Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes

Publisher's Description (Dover Publications, Inc.): "The most intelligent and brilliantly researched book on the food of the American Indian." —Craig Claiborne, The New York Times This wonderful book is not just a recipe collection, but a passport to foraging and to surviving close to nature. It will tell you how to prepare familiar foods such as stuffed clams and corn chowder, but also how to fix clover soup, purslane salad, young milkweed spears, wild rice with hazelnuts and blueberries, fiddlehead stew, meadow mushroom pie, stewed wild rabbit with dumplings, spoon bread, acorn coffee, and witch hazel tea. Beautifully illustrated by the author (herself of American Indian descent), this book is also an invaluable manual on herbal medicines and ceremonial, sacred, and poisonous plants — all written with acute sensitivity to and appreciation of Native American ways.

Author's Biography (Penguin Random House): E. Barrie Kavasch is an herbalist, ethnobotanist, mycologist, and food historian of Cherokee, Creek, and Powhatan descent, with Scotch-Irish, English, and German heritage as well. She is the author of Enduring Harvests and Native Harvests, the latter of which was hailed by The New York Times as “the most intelligent and brilliantly researched book on the foods of the American Indian.” Kavasch’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and many other publications, and she has been a guest lecturer at the New York Botanical Garden, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Resource type: Book (Non-fiction)

Age recommendation: Grades 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, Post secondary

Keywords: Native harvests, Native cook book, North American, American, Indian, Recipes, Old World, New World, nature, wild edibles, cactus cuisine, powwow, powwow foods, pow wow, Navajo, soul foods, festival foods, foods of Indian socials, herbal traditions, remedies, nutriceuticals, cosmeceuticals, earth knowledge, wild mushrooms, hunting, farming, fishing, hunt, farm, fish, Algonquin, Cherokee, Cree, Powhatan, wild rice

Year of publication: 2005

Publisher information: Dover Publications, Inc.