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The following recipes were adapted from these sites:
www.nativetech.org/recipes
www.kstrom.net/isk/food

These recipes can be downloaded in pdf format. They are configured to fit on a 3x5 file card.

What Are Bean-Hole Beans? The early Native Americans in Maine (the Penobscot Indians, according to one source) cooked in holes in the ground for hundreds of years. The early settlers learned to make a special baked bean dish from the Penobscots. The beans are so good that people still go to the trouble to dig fire pits and bury bean pots overnight to cook them.

For a description of traditional Bean Hole Beans see Maine Folklife Recipes

WHAT THEY ATE

Indigenous people across the world are resourceful and creative, utilizing and appreciating the ingredients found in their environment. These vary from place to place and season to season, even from year to year. The people understood the necessity of understanding these variations. They nurtured what was around them and shared what was available with other members of the community, helping to balance and sustain it.

The following is an overview of Native American foodways from the website of the COWASUCK BAND of the PENNACOOK-ABENAKI PEOPLE, The People of the White Pines

There was a division of labor based on a philosophy of life, a religious belief. The men hunted for wild game and gathered fish. The women worked in the fields.

The women picked all types of berries and nuts. They gathered lily roots, wild rice, onions, chives, wild garlic, mushrooms, mint, swamp cabbage among many of the wild plants. They gathered herbs for medicines and garnishes, such as yarrow, burdock, foxglove, catnip, licorice among a wide variety of other herbs. They planted the main crops of corn, squash and beans. They used a method called "Companion Farming": the three sister crops were planted together on a big mound. The corn grew upwards and provided natural poles for the beans. The squash or pumpkins spread all around the base of the mound providing a cover to keep in the moisture.All three were harvested at the same time. They were also dried to be used during the winter. The women raised other crops: snow peas, cucumbers and gourds.

The men hunted and trapped wild game, such as moose, deer, rabbit, and turkey both for food and clothing. They fished in fresh water and salt water.

The Indians had a varied menu: venison, wild turkey, salmon, trout, clam chowder, corn-on-the-cob, corn bread, corn fritters, squash, succotash, mushroom and turtle soups and maple candy lollipops were some the foods that they enjoyed.

Whenever the hunter or fisherman returned from a succesful expedition, his children were sent forth to distribute the catch to people in the village. The bounty was shared by all. The hunter kept only a basic supply for his family.

SUGGESTED INGREDIENTS

Foods may be fresh, dried or smoked. There are no dairy or apples- the Europeans brought those.

Seafoods

  • Ocean and Freshwater fish
  • Oysters, clams, mussels
  • Lobster, shrimp & Crab
  • Dulse & Kelp

Wild Game (fresh-in season only)

  • Venison, moose, rabbit
  • Wild Turkey, duck, partridge

Fruits & Vegetables

  • Blueberries, Cranberries, wild strawberries, raspberries
  • Mushrooms ( Please use commercially raised mushrooms only- Wild mushrooms require EXACT identification)
  • The Three Sisters Corn, Beans, and Squash
  • young cattail shoots
  • fiddle heads
  • Watercress
    • Lambs quarters, pigweed (chenopodium album)
  • Violet flowers
  • Rose petals
  • Chickweed (Stellaria media)
  • New mustard leaves (brassica negra)
  • Sorrel
  • Wild onions and leeks
  • mint

Nuts & Grains

  • Sunflower seeds
  • black walnuts, hazelnuts, butternuts
  • acorns

Miscellaneous

  • Wild Rice
  • Maple syrup
  • Herbal tea
  • Oil pressed from seeds or nuts or from acorn meal which has been cold-water leached of bitter tannin.

BOOKS

Note: One good resource for identifying indigenous foods are books by Euell Gibbons, the naturalist

Three Sisters Cookbook

Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes
E. Barrie Kavasch
Dover Publications
ISBN-10: 048644063X
ISBN-13: 978-0486440637

Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking
Beverly Cox and (photographer) Martin Jacobs
Publ. by Stewart, Tabori and Chang: NY, 1991

The Art of American Indian Cooking
Yeffe Kimbal, Jean Anderson
The Lyons Press
ISBN-10: 1585740101
ISBN-13: 978-1585740109