Our Three Sisters Garden.

I finally got our Three Sisters Garden finished & planted. The beans will go in when the corn is about 5 inches high.

Corn, can it really sustain you on a long trek?

I have read that the Woodland Indians travelled with just corn to sustain them on their long journeys, & I have often wondered, knowing a little about the properties of corn or the lack there of, how they managed to survive. Then recently one of my sons happened to mention to me the advantages of cooking corn in a lye solution. Apparently the action of the lye on the corn releases nutrients in the corn that otherwise could not be accessed. Now of course I had read about the Indians boiling & soaking corn in a solution of lye, but I had not realised the full potential of this process. So I started researching to see if the parched corn that these woodland travelers carried & ate, was first treated with a lye solution, & found that it was!
Now I don't recall when reading about parched & dried corn used as trail food the mention anywhere about treating first with a lye solution. Now of course this makes perfect sense, no wonder they were able to travel long distances on just dried corn. Of course the lye solution can only release those nutrients that are in the corn, so it does have its limitations. As daily meals under normal circumstances other foods such as meat would have to be included to keep one fit & healthy, but as a trail food for a limited time, this maize or corn was indeed quite adequate.

It is interesting to note that the Europeans did not take this knowledge of treating corn with lye back home with them, so the many recipes we use today lack the nutrition that is locked away inside the corn kernel!

The author's brass trade kettle.

Indians cooking & drying meat.

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v036/v036p155.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy

http://www.thedqtimes.com/pages/castpages/other/Indian%20Customs/indianscookingfood2.htm

https://thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/native-americans-and-the-use-of-brass-kettles/

http://theyankeechef.blogspot.com.au/2014_01_01_archive.html

Pinole. A Request From Bob.

Thanks for asking the question Bob.
Pinole.



Their Psindamooan or Tassmanane, as they call it, is the most nourishing- and durable food made out of the Indian corn. The blue sweetish kind is the grain which they prefer for that purpose. They parch it in clean hot ashes, until it bursts, it is then sifted and cleaned, and pounded in a mortar into a kind of flour, and when they wish to make it very good, they mix some sugar [i.e., maple sugar] with it. When wanted for use, they take about a tablespoonful of this flour in their mouths, then stooping to the river or brook, drink water to it. If, however, they have a cup or other small vessel at hand, they put the flour in it and mix it with water, in the proportion of one tablespoonful to a pint. At their camps they will put a small quantity in a kettle with water and let it boil down, and they will have a thick pottage.


With this food the traveler and warrior will set out on long journeys and expeditions, and as a little of it will serve them for a day, they have not a heavy load of provisions to carry. Persons who are unacquainted with this diet ought to be careful not to take too much at a time, and not to suffer themselves to be tempted too far by its flavor; more than one or two spoonfuls, at most, at any one time or at one meal is dangerous; for it is apt to swell in the stomach or bowels, as when heated over a fire.


“History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations” By John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder. Published in the early 19th century.