This past week I was teaching a program on wilderness living skills at Canadian Bushcraft, which gave me time to focus on the diet a bit more and do a little bit of foraging. I brought wild rice with me (an obvious staple), and though I broke the diet here and there (dammit, hamburgers in cast iron over an open fire would tempt you too!) I also had the opportunity to gather and prepare some delicious food.
Harvested:
-Cattail roots and "Cossack Asparagus"
-Sunchoke/Jersualem Artichoke Tubers
-Raspberries and Blackberries
-White Pine cambium (this time of year it had a really sweet taste to it)
-Sweetflag/Ratroot/Wiikae roots
-Wild mint
-Catnip
-Plantain (for a couple of cuts and scrapes)
-Yarrow (for bug repellent)
-Jewelweed (for when the bug repellent failed)
Stuff ready in the Garden:
-Beans
-Cucumber
-Spinach
-Swiss Chard
-Sunchoke
-Dill
-Basil
Preserved
-Smoked bass
-Sundried and smoke dried jerky
Projects accomplished
-New white ash digging stick
-Atlatl dart
-Fired pottery
-New bowdrill kit
-200ft worth of Basswood fibre retted
Other projects underway:
-Fishing net
-Arrows for my 45# Black Ash Recurve bow.
-Other bowstaves Identified and marked for harvesting in the fall
Outside of the projects, harvesting and gardening, I have been busy researching exactly what is the Thirteen Moons Diet. The closest I have come across on written record is the Decolonizing Diet Project from Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies, whose blog can be found here. However, this is not a seasonal-oriented diet. Nothing wrong with it, in fact its' a brilliant source of information, especially for those of you who wish to try this and do not have as much access/experience in hunting, fishing or gathering. However I would not be eating duck eggs out of the natural time of year of when I would be finding duck eggs.
The only true difference between what I am doing, and what they have accomplished is the seasonal aspect, which I believe is the key to what I am trying to do. So on their part, they are doing amazing. I will definitely be following along with their research and accomplishments. So all in all, way to go folks, good work!
I will be posting photographs later today, and perhaps a video or two. Dunno if photobucket videos can be uploaded onto Blogger, but we'll find out.
Hope you enjoy my personal experiment. If you feel like joining along,
let me know your results, research or anything else in the comments
section. Please feel free to subscribe!
Baamaapii,
Caleb Wazhusk
Caleb
The Man, the Myth, the.. consumer of wild things
Showing posts with label blueberries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blueberries. Show all posts
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
The seasonal food of the Raspberry Moon
This time of year is known among my people (The Missisauga Anishnaube/Ojibway) as the Raspberry Moon. In my language, Raspberry Moon is translated as Miskomin Giizoonh (Giizis in other dialects). This is because the raspberries are beginning to ripen. North of here, among the Manitoulin Island and Lake Superior Anishnaube, it is called Miinan Giizis, or the Blueberry Moon. We don't have many blueberries growing wild in this region, and our raspberries ripen before theirs' do, so regional differences must always apply. This will be an ongoing subject that I frequently bring up during each Moon.
Many fruits are in this part of the country. I am currently looking out a window and see that the Mayapples Podophyyllum peltatum are ripening up. They ought to be just about ready at the end of Miskomin Giizoonh. Often called American Mandrake, or Elephant's Ear, the Mayapple is extremely toxic, up until the very moment of ripeness. Then it seems to have the taste of a Golden Delicious apple, but with something else added to the flavour.
Strawberry-blite Chenopodium capitatum are just about perfect this time of year. The "fruit" (actually the flower of the plant) of this member of the Goosefoot family has a flavour to me that stands alone. It somewhat tastes like strawberry, raspberry and mint blended into one, but yet it seems to be so unique that my tastebuds go crazy trying to figure it out. It is by far one of my favourite foods in the woodlands. The rest of the plant makes a good potherb, that I often add to stirfries or stews. Some call it Strawberry Spinach, as the fruit-like flowers resemble Ode'min (strawberry), and the rest of the plant tastes very similar to spinach.
Many members of the Raspberry (Rubus) family are going to be ready during this Moon, this is obviously a logical reason for this time of year to be called Miskomin Giizoonh. Wild Red Raspberry Rubus idaecus, common blackberry Rubus occidentalis and even my personal favourite, the Purple-flowering Raspberry Rubus odoratus will all be ripening at different times. The wild red is already ripe, and this weeked I will be working on a Staghorn sumac Rhus typhina bark basket to collect it and its' respective relatives. The common blackberry will begin to ripen next week, and be ready by the third week. The Purple-flowering is still in bloom, but at the end of the Raspberry Moon will provide the largest of the three fruits.
So does this mean just berries are available? Of course not! There are two more weeks left before the bark of many trees will cling ferociously to the wood once again. So if you want to make baskets, gather soon!
Sweetflag Acorus calamus will be ready at the end of this moon, and we will talk more about her and her uses in next moon's blogs.
The medicinal plant Jewelweed Impatiens spp. is at its' peak now. Though useful throughout the summer, this is when the most sap can be found in our local plants. This stuff is nicknamed the Aloe of the North, for its' soothing effect on bugbites. I have treated poison ivy with it, though so far science has stated that the Jewelweed plant has no genuine effect.
Salsify Tragopogon sp. is in my opinion best harvested now.
The fruit of the Staghorn sumac (whose bark I will be gathering tomorrow), is just going red now. A sun tea with a very tart, but sweet and citrusy flavour can be made now, though I prefer to wait until the first frost sweetens it up a tad. However it is edible once it turns red. I have heard many outdoors instructors state that the reason Staghorn sumac is called Staghorn, is because that is the title of the fruit. That is incorrect. Look at the branches, and then look at the antlers of a deer. You will notice the branches are very similar looking, and the soft fuzzy hairs of the branches is so similar to when a buck is in velvet. This is the true reason for the name. Gather the leaves now, and you can make a strong dye or mordant for dying fabrics.
This is of course an incomplete list, but then again, I have three more weeks to go! I will include photographs in my next blog post.
Nest blog I will give some recipes for using these foods, but one thing I want to make very clear before we end is this; The Raspberry Moon is a time of great yields of fruit. We would glut ourselves' on the berries and wild plants this time of year, but we would also disperse the seeds, to assist the lifecycle of the plants. Just as importantly, we preserved the majority of the fruits we gathered, through dehydrating (a method I will explain in further detail in the next blog). This may have been a time of plenty, a time to feast. But we remembered the famine of the winter. Around here, February has a special name. It is Bakade Giizis, or The Hunger Moon.
Hope you enjoy my personal experiment. If you feel like joining along, let me know your results, research or anything else in the comments section. Please feel free to subscribe!
Baamaapii,
Caleb Wazhusk
Many fruits are in this part of the country. I am currently looking out a window and see that the Mayapples Podophyyllum peltatum are ripening up. They ought to be just about ready at the end of Miskomin Giizoonh. Often called American Mandrake, or Elephant's Ear, the Mayapple is extremely toxic, up until the very moment of ripeness. Then it seems to have the taste of a Golden Delicious apple, but with something else added to the flavour.
Strawberry-blite Chenopodium capitatum are just about perfect this time of year. The "fruit" (actually the flower of the plant) of this member of the Goosefoot family has a flavour to me that stands alone. It somewhat tastes like strawberry, raspberry and mint blended into one, but yet it seems to be so unique that my tastebuds go crazy trying to figure it out. It is by far one of my favourite foods in the woodlands. The rest of the plant makes a good potherb, that I often add to stirfries or stews. Some call it Strawberry Spinach, as the fruit-like flowers resemble Ode'min (strawberry), and the rest of the plant tastes very similar to spinach.
Many members of the Raspberry (Rubus) family are going to be ready during this Moon, this is obviously a logical reason for this time of year to be called Miskomin Giizoonh. Wild Red Raspberry Rubus idaecus, common blackberry Rubus occidentalis and even my personal favourite, the Purple-flowering Raspberry Rubus odoratus will all be ripening at different times. The wild red is already ripe, and this weeked I will be working on a Staghorn sumac Rhus typhina bark basket to collect it and its' respective relatives. The common blackberry will begin to ripen next week, and be ready by the third week. The Purple-flowering is still in bloom, but at the end of the Raspberry Moon will provide the largest of the three fruits.
So does this mean just berries are available? Of course not! There are two more weeks left before the bark of many trees will cling ferociously to the wood once again. So if you want to make baskets, gather soon!
Sweetflag Acorus calamus will be ready at the end of this moon, and we will talk more about her and her uses in next moon's blogs.
The medicinal plant Jewelweed Impatiens spp. is at its' peak now. Though useful throughout the summer, this is when the most sap can be found in our local plants. This stuff is nicknamed the Aloe of the North, for its' soothing effect on bugbites. I have treated poison ivy with it, though so far science has stated that the Jewelweed plant has no genuine effect.
Salsify Tragopogon sp. is in my opinion best harvested now.
The fruit of the Staghorn sumac (whose bark I will be gathering tomorrow), is just going red now. A sun tea with a very tart, but sweet and citrusy flavour can be made now, though I prefer to wait until the first frost sweetens it up a tad. However it is edible once it turns red. I have heard many outdoors instructors state that the reason Staghorn sumac is called Staghorn, is because that is the title of the fruit. That is incorrect. Look at the branches, and then look at the antlers of a deer. You will notice the branches are very similar looking, and the soft fuzzy hairs of the branches is so similar to when a buck is in velvet. This is the true reason for the name. Gather the leaves now, and you can make a strong dye or mordant for dying fabrics.
This is of course an incomplete list, but then again, I have three more weeks to go! I will include photographs in my next blog post.
Nest blog I will give some recipes for using these foods, but one thing I want to make very clear before we end is this; The Raspberry Moon is a time of great yields of fruit. We would glut ourselves' on the berries and wild plants this time of year, but we would also disperse the seeds, to assist the lifecycle of the plants. Just as importantly, we preserved the majority of the fruits we gathered, through dehydrating (a method I will explain in further detail in the next blog). This may have been a time of plenty, a time to feast. But we remembered the famine of the winter. Around here, February has a special name. It is Bakade Giizis, or The Hunger Moon.
Hope you enjoy my personal experiment. If you feel like joining along, let me know your results, research or anything else in the comments section. Please feel free to subscribe!
Baamaapii,
Caleb Wazhusk
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