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

Friday, September 28, 2012

Turkey Pepper Pot

This morning I put a turkey breast in the crock pot along with 30 peppers of various colors and sizes from my garden, black pepper, salt and green chile sauce. It cooked 8 hours and was done by the time we were really hungry. I served it with sweet corn and a side of tomatoes and leftover sauteed squash.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Squash Dinner

Here is a quick dinner made of squash, tomatoes, onions and spices. Cut a spaghetti squash in half and place cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 about 25 minutes or until it is soft.

In a skillet heated on medium, add sliced zucchini, yellow squash, onion, tomato, salt, black pepper and sage. Cook until tender.

Rake out the insides of the spaghetti squash with a fork into a bowl then top with the skillet ingredients.

The only clean up is the cuttng board and the squash leftovers.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Weekend Meals

Here are a couple of dishes I prepared this weekend. On top are sweet peppers stuffed with venison, onions, zucchini and jalapenos, all chopped very fine (see two pictures at bottom). The bigger the pepper, the easier it is to get the stuffing inside.
Just saute the filling with a bit of vegetable oil until tender, then place inside the halfed (and de-ribbed) peppers, then broil for about ten minutes.

Below is broiled salmon with four different garnishes, from left to rt.: tomatoes, onions and poblano peppers; tomatillo sauce; agave; and red peppers and onions.

chopped zucchini

chopped sweet onions

saute in skillet until done

Friday, September 21, 2012

Almost the last crop

It's supposed to frost tonight, so I picked over 100 peppers from my raised bed (left) and from the big garden. There are still many blossoms so I'll cover with a tarp and hope for the best. My hoops aren't large enough to cover the tallest plants so I can't construct a regular cold frame.

Here are some of the mild peppers I plan to stuff this weekend.

Another bed of peppers (rt) and butterfly plants in the other bed.

I got a few yellow squashes and zucchini from my garden and the butternut and acorn squashes from the farmer's market. Squash will be a major component in my Week of Indigenous Eating.

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!