Traditional foods

[Miss Bea]

Yes, it is that time of the year. In the fall, we gather tan oak acorns, dry them for months, sort them out for the good ones, crack them, (with a commercial nut cracker, we cheat) then grind them, and we do have a flat basket called a lapsaw, that with cheese cloth, serves to leech them. For a good 24 hours. We make soup out of it. High quality protein.

Then there is the salmon. We just got 12 of them. Filleted out 11 to strip later for the smoke house. One, we got to share with the friends in the hall that don't have ready access to Klamath salmon. After we season it with salt and pepper, it is smoked in the smoke house for a day and a half or so, then we can it in pint jars. We eat a lot, and share a lot. Oh, we put jalapeño peppers and garlic in it.

Next come the eels. We get them from the mouth of the river. We buy them, cleaned. Sort of like you clean a fish. Then we cook them over coals and a grill. Cooked just right, wonderful.

I don't make pan bread, or fry bread. Nor do we get seaweed and dry it. (But if we can get that, it is like Candy) we also have sturgeon, not a favorite. Those fish are huge, and I think it is sad to kill an old fish for food when we are not desperate for it.

Venison. We love it. But as long as we can buy meat, we have chosen not to hunt them. Lots more. Anything you can get from the river, sea, or around us. We have hazel nuts and tea.

There are candle fish and surf fish, crabs, and from time to time abalone.

That's it for us on a personal level. So, without really trying both of us have traditional food for Yurok Indians. Not exclusively. But it is a part of our regular diet. We love all foods. Sushi being one of our favorite.

I know others out there eat traditional food. I'm interested in what it is, and sort of its preparation. Care to share?

[Julsey]

Well, Bea, when the GT strikes, I know who to stay with!  You don't need a go-bag.  You still know how to take care of yourself, unlike most of us.  If the electricity were shut off and the grocery stores closed, I'd starve to death, lol.

 

I wish I could think of something traditional to share, but most of my family has been in either the States or Canada for so long that we cook standard N. American food, except that we eat little fast food and eat more veggies, I think.  ;)

[shali]

Yeah, we all need to migrate up where Bea and Cheryl are - they have enough stockpiled to last through the 1000 years I think! If not, where they live sure gives them ample supply of food! All you would get around where I live is corn and soybeans, and I don't now how to make Tofu and even if I did, I doubt I'd eat it again (got sick last time I ate it). Man cannot live on corn alone, I tried one weekend many years ago (LOL - when to visit relatives and all they fed us for 3 days straight was corn on the cob - got a massive migraine).

[CHecker]

Miss Bea, I loved reading you post. I didn't know anything about the acorn thing. I'd like to know more, sounds strange to me. 

We're doing salmon right now too. Cooked up a big bunch (fried in butter with lemon and dill from the garden)  along with tuna chunks (lightly breaded in flour with S&P and fresh dill weed chopped) deep fried crisp. Then I have loins in the freezer to thaw and smoke then can.

I absolutely love sturgeon, but they've closed sturgeon fishing in the Columbia for the foreseeable future. Perhaps the next 5 years. But we can fish for them in the Naselle river, they're more elusive in the river and it takes all day to catch one. 

We love venison but Lew can't hunt anymore, he cries. So we have farm raised beef and pork, both of which are being done in the next 2-3 weeks. Need to get another freezer.

EELS??? No, really?? Those slimy, gray, slithering water snakes?? People actually eat them??

We get bass and craw fish. Bass has too many bones to be enjoyable but it's fun to fish! 

 

Then it's clam digging again in October. Sigh, I'm just now getting to canning my last couple gallons of clams from last year. Trying to empty the freezer. 

I used to have pan bread when I was a kid. A neighbor would make some and bring it over or an old army fella, a chef during WWI, and he would bring his old cast iron kettles and make roast, potatoes/carrots, a fruit crisp, pan bread over the camp fire, wonderful memory of that. As a kid we pretty much lived outside during the summer, especially since the outhouse was a short jaunt down the path by the camping area anyway!  

[shali]

EELS??? No, really?? Those slimy, gray, slithering water snakes?? People actually eat them??

We get bass and craw fish. Bass has too many bones to be enjoyable but it's fun to fish!

I love roasted eel in sushi!

[shali]

Sounds like you can show the ancient Isrealites a few things about living off the land Cheryl!

[Miss Bea]

The eels. You get past the, well, looking like a big snake, with it's inerds cleaned out. Head, not too attractive. Oh, but fresh from the ocean, for us, gourmet. The dogs get the heads and tails. And we clean them real good. Slime gone.

We try to get salmon and eels fresh from the mouth of the Klamath. Helps to have the right connections. We are about 23 miles up the river. The salmon are a bit dark, not silver, and the eels, well, skinny., here. I'd draw my line there.

Sid made a traditional eel basket. Somehow it got gone. A big job, and one of his dreams.

I know there's lots out there Jehovah provided for us. Fun, fun, in the future!

[shali]

I hope we can still eat seafood in the new system.  I won't miss meat at all, but I will miss fish and shrimp!

[CHecker]

When I talk about my youth I sometimes feel like I lived in another time. We were very poor but I didn't know. Not until I was eleven. I know how to live with almost nothing. So today I am what I am. At least I can be useful in tribulation/Armageddon. 

[Miss Bea]

I know. We were poor too. There were 7 of us kids. And we never went hungry. Then, when I had kids, I sort of cooked like I was brought up. I still love bacon gravy, or potatoes fried in bacon grease. The dogs get the gravy. Potatoes? Sometimes fried in olive or avocado oil. But, no gravy! For us, anyway.

When the kids were little, a friend had us for dinner. Steaks. One of them popped up with, "we each get our own roast". Not much to say on that one.

Today, we eat leaner, and more simple. That weight is a bit of an issue for both of us. More so Sid, but I am not too far behind him. And I have never had a weight problem in the past. This old age thing. Our bodies just change. And I never appreciated my health when I was younger. So, repeating myself, lots to look foreword to. Lots.

[CHecker]

We eat very basic. If someone looks in my cupboards they'll see all sorts of goodies that a delicious meal can be made from, but no boxes. Admittedly I do have a box of Uncle Dan's Rice, but food from my kitchen is fresh and delicious.

I just canned 22 jars of  chicken broth. It all starts with 4 chickens. Roasted, bones and gibblets then smoked/BBQ'd then all bones and skin put in stock pot with onions, garlic, and fresh celery from the garden. After it's strained I pull off all the extra meat from the bones and have 5 baggies of goodies for the dogs. Bones are now all used up, stock is canned and all meat is divided up into 6oz serving size bags and frozen. We have food from 4 chickens to make about 30 or so meals, not to mention the stock used for mashed potatoes or in a killer taco soup I have in the frig almost all winter long. 

Poor is relative when you know how to take basic ingredients and make it feed as many as possible. We only had 5 of us but we lived off the land (for a while anyway) and no one went hungry. Today my favorite reply to "I'm hungry" is much like my mom's, "have some toast and jam". Cheap, filling and good. 

Oh yea, the weight thing has me too. Considering I don't eat much or wrong I should be a stick, but....well age you know. That and genetics. 

I've enjoyed this conversation Bea.

[Toy Poodles]

Even though I was raised in Calif., I am married to an Okie and we live in Oklahoma, he is already eyeing to have squirrels for this fall. He fries them like chicken and makes gravy out of the grease and eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Growing up I could not stand liver but for some reason the way Bill cooks it, I can actually enjoy some of it. We do try to get one deer a year but usually one of his nephews or cousins will bring us venison.We also go fishing at a nearby creek and catch bass and perch. We do raise rabbits, pigs, chickens and barbados sheep.  So Bill goes out and butchers what we feel like having. We are planning on going to Oregon this spring to visit Bill's relatives by the Coast, so I can't wait to get fresh sea food. Yum. I have gained 30lbs since married to Bill which maybe do to my disabilities or more meat and fried food than I am used to, or both. lol

If we get out to the west coast, I would love to meet up with friends if anyone is interested in meeting an okie brother and his half okie/calif. wife(sister). 

[Julsey]

Even though I was raised in Calif., I am married to an Okie and we live in Oklahoma, he is already eyeing to have squirrels for this fall. He fries them like chicken and makes gravy out of the grease and eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Growing up I could not stand liver but for some reason the way Bill cooks it, I can actually enjoy some of it. We do try to get one deer a year but usually one of his nephews or cousins will bring us venison.We also go fishing at a nearby creek and catch bass and perch. We do raise rabbits, pigs, chickens and barbados sheep.  So Bill goes out and butchers what we feel like having.

Deenna, you have just reinforced my vegetarian tendancies!   ;-)

[Toy Poodles]

Deenna, you have just reinforced my vegetarian tendancies!   ;-)

lol, I don't blame you. It is hard to be married to someone who is so meat orientated. When I was raising the kids we didn't have money for much meat and when I married Bill the kids told him they have never had this much meat in all their lives. It brought tears to Bill's eyes. He just had no idea how people went without food like we did. The good news is that since I put Bill on more veggies and fruits his borderline diabetes is totally under controlled. But I feel very fat. haha