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Please forgive me if I ask questions that might have been discussed elsewhere, I’m pretty new to all of this. 🙂 I was wondering if anyone knew of any particular food traditions connected to our native american ancestors? I grew up in AZ, and am familiar with the fry bread, mesquite bread, and other foods that are part of the culture of the Tohono O’odham in Tucson. Are there traditional foods from the Saponi region that are still celebrated today?
Your thread looked kinda lonesome, so am throwing a cup of hominy in the pot. Think there’s another thread that has some recipes and such. I like the really simple stuff that goes way back. Corn, squash and beans, put together in any way (soups, stews, or cornbread and beans, etc.). Meat that was hunted then, still is. Deer, turkey, etc. Buffalo were in part of the area. (Tastes great & makes ya feel strong.) My aunt likes to fry up squash blossoms, but that may be from the Cherokee side.
Beeleaf,
My mother grew up eating fried Squash blossoms, her mother was Saponi being descended from the Harris & Lynch families in Brunswick Co. Va.
My Saponi ancestors settled near the Cherokees in the mountains, but i’m sure the fried squash blossoms were probably a Saponi as well as a Cherokee food tradition..My family would gather wild greens such as poke Sallet, branch lettuce, sochani, ramps, wild berries and nuts…also they would string beans and dry them by hanging them up to make leather breeches…my grandmother knew a great deal about herbal medicine.
Thanks for the info.! I love to cook, but have never made squash blossoms beofre. I am definitely going to look them up now. You both made my day. 🙂
Dear Bee – By the way, I keep freaking out a little every time I see your pic…you and my mom could be sisters. Really, the resemblance is striking. One of these days I will try to post a picture for you! I am blond-haired and Germanic, taking after my maternal grandmother, but my mom has black hair and almost black eyes (as did my grandfather and most of his family).
Well, I was gonna reply to her and guess the senior moment took over and I forgot…..
Thought I would say that around our house, Three Sisters Soup is a favorite…along with Triracial Chili Beans. Served up with cornbread….yumm. Then’s there’s the buffalo burgers…and Roadkill Stew (Jeannie’s recipe)…never done squash blossoms…but love fried tomatoes along with fried okra and fried squash. Ok, enough on this thread…making me hongry….
oh, yeah, note to Rick….I turned your venison roast into another good recipe….added some cream of mushroom soup and made SOS, NA style….guess that would be DOS, huh???
DOS…LOL, Becky.
Jeff, I forgot all about poke salad. Have not had it, but my folks talk about it, along with several menu items I’m glad are only their memories. ;~)
BTW, which mountains? We’re Blue Ridge peeps.
Long-lost twin?
That’s neat, Aileen. Wait until Wachinika comes back in here. I did a double take when she put an old HS photo in her avatar. Do we have surnames in common? Mine are below. (Since so many would be the same whether paternal or maternal, they are not separated.)
Oh yeah, you got Collins, doncha?
Poke salad tastes kind of like spinach, just a little stronger. Gots to pick them leaves when they first pop up in late winter or early spring. You also have to boil it in a couple of changes of water so you don’t poison yourself.
What kind of beans? In SW Ohio all the people from Appalachia get excited when the half-runner beans show up. My mother said it’s because they taste like the “corn-field bean” – and she wasn’t sure whether that was the variety, or just the bean that you grow in the corn field and let grow up the stalks.
There was another kind called greasy beans, I think.
Also, what’s the proper recipe for corn bread? Up here in the frozen north the Yankee corn bread is 3/4 white flour, and sweet enough to be cake. I make it all corn meal, with no sugar, in a frying pan or cornstick pan.
Fried squash blossoms are also an Italian recipe, according to the old Italian lady I once worked for.
Dip the blossoms in egg and floor, fry in oil, sprinkle a little sugar. Yum! They’re the only reason I plant squash.
My grandma ate the wild foods as a kid during the depression in SW Virginia and NE Tennessee. She also learned how to make medicine. Her daddy was a pharmisist, but knew the plant medicines as well. He was part Virginia Indian and Cherokee.
“I make it all corn meal, with no sugar, in a frying pan or cornstick pan.”
What??? No Bacon in the bottom of the pan??? Shame on you. Ha Ha
My cornmeal has two bases…some times I use cornmeal, egg, and milk. Then other times I use Masa, egg, and milk. (I have used Masa to also make the fry bread.) And it has to be cooked in the black iron frying pan in the oven. As soon as it comes out of the oven, smear butter all over the top to make it soft.
And I usually keep all the bacon grease for such things as cornbread, or putting in the beans.
You can tell by my avatar….I ain’t no lowfat/no fat cook….LOL.
I make 3 different kinds of cornbread (none of which will ever have wheat or sugar in them). “Just like Mama made” has eggs and buttermilk in it. Style #2 replaces the buttermilk with water. Style #3 is closer to traditional native cornbread. It’s just cornmeal and water. Can add a little bit of salt or pepper. Or, for breakfast put in some berries. It’s much flatter and pretty bland, but good for ya.
Barbara, I would have to consult the bean expert. My guess would be that the corn field beans would be pole beans growing up the corn stalks, as you said. We just called them green beans. ;~) Or snaps. They did have a wonderful flavor. Thought it was just cause of the memories attached to them, but maybe the bush beans really don’t taste as good.
Steve-o wrote: “I make it all corn meal, with no sugar, in a frying pan or cornstick pan.”
What??? No Bacon in the bottom of the pan??? Shame on you. Ha Ha
I WISH I could use the bacon, but that’s off the menu here!!
The memory of half-runners with bacon drippings makes me homesick for Ohio.
In the summer the road-side vegetable stand north of Middletown would put signs out right by the road advertising “Half-runners,” not “Green beans.” They definitely taste better – I have grown them – but you do have to string them. But that’s what front porches and rocking chairs are for.
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