Feasting for Change Event Snitcel March 13th 2009

Hello all Feasting Friends

It was a wonderful day, as the students from UVIC, people of Feasting for Change, the SeaChange staff came together to celebrate the beauty and sacredness of Snitcel. The sun was shining and people were getting busy digging the pit and building a fire. The group of UVIC students and community members were split up into four smaller groups the first one went to a nearby stream to collect more rocks; the second harvested salal branches, with the third picked sword ferns and then the forth collected oceanspray. The rocks, salal branches and sword ferns were for the pit while the oceanspray was used for a clam bake and make baked bread too.
When it was time to put the materials in the pit when the rocks were hot enough to cook with; every one of the volunteers worked amazingly fast. There were seven pairs that were lined up in the order that layers in the pit. The layers were salal, sword fern, then the root vegetables, and apples with clams; then the order was revised sword fern and salal on the top. While all of that was going on the clam bake was taking place down on the beach.

After the pit was closed, I (Lewis) told a legend story about how some of the birds got they songs while we all sat to enjoy some medicine tea that was collected by some of the students. The plants that were harvested were:

-trailing blackberry leaves (Rubus ursinus)
-licorice fern rhizome (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)
-Red Cedar tips (Thuja plicata)
-Yerba buena (Clinopodium douglasii)
-stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)
-lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

We also enjoyed some smoked salmon soup make by Jen, Sue and Doug. It was delicious. The weather was changing a bit so it really warmed us all up.
We then got back to work and split into 2 groups – One group was to learn about the plants in Snitcel and the other was to help remove invasive species in the park. It was amazing to see how much work the groups got done. They were powerful and passionate in removing the invasive species while learning about all the medicines and indigenous plants in the territory.
As the groups came back together they could go down to the water and spend time watching Earl Claxton Jr prepare this Iron wood sticks to bake the clams and bake the oysters by the fire. Earl is such a wealth of knowledge and stories. Thank you.

It was now time to enjoy the bounty of the Pit. As the group got together they opened the pit and we feasted on the root veggies, clams, apples and it was delicious.
Thank you to everyone, Nikki from Seachange, Brenda Beckwith Uvic and her amazing class, the feasting for change working group especially Doug, Sue, Jen and Fiona

Lewis Williams, Tsawout First Nation
Seachange and Feasting for Change

Feasting in Namgis First Nation

Prayers were answered as the morning sun cleared the rainy clouds still leftover from the day before. The South Island Feasting for Change working group members Fiona Devereaux, Earl Claxton Jr., John BradleyWilliams, Anna Spahan and Jen McMullen had drove up to Alert Bay the weekend of October 24th, for the Alert Bay Feasting for ChangeTraditional Foods Feast hosted by Jean Smith, Traditional FoodsCoordinator in the beautiful Namgis longhouse.

Jean Smith, along with Jamie Hunt, Erin Rowsell, Sharon Gorden and many others organized fun activities during the day-long event for the Alert Bay community.The early morning kitchen bustle grew as vegetables, clams and salmon pieces were being chopped for the lunch that marked the beginning of the feasting day. Three full tables kept going back for seconds as we shared a tasty meal of clam and fish chowders.

Lunch gave way to afternoon activities that included an outdoor pitcook, a nature walk in the Gator Garden led by Earl and John Bradley. Many people came back excited by what they had learned from Earl and John Bradley. In the bighouse, the cooks had set up salmon bbq'ing around the longhouse fire. What a glorious picture! Beside the fire, people sat talking and watching the salmon roasting. In addition, there was a cedar weaving workshop where youth and others wove cedar bracelets, and medicinal teachings and teas/salves by Eva Dick, as well as Feasting for Change's table displaying books by local First Nation's authors on Indigenous foods and Feasting for Change's Knowledge Basket.

After the invigorating nature walk, Sharon started the Indigenous Foods Fear Factor! There were five rounds, the participants in each round had to eat everything on their plate withoutmaking faces to make it to the next round. There were raw fish eyes,herring eggs, salmon eggs, ..... The winner was ... and she won an mP3player. After the Fear Factor, Sharon organized the youth into two teams. The teams competed to see who could answer the most questions onIndigenous foods, including their traditional names and identification.The X team, consisting of XXXX shared their winnings. Next, everyone participated in the Indigenous foods bingo, organized by Fiona.

The non-stop and cheerful cooks obviously knew what they were doing when an incredible feast was brought out into the longhouse. The tables sagged with several different kinds of salmon: smoked, breaded, grilled- all really tasty. Other foods were yummy bannock that everyone raved about, salad, herring eggs, and the pitcook vegetables. The food was all harvested and preserved by the rayers were answered as the morningsun cleared the rainy clouds still leftover from the day before.

So wonderful to spend time with such amazing people.

We would like to acknowledge the Namgis First Nation for their interest and support in Feasting for Change, the BC Healthly Living Alliance, Canadian Cancer Society and Vancity for their support, encouragement and passion for this project and the connect to Food, Land and Culture.

Many Thanks, Gilakesla, Hych'ka, Choo

2 more pictures from Snaw-naw-as Feast

2 more pictures from Snaw-naw-as Feast

Elsie Claxton's Memorial Garden - WSANEC

Elise Claxton Memorial Garden Tour
With John Bradley Williams, Nancy Turner, Earl Claxton Jr and Judith Arney.

Wsanec Trail at Glendale Gardens, Saanich BC
August 17, 2009

In a glorious summers day a keen group of 20 plant lovers listened and shared in the knowledge and teachings of the Saanich People.
John Bradley Williams led us through the amazing trail that created though a partnership with the Harvest woods working group. He, Judith, Nancy, and Earl Jr created an interruption walk. We walked through the gardens and were shared the teachings and knowledge of over 10 plants. There was still much more to see but we stopped for tea and a great time to visit and share.

Below are the plants we talked about:

1) Salal Berries – Are still harvested and are commonly made into jams by itself or mixed with other berries. The branches were used by our hunters as blinds because the leafs stay green for a long time.

2) Red Huckleberries – The berries are sweet and bright red, these are one of the berries made into jams with Salal, Blackberry, Oregon grape and a lot of the other berries that are found the area.

3) High Bush Cranberries – These berries are really bitter and need to be submerged in water for 6 to 7 days to sweeten up.

4) Grand Fir – The needles are high in vitamin C and were used to treat scurvy that the Europeans had gotten from having to sail so far. The best time to harvest the needles is when there is new growth in the spring and last until mid-summer.

5) Trailing Blackberries – These blackberries are the only native to the island, there is two introduced ones as well, the Himalayan and the Evergreen blackberries. The native ones usually ripen in the summer time and are made into pies, cakes as well as jams.

6) Bull Rush – You can peel the skin the length of the blade and use your thumb nail to gently scrap the flesh from the centre of the blade to get the porous material to use as a candle wick, all you need is a source of oil.

7) Salmon Berries – The young shoots taste sweet in the spring before they get too tall because they will get fibrous and taste bitter. The berries have three colors when they are ripe that is yellow, orange and red. These berries are usually one of the first ones to ripen.

8) Pacific Crab Apple – This is a small native apple that is still harvested today. Commonly mixed in jams with sweeter berries or other fruit because it is bitter. The fruit of the Pacific Crab Apple needs to be submerged in water to sweeten just like the High-bush Cranberry.

9) Thimbleberry – The Thimbleberry is in the raspberry family and like the young shoots of the Salmonberry these ones can be eaten in the spring. The berries are delicate and can easily be crushed in your fingertips which give rise to the second common name the Kiss Berry because if you “kiss the berry” it will come undamaged.

10) CatTail and Tules –These two aquatic plants were used to mats, curtains, and covers for food to protect it from the heat of the sun. The Tule was used to make large mats for insulation of our houses. These mats can be as large as six feet in width by eight feet in length.

Pictures....

Hello all..

Just sharing some Pictures...