People of the wooded
Northeast and Great Lakes regions created hundreds of recipes, both culinary
and medicinal, for the nuts that grew around them in abundance.
Italians might still
be eating pasta sauces derived only from carrots and beets if New World
tomatoes, sweet peppers, and zucchini squash hadn't appeared. The fire in Asian and East Indian cookery
would not exist if it were not for the spark of American chiles.
One of the oldest
and most continuously inhabited regions in North America is located on the
border of Washington and Oregon, on the Columbia River about ninety miles east
of present-day Portland. Dating as far
back as 6000 B.C., a grand bazaar and trade market was located at Celilo
Falls. As many as five thousand people
from indigenous and diverse cultures gathered year after year to trade, feast,
and participate in games and religious ceremonies.
The early Hohokam
people, whose culture flourished from approximately 300 B.C. to A.D. 1500 in
what is now Arizona… The Hohokam were highly skilled farmers. The Hohokam introduced irrigation agriculture
to the arid West, building hundreds of miles of canals to carry water from the
Rio Verde, Salt, and other rivers to their fields of maize, beans, squash, and
cotton around present-day Phoenix and Tucson.
Peanuts and potatoes
were among the earliest crops developed in South America.
Eulachon, or
candlefish, prized for its oil and once an important trade commodity, is still
widely used among the peoples of the region.
Eulachon oil is eaten in the same manner as Europeans eat butter.
Dry farming is still
practiced at Hopi. Planting and
maintaining a cornfield usually begins in early spring and is done by Hopi men,
mostly by hand…. Throughout the summer months, the men laboriously care for
them as such, hoeing weeds sometimes daily, singing to the corn plants, praying
for their continued life and growth, and praying for the moisture that is
needed in the arid landscape of Hopi.
Once harvested, the corn becomes the property of their wives or
mothers. It is they who will preserve,
prepare, and use it throughout the year for meals and ceremony.
Quinoa, a grain, was
a major agricultural commodity of the Aztec and Inka.
Jerusalem
artichokes, also known as sunchokes, are indigenous to the eastern coast of
North America and are related to the sunflower, which is native to Peru.
Portable flatbreads
were made with other flours such as cattail and acorn before the introduction
of wheat.
Cattails were a
staple commodity for many early cultures, used to make not only bedding and
clothing but also delicious foods…. It is possible to cook and eat the cob-like
spikes just as one eats corn.
Cattail pollen, high
in niacin, has a texture similar to finely milled flour, and it lends a slight
floral flavor.
Pre-Conquest
chocolate was almost always a drink, which had many forms and flavorings (chile
powders were among the most popular).
Chocolate also was
of major ceremonial importance to the Maya and the Aztecs. It was served at
lavish banquets, buried with the dead, and used to anoint newborn babies.
Cree, Assiniboine,
and Anishinabe people of central Canada have prepared a form of [maple syrup
pie] for centuries.
The beverages that
Native people consume today are similar to those their early ancestors enjoyed.
Chocolate, herb teas, cranberry juice, and even soft drinks such as Coca-Cola
are derived from indigenous foods.
