UW Farm Weekly Dirt: Reflections on Native American Heritage Month
Around The Farm
All over the nation many individuals and families will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. What that looks like depends on a number of things, including where you live, access to food, and history of your culture. There are regional differences and different views on this holiday.
November is also Native American Heritage Month and as a result many valuable sources of this American (or European) tradition are readily available. Of all the sources, I found an article in UW Medicine’s The Huddle, not only the most comprehensive, but it also included dishes by indigenous chefs, and we have a special fondness for recipes at the UW Farm.
If you care to deepen your knowledge or find the recipes, I invite you to read an article by Denis Zotig, (Kiowa/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo/Isante Dakota Indian), written for Smithsonian Magazine. Zotig offers other narratives and facts to help us understand Thanksgiving’s origins:
“to the original peoples of this continent, each day is a day to give thanks to the Creator. Thanksgiving ceremonies have always taken place when Native people have gathered. Food and feasts often serve as a focal point of these ceremonies….The Thanksgiving holiday celebrated in the United States cites a particular feast. According to our national story, in the fall of 1621, a year after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, William Bradford, the governor of the colony, decided to have a harvest feast of thanksgiving and invited Massasoit, the Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag Federation, to take part.”
Nearly 50% of the article is devoted to side dishes, main courses, and desserts created by seven Native American chefs, which incorporate raw ingredients we can still find today. By being aware of these stories and perhaps preparing one or some of these dishes, we can acknowledge these different narratives as we give thanks this Thursday and every day.
Additional resources for further learning on American Indian Perspectives:
- American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving, part of the national educational initiative Native Knowledge 360°,
- General online resources about Thanksgiving.
- A factual and witty account of how “a brunch in the forest” became a national holiday, and why it is so important to our image of ourselves as a nation, see The Invention of Thanksgiving,
- Animated interview with Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) from the award-winning exhibition Americans, which Paul co-curated.
- Individual perspectives on the holiday in Do American Indians Celebrate Thanksgiving?
- A museum educator’s (and parent’s) simple ideas for giving young students—at school or at home—a more informed and authentic understanding of Thanksgiving.
- The Ohenten Kariwatekwen or Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address—words spoken at the beginning of all important Haudenosaunee gatherings—reminds us, “Everything we need to live a good life is here on earth.”
This Week’s Recipe: Siwinoa blue corn pumpkin bread with cranberry compote and sweet corn maple ice cream
by Indigenous chef Anthony Warrior (Absentee Shawnee and Mvskoke Creek)
Photo and recipe sourced from: Seven Native American chefs Share thanksgiving Recipes
Makes 12 servings
Make ice cream first and let set while making other menu items.
Milise ti’me (sweet corn) ice cream (vegan)
2 13- to 15-ounce cans of full-fat coconut milk
1 ear of fresh sweet corn taken off the cob and coarsely crushed
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cornstarch or 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat coconut milk and add in crushed corn. Allow to come up to a simmer, but do not boil. Let simmer 5 minutes.
Strain the coconut milk and return it to the sauce pan. Stir in maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.
Once the mixture is smooth, make a slurry of cornstarch and a little water and add it to the mixture. Allow the mixture to thicken until it is the consistency of pudding.
Remove, cool, then freeze in an ice cream maker.
S’kepukeyi’nini wipeko (pumpkin blue corn bread)
1 medium Indian field pumpkin or butternut squash
Olive oil to brush pumpkin
2 cups blue corn Meal or white corn meal (masa)
3 tablespoons real maple syrup
1 cup and 1/2 cup hot water for pumpkin dough
2 cups of water for the juice bath
2 cups of cranberry juice
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Peel and seed the pumpkin or squash. Brush it lightly with olive oil and roast. The pumpkin will be ready when you can insert a knife into it with ease.
Scoop the warm pumpkin flesh into a mixing bowl. Add maple syrup and blue corn meal or masa, then add 1 cup of hot water. Mix together until the pumpkin-cornmeal mixture is the consistency of biscuit dough. Add an additional ½ cup water if the mixture seems too dry.
Allow to set for 20 minutes until the corn meal hydrates and you can form it into soft disks.
In a stainless steel skillet on low medium heat, mix 2 cups of water and 2 cups of cranberry juice. Allow to come to a simmer, then gently add the pumpkin cakes.
Cook on each side for 8 to 10 minutes, gently turn, and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Remove and make cranberry compote, reusing the cranberry water.
Pe’qeme (cranberry) compote
Water and cranberry juice mixture left from poaching the pumpkin corn bread
2 cups dried cranberries
2 cups cranberry juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Add dried cranberries and additional cranberry juice to the water and juice simmering mixture. Allow the cranberries to rehydrate. If the mixtures seems too thin, add a corn starch slurry and simmer to thicken.Remove from heat.
Plating:
Place blue corn pumpkin bread onto a plate or bowl and top with warm compote and ice cream.
Wetheneko! (Eat!)
Silinoke kenoli. (Until next time.)
Washington Organic Seed Summit being held December 6-8
The first ever Washington Organic Seed Summit will be held online this year and includes virtual roundtable conversations focused on different themes each day as informed by participants. We’ll gather December 6 through 8, 2021 on the Organic Seed Commons virtual platform. Agenda and meeting times TBD.
The Summit provides a unique opportunity for experienced Washington-based seed growers of specialty seed crops (vegetables, herbs, and flowers) to network, exchange knowledge, and develop collective actions to build sustainable, profitable, and resilient seed systems in the state.
Pre-registration using the form below is required to participate, and details for joining Organic Seed Commons along with Zoom links will be emailed to you prior to the event.
Register by December 1, 2021 or to learn more, contact Aba Kiser.
Help The Farm Grow!
Every year, we have the capacity to grow more food and increase our educational and research program at the UW, but not without your support. Every contribution goes to work immediately, helping us better serve students. Your support can sustain our momentum and help seed new opportunities for student internships, academic work, and future growth. Please consider making a gift to the Farm today.