Cultural Creativity!

First Nations Art with James Madam

November 2013

It has been awhile since we've posted to the blog!  I  just thought I'd let you know some of the great things we got up to at the kitchen in the Fall of 2013.

We are fortunate in our small community to have many talented artists.  One of our local First Nations artists, James Madam, came to the kitchen over several sessions to provide background and instruction in traditional techniques that he honed while attending the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coastal Art at Northwest Community College. 

An integral element of shape to the local First Nations art is the "Ovoid".  James was a fun teacher and the kitchen participants learned how to draw the ovoid and other elements of shape.  Once our drawings were complete, we began painting using some of the traditional colours, of which, black and red dominate.  James provided instruction in basic brush and application techniques and how to prepare the paints for use.  The art sessions provided participants opportunity to work in a creative medium that to most of us was unfamiliar and somewhat uncomfortable.  Many of us do not think of ourselves as "artists" and as a result rarely create art.   The kitchen thanks James for providing opportunity to explore our inner artists!    

Oolichan Run Field Trip 2013

Oolichan Field Trip-March 2013-Ground 2 Griddle Kitchen Writings

On Friday, March 8^th, the Ground 2 Griddle kitchen participants began an exciting journey to find out about the Oolichan Run in the Nass River Valley.  Oolichan is a small, oily fish from the Smelt family who were and are an important food of the First Nations people in BC.  Oolichan is rendered  into “grease” and is used for eating and as a valuable trade item.

We travelled from Smithers to Terrace and from Terrace towards our destination along the Nass River.  It is a winding and beautiful journey around Kalum Lake, Sand Lake and eventually Lava Lake on the way to Gikwinksilhk (Canyon City).  A local, Nisga’a elder accompanied us from Gikwinksilhk towards Kincolith and the Oolichan camps along Fishery Bay.  Follow the link below to find out more about Oolichan and about one of the camps we saw on our trip.

http://www.blue-moon.ca/gingolx/o-grease.html

Here is what some of the kitchen participants had to say about their experience!

Sue

My favourite part of our trip to the Nass, the oolichan camps on the Nass River

This was my first opportunity to finally get to see the where, who, how and why of the oolichan run!  This was my opportunity to see where my life-long neighbours, relative and our friends go to every year to harvest and fish.  This fish is our much needed and loved staple in our traditional, west-coast diet and this was a unique chance to see how it is all done.  How it has been done since our ancestors began harvesting this precious staple.

I took a few pictures for my collection of memories of this awesome trip.  I might otherwise never have had this incredible trip.

Dana

The Favourite Part of The Trip

My favourite part of the trip was being outside in the woods and seeing the fish.  I could not believe all of the oolichan I saw it was just unbelievable.  The fish went on forever and ever.  The field trip itself was cool, I had been wanting for some time to go on this trip.  Learning about the Oolichan was fun and how these little fish can be used and the process it takes to get the oil.

Simon 

A Reconnection to My Past

Our trip back to Nisga’a Territory was very enlightening and refreshing.  It has been about ten years since I was back up to the Nisga’a for a visit.  The Oolichan run this trip was very gratifying, in that it was my first experience to watch and learn the technique of making oil from those tasty little fish.  Being Aboriginal, fishing and processing is part of my heritage so I enjoyed all the time with our knowledgeable elders who were  willing to share their information with us before it is all gone in the same way of the Dodo bird!

 Nicki

My favourite part of the trip was when we came to the Nass and I felt like I had stepped back into time.  Where nature was in control and respected;  not like today where man is busy taking what they need or want because they can.

The people we met on our trip honoured their ancestors and shared their sacred knowledge with us.  It was an amazing experience where I was able to allow myself to breathe and take in the beauty that surrounded me.  I was able to reconnect with the land, the animals and learn many traditional ways of the Nass people who still to this day, guard their land, their ways for the future generations and honour their ancestors.

A Walk on The Wild Side!

Take a Walk on the Wild Side!

In September the kitchen crew went on a berry picking and wild medicinal plant walk near Hazelton, BC around Ross Lake.  The berries we were primarily interested in were the Highbush Cranberry, which we learned isn’t actually a cranberry at all but a berry from the Viburnum genus of plants.  Despite this distinction, the Highbush Cranberry is definitely one of my favourite regional wild berries.  The plant itself is beautiful with white flowers in the spring and brilliant red berries in the fall.  And, what I particularly like about picking these berries is that the shrub conveniently tints its fall leaves a striking colour of red making them stand out in the woods and as a result are reasonably easy to find! 

We had a fairly successful berry pick and managed to gather enough to make a Wild Highbush Cranberry Compote.  We found this recipe online at a site called Cabin Organic.  We were looking for something a little different this year to make with our bounty and this recipe looked promising.  It contains apples and ginger as well and as we discovered made a welcome addition to the Thanksgiving Table.  If you are interested in making some for yourself the recipe can be found at http://cabinorganic.com/tag/highbush-cranberry-recipe/. 

Our local, wild medicinal plant guru, Jean Christian accompanied us on our trip to Ross Lake and we had the opportunity to learn about several medicinal plants that can be used to treat a variety of common ailments and illness.

Old Man’s Beard, a lichen that hangs from trees in the forest, has very powerful antibiotic properties and is particularly effective in the treatment of strep infections.  We were given a brief description on how to make a tincture from this plant and several others.  In addition, we learned that the medicinal parts of many of these plants can also be dried and used in healing teas.

The bark of the Highbush Cranberry, or Viburnum  was traditionally used by local First Nations groups to treat cramping and pain.  Jean also explained that if we wanted we could use the berries for medicinal purposes by dehydrating and then powdering them with the resulting powder placed into capsules.  The Highbush Cranberry is very high in vitamin C and as result has much benefit to overall health. 

Another medicinal plant we looked at was Alum Root.  Alum Root is a strong astringent and styptic that can be used for the treatment of wounds and swellings.

We are lucky to have such an educated plant person to lead these learning sessions.  Our final stop before heading back to Smithers was at the Skeena Bakery.  They make one of the best cinnamon buns I’ve ever had and have an amazing selection of breads!

Look forward to upcoming posts about a Moccasin making workshop we have scheduled for January 2013!

2012 Spring Shenanigans!

Well, I’ve been ridiculously absent from this blog site.  So many great things have happened at the kitchen.  We kicked off January with an intense planning session.  We created a list of all the food participants really wanted to learn how to make over the next few months and what a list indeed!

A small sample of what we’ve made:  tacos, beef stroganoff, yam fries, crepes, baked salmon, and unbaked lemon cheesecake.

We held our annual kitchen open house on February 14^th and had a record turnout of over 26 people!  The lunch we created was sublime!  Guests were thrilled with the two kinds of savoury crepes,  dessert crepes and Spinach salad with strawberries and balsamic vinaigrette.  Many suggested we do this more often and charge a small fee.  Interesting idea for next year...

One our resident elders provided a Spring Salmon filleting tutorial and proceeded to bake the salmon with lime and ginger!  Delicious!

May 15^th we will be heading out on our annual wild/medicinal plant harvesting field trip.  Pictures to follow!

What Lori has to say about the kitchen!

November 30, 2011

The Ground to Griddle is so much fun!  I try to come as much as I can.  We cook different foods all the time and I am expanding my culinary repertoire and continually getting inspired.  We do field trips and gather cranberries, rosehips, pick apples, nettles and then bring them back and turn them into jam or jelly or spanakopita – everything!  We made a really tasty jelly we called CCR.  (cranberry, crab-apple and rosehips)

We make cookies and pies and can things; the works!

I have a three year old and childcare is provided while I cook.  The best part is that we get to eat it all for lunch and take some home for dinner!  It helps so much to have some dinner made on every other Tuesday due to our busy schedules.  Last week’s “Tex Mex” was so good and my family loved it.  We’ll be making that dish at home!

What's Going Down at the Kitchen!

Well, we’ve had a very busy fall here at the kitchen.  The week after our berry picking trip we picked crab apples from the trees around Smithers.  It didn’t take long for our group to gather a whole lot of crab apples!  We have an amazing steam juicer at the kitchen which has seen a lot of action this fall.  You can throw whole, clean crab apples into it and set it on the stove and within an hour the crabs are juiced and the juice can either be made into jelly immediately or frozen to make jelly at a later date.  We’ve chosen to freeze the crab apple juice and make jelly later in the year.

Preparations are under way for creating Digital Stories of the kitchen participants.  We are fortunate to be able to partner with Northwest Community College on this and will be using the computer lab so everyone can create their story.  If you haven’t heard of a Digital Story then I suggest you check out this great website http://www.storycenter.org/.  Digital Stories are a great way for people to share their voice and their lives in a meaningful way.  As our Digital Stories are made we plan to add them to this blog.  So keep tuned! 

Let's Get Harvesting!

Well, here it is another season begun at the Ground2Griddle Kitchen!  We had our first planning day on September 13^th and decided right away we needed to get in some berry picking and other harvesting before the snow flies.  Our first excursion was to pick the highbush cranberry.  Last year we picked a little late in the season but this year we managed to pick about 4 ice cream pails in a couple of hours!  That cold, wet summer we had here was good for something I guess.  Other wild berries in our area did not do so well.  The much-loved huckleberry was few and far between this summer so I’m grateful for the bounty of cranberries out there.   

Next week we will do some harvesting of locally grown crabapples.  The Town of Smithers has generously allowed us to harvest them off community trees and we’ll be making some delicious jelly as well as, canned, spiced crabapples from a recipe of one of our kitchen members.  Local apples are also on the agenda and a session with two cider presses to make our own apple cider.  It is going to be an exciting day!  Let’s hope the weather picks up!