First Annual Wild Food Summit

The First Annual Edible Wild Food Summit held on May 22nd and 23rd was hosted by the White Earth Tribal Community College in conjunction with the Minnesota Campus Compact and the Northwest chapter of the Regional Sustainable Development Partnership.

The Summit was held at the Maplelag Resort which provided specially priced accommodations.

Presentations

Dr. John Kallas of Wild Food Adventures gave a presentation on "The Role of Edible Wild Plants in Promoting Health and Wellness". Wild Food Adventures publishes a newsletter, hosts custom workshops and provides technical services.

Thayer with Nodding Thistle

Mr. Sam Thayer's who wrote the book The Forager's Harvest- A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants gave a presentation on "Rediscovering Wild Plant Food Traditions". Thayer has devoted his life to experiencing edible wild foods: gathering, cooking, eating, researching and writing.

Michael Wassegijig Price, STEM-NSF Project Director at the Leech Lake Community College gave a presentation on Ojibwe Plant Names.

What We Ate

Wild food was served at each meal: teas, plants (see below) and meats (buffalo, walleye, beaver and bear). Here's is a partial menu of the plants we ate at meals during the Summit:

>>Oatmeal with red acorn meal
>>Eggs with sweet cicely, chives, dandelion blossoms
>>Salad with basswood leaves, dandelion blossoms and leaves, sweet cicely >>stalks and leaves, aniseroot.
>>Soup: potato-leek. (Plain old potatoes with wild leeks).
>>Chili: buffalo with 3 kinds of (grocery store) beans, large-leafed aster, >>chives and thistle stalk sprinkled on top.
>>Wild Ginger Sugar Cookies.
>>Tea: Anise root, hyssop, red raspberry leaf and red clover.

Activities

There were several walks available on wild plant identification and harvesting and classes on wild food preparation. Here is one of the guides talking about Sweet Cicely. Eaten raw or cooked, we had it cooked in eggs and raw in salad.

Summary

Along with the presenters and guides, many people worked hard to make this a great time. The Summit was planned and funded for 60 people but there were 168 registered. It is amazing that everything seemed to come off as well as it did. Certainly many people worked extra hours with extra effort to make it so.

This event was a great learning experience and we hope it is just the first of many.