Laying sod in the dance arena
Pauline Ricks Memorial
Pow-wow Grounds
Siletz, Oregon
Sept. 17-18, 2014
Photos by Diane Rodriquez
Above: Delivery of the rolls and rolls of sod
Left: Workers from White’s Landscaping Service in Newport, Ore., adjust the sod set
down by workers from Oregon Turf & Tree Farms in Hubbard, Ore.
Below: The beautiful finished product, which will be smooth and lush for the 2015
Nesika Illahee Pow-Wow
A traditional food diet is based on the seasons
By Nancy Ludwig, MS, RD, LD, Siletz
Tribal Head Start Nutritionist
As part of my role as a consultant
nutritionist to Siletz Tribal Head Start, I
offer information for families. This seg-
ment addresses traditional seasonal foods
while living in the modern world.
Squash, such as butternut, acorn or
Hubbard, is often available from the fall
through the winter since they store well.
Lower Salmon River squash (curcur-
bita maxima) grows on long vines that are
well-adapted to the interior of the Pacific
Northwest (endangered). This large tur-
ban squash weighs up to 10 pounds and
has a pale, pinkish-orange color.
Most squash can be baked or roasted
in the oven to soften or prepare it to eat
for a meal or to use for baking.
Fresh squash is much less expensive
and more flavorful than canned pumpkin
and can be a fun project with children.
They can help wash the squash and remove
the seeds after you cut it open and before
you bake it face down at 350° for 45-60
minutes in a baking dish with ¼-inch of
water. Consider saving and planting the
seeds or roasting and eating them.
Hazelnuts or filberts also are con-
sidered to be a traditional food. The nuts
ripen in late September to October.
The beaked hazelnut (corylus cor-
nuta) is a wild variety grown from British
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Columbia to California. It is common
in the wild but rare in trade. It has been
replaced mostly by European hazelnuts
that have naturalized in the Northwest.
According to Rudy Ryser, hazelnuts
are one of the most important late-winter
foods. They were traditionally stored in
bags buried in the mud or under water,
then dug up in the harshest months of
winter, January and February.
These are the starvation months
when the spring greens are not yet up
and the spring salmon have not returned.
The protein and fat in hazelnuts helped
people survive.
Nuts can be used in baking rather
than using white or wheat flour. Almonds
also can be used in place of hazelnuts as
a nutritional equivalent.
For baking, nuts can be ground into a
flour, or nut meal. I use a food processor
to grind the flour, even though this isn’t a
traditional practice.
Resources
Renewing Salmon Nations Food Tra-
ditions, compiled and edited by Gary Paul
Nabhan, published by Renewing Ameri-
ca’s Food Traditions (RAFT) Consortium
in collaboration with Ecotrust, 2006
Feeding the People Feeding the Spirit
– Revitalizing Northwest Coastal Indian
Food Culture, by Elise Krohn, Valerie
Segrest and the Northwest Indian Col-
lege, 2010
October 2014
Wild Rose and Western Red Cedar
– The Gifts of the Northwest Plants by
Elise Krohn, printed with partial support
from the Northwest Indian College and
Longhouse Media, 2007
This recipe is an easy gluten-free,
grain-free pumpkin muffin/bread spiced
with nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. It
uses egg to create a high-protein, low-
carbohydrate snack. It is lightly sweet-
ened with honey.
While this isn’t a traditional recipe, I
believe it embraces the principles of tra-
ditional foods and nutritional equivalents.
More information on this subject will be
explored in the future.
Pumpkin Muffins
1 cup hazelnut flour/meal, ground in a
food processor
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cloves
½ cup pumpkin or other squash, baked
or roasted
2 tablespoons honey
3 eggs
In a food processor, grind the
almonds or hazelnuts into meal (it
should look dry like flour).Add salt,
baking soda and spices to the ground-up
nut flour. Add pumpkin, honey and eggs
and mix (pulse for 2 minutes).
Scoop batter into cupcake papers
(12 if filled half-full) or grease mini-cups
(I like silicone). Bake at 350° for approx-
imately 15 minutes, until an inserted
toothpick comes out clean. Cool.
Please note: If you use a mini-loaf
pan, bake for 35-45 minutes. If you use
one that’s too big, your loaf of bread
will not “rise.”
Recipe adapted from Elana’s Pantry
– elanaspantry.com.
Please let me know your feedback
with my recipes as we journey together
to thrive in optimal health.
Siletz Tribal Head Start offers my
time to support family nutrition over
the telephone. Please contact me if
you have nutrition concerns about your
Head Start child – 503-588-5446.