Traveling Grocery: On the Road Again

Intertribal Agriculture CouncilThe Mobile Farmers Market on the 101 Pacific Coast Highway
Intertribal Agriculture Council
The Mobile Farmers Market on the 101 Pacific Coast Highway

 

 

If you listen closely, you can hear Dan Cornelius singing his favorite Willie Nelson theme song—“I’m on the road again…”—as his Mobile Farmers Market vehicle heads down the highway.

Cornelius, of Wisconsin’s Oneida Nation, is general manager of a three-month-long, 10,000-mile foodie road show designed to showcase Native American foods in conjunction with a reconnection of tribal trade routes. “A lot of native communities are remote, literally food deserts, and don’t have good access to healthy traditional fresh foods.  Part of our mission is to access food resources, take those great products and distribute them as part of a tribal trade reintroduction,” he says.

“There’s a lot of product that is traditionally grown, harvested and processed—lots of time and labor that goes into that—but the traditional foods aren’t made available to the general public as a sustainable economic resource.”

The interest is there, but the connection still needs to be made. “It’s about health issues, maintaining our traditions, and turning the effort into a form of economic development by selling excess product for profit.”

 

The “Reconnecting the Tribal Trade Routes Roadtrip” is an effort to bring attention to the unique Native food products and artwork from across the country. The Mobile Farmers Market van started the roadtrip in mid-December when it picked up wild rice, maple syrup, and other products in northern Minnesota. The roadtrip officially kicked off in early January, making the drive from Wisconsin to Louisiana before heading to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and the West Coast. The trip then visited Montana and the Dakotas en route to concluding during March back in Minnesota. (Intertribal Agriculture Council)
The “Reconnecting the Tribal Trade Routes Roadtrip” is an effort to bring attention to the unique Native food products and artwork from across the country. The Mobile Farmers Market van started the roadtrip in mid-December when it picked up wild rice, maple syrup, and other products in northern Minnesota. The roadtrip officially kicked off in early January, making the drive from Wisconsin to Louisiana before heading to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and the West Coast. The trip then visited Montana and the Dakotas en route to concluding during March back in Minnesota. (Intertribal Agriculture Council)

 

The Mobile Farmers Market traveled across the country earlier this year as part of the Intertribal Agriculture Council‘s efforts to improve Indian agriculture by promoting Indian use of Indian resources. “Prior to our founding in 1987, American Indian agriculture was basically unheard of outside reservation boundaries,” notes the group’s web page.

”The Mobile Farmers Market utilized a large capacity fuel-efficient cargo van to transport a number of products across a region, all the while providing support to start farmers markets in interested tribal communities,” says Market Manager Bruce Savage. The vans’ insulated interior lining ensured correct temperature control, and a chest freezer allowed for transport of frozen goods.

“For a variety of reasons, traditional native products are frequently difficult to obtain, and the Mobile Farmers Market hoped to change that by making things more accessible to tribal communities,” says Cornelius. In the Pacific Northwest, canned and smoked salmon were frequently obtainable items while the Southwest offered up cactus buds and syrup. The Great Plains provided a prairie-grown protein-packed wild turnip.  In the Great Lakes region it was sumac berries. “Soak them in water, add honey or syrup, and you get a tea-like lemonade that you won’t find commercially,” Cornelius says.

 

Coyote Valley Tribe's community and Head Start garden and greenhouse (Intertribal Agriculture Council)
Coyote Valley Tribe’s community and Head Start garden and greenhouse (Intertribal Agriculture Council)

 

Success of the project was contingent on cultivating supportive relationships with local partners and that part of the plan came together nicely, very reminiscent of the early trade and barter days.

“Trade routes once connected regional tribes across the continent where different local areas produced unique resources,” says Cornelius. “As an example, the Objiwe exchanged meat and fish for corn from the Huadenosaunee in the Northeast. And, of course, the Three Sisters combination of corn/beans/squash gradually moved from South and Central America throughout all of the North American Continent. “

The Reconnecting the Tribal Trade Routes Roadtrip got underway in December 2013 by first picking up wild rice, maple syrup, and other products in Minnesota before heading off to Wisconsin, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and the West Coast and finally heading home to Minnesota earlier this year via Montana and the Dakotas.

 

The Mobile Farmers Market’s main focus is food, but it also supports Native artisan by carrying a small selection of jewelry, crafts, and artwork. Pictured here: inlaid earrings from Santa Domingo Pueblo. (nativefoodnetwork.com)
The Mobile Farmers Market’s main focus is food, but it also supports Native artisan by carrying a small selection of jewelry, crafts, and artwork. Pictured here: inlaid earrings from Santa Domingo Pueblo. (nativefoodnetwork.com)

 

As Cornelius and crew bought and sold the wares of North America’s indigenous communities, the grocery list grew to include tepary beans from the Tohono O’odham people to chocolate produced by the Chickasaw Nation.

The mobile van discovered a gold mine at Ramona Farms in Sacaton, Arizona, on the Gila River Indian Reservation. Ramona and Terry Button have been growing crops for small ethnic grocers on the reservation for over 40 years and still have plenty to share with the outside world, everything from Southwestern staples like garbanzo and Anasazi beans to white Sonoran and Pima club wheat as well as alfalfa and cotton.

“Part of our mission was to build an awareness and an excitement of all the things available ‘out there’ and we succeeded,” Cornelius says. “One of the great things about our initial effort (discussions are currently underway to find funding for more vans and an increased regional visability) was the ground level opportunity to talk with community growers face-to-face discussing products, challenges, and opportunities to introduce traditional items to a larger world.”

 

The Mobile Farmers Market in Southern Oregon (Intertribal Agriculture Council)
The Mobile Farmers Market in Southern Oregon (Intertribal Agriculture Council)

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/08/11/traveling-grocery-road-again-156130

5 Super-Healthy Native American Foods

Some traditional Native American foods are rich in nutrition as well as heritage.

Thanksgiving may be the only time many of us are aware of the influence of Native American foods on what we eat. Yet, if some dietitians and devoted cooks had a say, that would change.

That’s because traditional American fare — from North, Central, or South America — contains a rich and colorful palate of heart-healthy foods, such as beta-carotene-packed pumpkin, fiber-loaded beans, and antioxidant-rich berries.

“Traditional Native American food [is] as varied as the Americas from which it originated,” Harold H. Baxter, DDS, author of the pending book Dining at Noah’s Table, tells WebMD.

Yet it’s all too easy to overlook Native American fruits and vegetables in our modern diets, experts say.

“We just don’t eat enough of most of these [traditional] foods any more,” says David Grotto, RD, author of an upcoming book on eating traditionally called 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life.

“Our cupboard used to be our medicine cabinet. A solution to a lot of what ails us may be getting back to these traditional foods.”

Here are five familiar Native American foods that would make healthy additions to any diet:

1. Corn

Traced back to Central and South America, corn has served Native Americans as both drink and diet staple; its husks as dolls, masks, even fuel. Along with squash and beans, corn makes up the revered trinity many Native Americans call “The Three Sisters,” vegetables frequently sown together.

“The corn provided a stalk for the bean vines to climb around, and the beans returned the favor by replacing the nitrogen in the soil,” Chief Roy Crazy Horse writes in an article on the Powhatan Renape Nation’s web site. “The squash spread out its broad shady leaves to keep other plants from crowding out the corn.”

Corn is also nutritious, containing vitamins C and K, phytochemicals, B vitamins, and fiber. Another bonus: Corn just may help to prevent cancer.

“One of corn’s phytochemicals, cryptoxanthin, was shown in one study to offer a 27% reduction in lung cancer risk,” says Grotto, who is also a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association.

Indigenous recipes for this ubiquitous food include sweet corn soup and chowder, cornbread, and popcorn. Enjoy ears fresh or roasted, and cut corn into salads or wraps. And try different colored corn when it’s available — those colors represent different body-boosting phytochemicals, says Grotto.

2. Berries

Growing wild across many parts of America, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries played a part in many native diets, including those of the Natchez and Muskogean.

Serving up healthy portions of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, berries have been shown by some research to help protect against stroke and heart disease. While blackberries and raspberries have nearly double the fiber of strawberries and blueberries, a cup of strawberries contains more vitamin C than you’ll need in a day.

“Blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries also contain several types of bioflavonoid phytochemicals,” says Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, the “Recipe Doctor” for the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic and the author of Comfort Food Makeovers.

“Blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries contain some phenolic acid phytochemicals,” too, Magee adds. “These phytochemical families (bioflavonoids and phenolic acids) have powerful antioxidant duties in the body and may help protect us against cancer.”

Berries appear in Ojibwe and Sioux recipes for teas, puddings, and berry soup. You can also try mixing them into your own signature berry jam, as Magee does, or in pies, cakes, and muffins, and over hot or cold cereal.

3. Pumpkin

“I think pumpkin should be a core food in our culture,” Grotto says. “There’s so much goodness in it.”

Case in point: Just one cup of pumpkin is packed with potassium and fiber, and has more than 300% of the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin A. It’s also rich in the antioxidant beta-carotene, which may help slow aging and reduce problems related to type 2 diabetes, according to the American Dietetic Association.

Oneida recipes for pumpkin and squash include cranberry pumpkin cake and silky winter squash soup. You might also include pumpkin in stews, or try a Grotto trick for this bright treat: Carve mini pumpkins, stuff with red potatoes, then roast them. “Kids love them that way,” he says.

4. Mushrooms

Mushrooms aren’t usually thought of as especially nutritious. And while it’s true they’re not very nutrient-dense, that shouldn’t be the only way we look at a food’s value, says Grotto.

“If you look at the antioxidants in mushrooms, they’re just wonderful,” he says.

By helping to war off damaging free radicals — molecules that may play a role in the development of heart disease and cancer — antioxidants are what make mushrooms shine.

Even the lowly white button mushroom brings a lot of antioxidant pop to the table, as well as glucans, which may help lower cholesterol, Grotto adds.

While picking wild mushrooms is a hobby only for the well-informed, you can enjoy traditional foods with mushrooms found at the supermarket.

“Try a grilled Portobello and teriyaki sandwich instead of meat,” suggests Grotto. Mushrooms can also take center stage in sauces, stir-frys, soups, pates, and spreads. Or savor them over acorn squash with sage and onion — a perfect fall treat.

5. Beans

Completing the three sisters trinity, beans were a staple of the Navajo, Creek, Iroquois, and others.

Tiny nutrient powerhouses, beans like black, red, and pinto pack a healthy punch. Along with being fiber-rich, they’re good sources of cardiovascular-boosting potassium, B vitamins, and folic acid. An excellent low-fat source of protein, they’re cholesterol-free, too.

Reporting on a study that rated 100 foods for their disease-fighting antioxidant capacity, Grotto tells WebMD that small red beans topped the list, with red kidney beans and pinto beans following in third and fourth place. Black beans showed up in the top 20.

Traditional ways to enjoy them include succotash and bean salad. Beans of every stripe can also find their way into chili, soups, burritos, and tacos.