Last weekend I got invited to do a youth food cooking demo at the 14th annual Indigenous Farming Conference. This event is located at Maplelag, which is a cross country ski resort in northern MN. The indigenous peoples of this land are Ojibwe ( Anishanaabe). My family and I had a great time and learned a lot including how to make maple sugar the traditional way, butcher a pig, save seeds and make birch bark etchings.
The goal of my food demo was to inspired young indigenous people about our healthy native food traditions. I find when I host food demos, that its wonderful to have it be interactive and get the kids involved! They love to measure, stir, shake, cut and help prepare!
There is always so much excitement when they are asked to be involved. At my food demo we cooked maple glazed sweet potatoes, sauteed kale topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and a chokecherry vinaigrette. The kids really liked cooking and eating the healthy indigenous food!
A few of the kids were unsure of whether they like kale of not but seeing all the other kids eating and liking it, they went ahead and tried the new foods. It was a very fun experience, and I look forward to teaching at more indigenous food events.
In the next couple of days, I will be posting the recipe for the dish we cooked.
We are now heading to Madison Wisconsin to an Indigenous Food Sovereignty event, where some of my favorite native chefs will be sharing their knowledge and skills. I can’t wait to learn more!! I will post live from there, and maybe even share a video from the event!
As a side note, I am taking a new online class as part of my homeschool which is called “Food Blogger Pro.” I am learning so much from so many cool and inspiring food bloggers about food photography, food styling, videos and all sorts of tips and techniques of sharing food inspiration!! Check out their program if you are interested in learning more!
That’s all for this week, look forward to sharing more from the road. When we get home from this trip, it will be time to plant, I am looking forward to growing new herbs and all sorts of indigenous vegetables! Every good meal starts in the garden!
Native Hearth 