A Week of Eating Indigenous Foods: With Many Postscripts!: February 2012

Traditional Foods

"Traditional" in the context of these projects means pre-contact foods. No beef, mutton, goat, chicken, pork, milk, butter, cream, wheat flour (no fry bread), rye, barley, okra, black-eyed peas, or any other "Old World" food that many of us have lovingly incorporated into our diets and tribal cultures. No processed foods (Doritoes, Lays Chips, etc), even if the base is corn or potatoes. No chocolate unless it is unsweetened cacao or sweetened with honey from the Melipona bee, fruit, stevia, camas or agave. Be adventurous and try unfamiliar foods! There are many foods to choose from. My American Indian Health and Diet Project site lists and defines many of them.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Seed Planting Time

Pepper seeds need to be soaked before planting. Here are some left from last year.

It's that time of year again. Our basement will be a nursery for about six weeks before I put seedlings into the greenhouse prior to planting them into the gardens.

Only the beginning: tomato seeds from Penny's Tomatoes and a variety of packets I picked up from the Kaw Valley seed exchange a few weeks ago. Many more seeds on the way.

Prairie turnips. I also planted a lot outside last year. Hopefully some will sprout.

Filling up. Shelves by the south window.

Tomatoes by the heater.

More of my gourds and peppers from last year by the east window. I'll add a light in a few weeks.

Vegetable Dinner

We watched the exciting KU-Missouri game yesterday and I needed to get some food cooking before the kids ran off to various activities. I did not want to stand in the kitchen so I found things that could cook without much attention. There was a bag of bag of yellow, orange and red peppers in the fridge drawer that I mixed with garlic cloves, then sauteed with olive oil and black pepper (top)

A bunch of carrots went into another pan with a sweet onion, black pepper, sage and olive oil.

Sweet potatoes with nothing on them. I nuked them for about 6 minutes.

A nice winter radish that has a mild flavor provided crunch. Later we had apples and peanut butter.

2012 Challenge

Get Ready for the Second Annual Week of Indigenous Eating Challenge! November 2-9, 2012

Join the groups that have already voiced their support for the 2012 Challenge:

California Music and Culture Center, California Cultural Sovereignty Center, Native American Studies at Northern
Michigan University, Native Studies at California State University at San Marcos, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin Tsyunhehkw^, KU Tribal Law and Government Center, KU Native Faculty and Staff Council, Cherokee Arts & Humanities Council,the Cherokee National Theater Company, the KU Native Medicinal Research Program. Ku Environs and KU Farm Hands.

If your group is interested in offering moral support for this 2012 Challenge (you do not have to participate, just like the idea), let me know and I will add your name to the list.

November is Native American Heritage Month. During the first week, participants in this challenge will eat foods indigenous to this hemisphere. Eaters can focus on one tribe; or, because foods may be expensive, out of season, contaminated or not available, participants can choose to eat only one or two indigenous meals per day or, widen the meal possibilities by choosing any foods indigenous to the western hemisphere.

This site is maintained by Devon Mihesuah, the Cora Lee Beers Price Professor and Director of the American Indian Health and Diet Project (AIHD) at the University of Kansas. You will find many links here that connect to the AIHD site for recipes, lists of indigenous foods, resources for food research and gardening tips. Recipes are welcome. Send recipes and diet outlines to my e-mail: mihesuah@ku.edu

A Week of Eating Indigenous Foods: With Many Postscripts!

Traditional Foods

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Seed Planting Time

Vegetable Dinner

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