a different trail food

[George]

It's fairly common knowledge that Native Americans used ground parched corn as a trail food, either plain or mixed with maple sugar. White men picked up on the usefulness of that early on, at least before the middle of the 18th century. Modern re-enactors and trekkers have adopted the habit, of course, because it really works.

I've come across another habit of Native Americans which I've never seen before, and I think it would be really interesting to try. It comes from an anthropological study of the lifestyle of the Hidatsa tribe who lived near the Mandan villages at Like-a fishhook on the Missouri River in North Dakota. It's basically a description of the agriculture of the tribe, as related by Buffalo Bird Woman, Maxidiwiac, in the book "Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden". She was born about 1839. They grew corn, squash, beans and sunflowers, and she tells in detail how they planted, grew, harvested, dried or processed, stored, cooked and ate each. Excuse the length.

Sunflower-seed Balls

Sunflower meal of the parched seeds was also used to make sunflower seed balls; these were important articles of diet in olden times, and had a particular use.
For sunflower-seed balls I parched the seeds in the pot in the usual way, put them into a corn mortar and pounded them. When they were reduced to a fine meal I reached into the mortar and took out a handful of the meal, squeezing it in the fingers and palm of my right hand, This squeezing it made into a kind of lump or ball.
This ball I enclosed in the two palms and gently shook it. The shaking brought out the oil of the seeds, cementing the particles of the meal and making the lump firm. I have said that frosted seeds gave out more oil than seeds from the big heads.
In olden times every warrior carried a bag of soft skin at his left side supported by a thong over his right shoulder; in this bag he kept needles, sinews, awl, soft tanned skin for making patches for moccasins, gun caps, and the like. The warrior’s powder horn hung on the outside of this bag.
In the bottom of this soft-skin bag the warrior commonly carried one of these sunflower-seed balls, wrapped in a piece of buffalo heart skin*. When worn with fatigue or overcome with sleep and weariness, the warrior took out his sunflower-seed ball, and nibbled at it to refresh himself. It was amazing what effect nibbling at the sunflower-seed ball had. If the warrior was weary, he began to feel fresh again; if sleepy he grew wakeful.
Sometimes the warrior kept his sunflower-seed ball in his flint case that always hung at his belt over his right hip.
It was quite a general custom in my tribe for a warrior or hunter to carry one of these sunflower-seed balls.
We called the sunflower-seed balls mapí, the same as for sunflower.
Sunflower meal, parched and pounded as described, was often mixed with corn balls, to which it gave an agreeable smell, as well as a pleasant taste.

*I think she may be speaking of the pericardium, which would make a nice thin wrapper when dried. bes

Spence

 

[Blizzard of '93]

- or maybe pounded thin heart tissue smoked/jerked.

 

[BillinOregon]

Spence, that is fascinating -- and not just the part about the sunflower seed ball. There's a lot to digest in that passage.
As to the seeds, do you think they were hulled prior to parching? If so, how? If not hulled and the whole seed was ground, the hull fiber would have added intestine-cleansing bulk!
When I was a teenager, I could fish or hunt all day without eating as long as I had a bag o' seeds on me.
The dried buffalo pericardium would have been the original "baggie of the Plains."

 

[Loyalist Dave]

They carry about 700 more calories per pound than does parched corn alone..., probably the oil. Might be a nice addition to the food wallet.

LD

 

[George]

As to the seeds, do you think they were hulled prior to parching?

Not as far as I can tell. Here's the section on parching the sunflower seeds. Immediately before that she describes drying and threshing the heads to get the seeds, says nothing about the hulls being removed.

Parching the Seed

To make sunflower meal the seeds were first roasted, or parched. This was done in a clay pot, for iron pots were scarce in my tribe when I was young. The clay pot in use in my father's family was about a foot high and eight or nine inches in diameter, as you see from measurements I make with my hands.

This pot I set on the lodge fire, working it down into the coals with a rocking motion, and raked coals around it; the mouth I tipped slightly toward me. I threw into the pot two or three double-handfuls of the seeds and as they parched, I stirred them with a little stick, to keep them from burning. Now and then I took out a seed and bit it; if the kernel was soft and gummy, I knew the parching was not done; but when it bit dry and crisp, I knew the seeds were cooked and I dipped them out with a horn spoon into a wooden bowl.

Again I threw into the pot two or three double-handfuls of seed to parch; and so, until I had enough.

As the pot grew quite hot I was careful not to touch it with my hands. The parching done, I lifted the pot out, first throwing over it a piece of old tent cover to protect my two hands.

Parching the seeds caused them to crack open somewhat.

The parched seeds were pounded in the corn mortar to make meal. Pounding sunflower seeds took longer, and was harder work, than pounding corn.

Bill, here's the link to her book, it's available in its entirety online, complete with the illustrations. I've found it a fascinating read. More than once. :grin:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html

Spence

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Parching the seeds caused them to crack open somewhat.

I'd say that means with the hulls.

LD

 

[BillinOregon]

Spence, I owe you yet another favor for that wonderful link. I think I need to add the printed volume to my "libary."

 

[Rev_William]

Just remember the sunflowers we eat today wouldn't make PC food per this reference lol. Also if you get euell? gibbons stalking the wild asparagus there's a short blurb on harvesting, roasting and grinding the non domestic sunflowers and how to use them.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7455139_history-sunflower-seeds.html

 

[Black Hand]

Though the seeds of the Arrowleaf Balsamroot would also work.

http://www.plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_basa3.pdf

The leaves, stems, roots and seeds of arrowleaf balsamroot were commonly eaten by several western tribes. The Flathead, Kutenai, Montana, Nez Perce, Okanagan-Colville, Paiute, Thompson and Ute tribes ate raw or cooked leaves and young stems (Hart, 1992; Blankinship, 1905; Turner and others, 1980; Mahar, 1953; Steedman, 1928; Teit, 1928).
Arrowleaf balsamroot seeds were a staple for many tribes. They were eaten raw, ground into flour or making cakes, used for cooking oil, or mixed with other foods by the Atsugewi, Gosiute, Klamath, Miwok, Montana, Nez Perce, Okanagan-Colville, Paiute and Thompson tribes (Garth, 1953; Chamberlin, 1911; Coville, 1897; Barrett and Gifford, 1933; Blankinship, 1905; Hart, 1992; Turner and others, 1980; Teit, 1928; Murphey, 1990; Mahar, 1953; Steedman, 1928).

 

[Rev_William]

True I just wanted to point out that the giant sunflowers we eat today weren't introduced to the US until 1880 something.

 

[Black Hand]

True I just wanted to point out that the giant sunflowers we eat today weren't introduced to the US until 1880 something.

A interesting piece of information I did not know. Thanks!

 

[Blizzard of '93]

this is correct, they are indigenous to russia and area.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Oh well..., Back to parched corn.

LD

 

[Rev_William]

Nope you just have to use the wild sunflowers you see in the fields lol. The little seed heads give a lot butbits a little more laborious intensive.

 

[George]

Sunflowers had been part of Hidatsa culture for a very long time:

"Our native name for the lunar month that corresponds most nearly to April, is Mapi'-o'cë-mi'di, or Sunflower-planting-moon."

At the time Maxi'diwiac was writing they grew both large and small cultivated varieties plus the smaller wild ones. From her description the big ones may have been the giant ones, but the tribe was forced onto reservation about 1885, and she wrote this in about 1910.

"Of cultivated sunflowers we had several varieties, black, white, red, striped, named from the color of the seed. The varieties differed only in color; all had the same taste and smell, and were treated alike in cooking."

"For harvesting, we reckoned two kinds of flowers, or heads.

"A stalk springing from seed of one of our cultivated varieties had one, sometimes two, or even three larger heads, heavy and full, bending the top of the stalk with their weight of seed. Some of these big heads had each a seed area as much as eleven inches across; and yielded each an even double handful of seed. We called the seed from these big heads mapi'-i'ti'a from mapi', sunflower, or sunflower seed, and i'ti'a, big.

"Besides these larger heads, there were other and smaller heads on the stalk; and wild sunflowers bearing similar small heads grew in many places along the Missouri, and were sure to be found springing up in abandoned gardens. These smaller heads of the cultivated, and the heads of the wild, plants, were never more than five inches across; and these and their seed we called mapi'-na'ka, sunflower's child or baby sunflower."

They used them all as food, and for making the sunflower balls.

Spence

 

[BillinOregon]

This thread just gets better. I need to plant not only native sunflower, but arrowleaf balsamroot.

 

[Black Hand]

This thread just gets better. I need to plant not only native sunflower, but arrowleaf balsamroot.

Bill,
You should find dozens/hundreds growing in your local forests. They seem to prefer sunny slopes in open to semi-open areas. The seed heads are 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter, containing small hulled seeds with a flavor that I would describe as an "aromatic" sunflower seed (has a faint flavor. reminiscent of rosemary or basil).