A Week of Eating Indigenous Foods: With Many Postscripts!: June 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.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Hot Vegetables

Sunshine peppers

It's about 102 degrees outside. I mulched my gardens in early spring so I only water every three days. Everything has survived this hot month, but it is going to be challenging to keep the plants going if we have another week of 100-plus days.

I planted way too many squash plants in these raised beds. Now I can't get in there to pick anything.

A look under the thick canopy. That little whirly is there to scare off rabbits--when the pants were only an inch high, that is. Now a small rabbit stays under the leaves all day. I feed it scraps and so far it hasn't nibbled on my plants.

Cucumber vines have found the ladder.

I picked a few things today, inclduing squash, a zucchini, and peppers. This year I planted several types of tomatoes: Manitoba, Alaskan Fancy, Black Pineapple, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Cherry, Golden Cherry.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Taco Salad

My daughter Ari created this healthy version of a taco salad yesterday. Instead of using a white tortilla she substituted a tomato tortilla, then baked it in a large bowl instead of deep frying it--like restaurants do. She used vegetable protien crumbles by Morning Star in addition to shredded romaine, peppers, and salsa. She flavored the fake meat with cumin and chili pwder instead of the salty taco seasoning you can buy in packets.

Late Spring Garden

A lot of my vegetables are growing very well. The resident rabbits have stayed out of the big garden and so far, no squash bugs.

The tomato plants have dozens of blossoms.

Won't be long

I planted grapes three years ago and now the vines have taken over the arch and eastern fence of the big garden.

Raspberries grow along the fences

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!