Ireland, Budapest, and many cities in the US and easily kept my vegan lifestyle. That’s right, 12 months ago I went to Europe! I know that’s hard to believe, but that’s not the point.

And while we’re on the topic of things that aren’t the point, this isn’t a post to share the benefits of plant based eating for any skeptics.

This is a post about where I have found THE best places to dine plant based in the US.

I was going to save this post for a later date after traveling to a few more states - but I had no idea Austin, TX was going to make my list of one of the most vegan friendly cities.

Yes, even more than San Diego.

Let’s get to the list of delicious plant based eats you MUST try.

One of the first plant based meals I had before I went all out plant based was Native Foods in Chicago. You’ll be happy to know this is a chain restaurant - so there just might be one near you!

I don’t remember what I ordered and I stopped using Yelp so I can’t go back and look.

Why did I stop using Yelp after using for 10 years? Because the restaurants that claim to be vegan are liars and Yelp doesn’t monitor that shit.

Uh hmm… excuse me. What I meant to politely say was that I switched to Vegan Maps which is only moderately better. It doesn’t give you all of your options because it won’t mention ANY restaurants that serve meat EVEN if they have an amazing vegan option.

Ok, now that you know how to find actual vegan food every time, let’s go to the next amazing place.

While visiting Seattle I went to Vitality Bowls for lunch because I love me some Açaí bowls 😋 I know you’re thinking that you have an açaí place down the street - and that’s great too! Soooooooo many foods are naturally plant based! Like fruit. Just one thing, honey isn’t considered vegan so you might opt for agave on your bowl depending on your beliefs about bees.

Hands down my favorite place to get plant based meals ANY TIME OF DAY is VegeNation in Las Vegas. I would even venture to say that you should travel there just to try it. I’m not going to say EVERY meal knocks it out of the park - but 80-85% of the menu is phenomenal. I know because I ate there everyday on a weekend trip to Vegas and once on the way to our Airbnb adventure.

Let’s talk sushi. San Diego has a fantastic vegan sushi place on Convoy called The Yasai. If you know anything about San Diego, you know Convoy is where it’s at when it comes to great food. I’m hoping to find a comparable option to this sushi place soon.

I have a teetering view of my next recommendation. It's a chain with multiple locations in the US called Veggie Grill. In the past they had so many amazing choices that it was hard to decide what to order. But after COVID, somehow their options became so slim I was left with only one thing on the menu I enjoyed ordering. I’m hoping this will change with time or a different state.

This next one I’ve mentioned before, but our fav vegan spot we enjoyed many meals at in Denver was Watercourse foods. Complete lifesavers for our Thanksgiving spread as well.

Ok, now let’s talk Austin, and most importantly, Mexican food. Holy Guacamole! Mission Street Burrito has the tastiest breakfast burrito quite possibly in the world. This thing is 1.5 lbs of pure deliciousness.

If you’re in the mood for a burger, which I realize many restaurants offer a vegan option, BUT these places have variations that will make you feel like you're at Eureka burger.

First one is Nom Burgers which has the best breakfast sandwich you’ll ever have. Breakfast is the best meal ever by the way. Second is Next Level Burger which also serves vegan milkshakes. Shout out to Nada Moo!

I'll leave you with this note. Just about every vegan place typically copies the names of food from a traditional carnivore diet. The gap in our expectations of what it is, and what we expect it to be can easily sway how we feel about the quality of our order. So set your expectations high but also reasonably.

If you enjoyed this post please let me know. I can post more tips beyond going out to eat for any plant based eaters.

[coyote-mints]

Brodiaea elegans lit by the sunset