Haida Foods

Bannock Bread

2012-12-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

Bannock is different than fry bread in that it is made with Baking Powder instead of Yeast. Both types of bread can be pan fried or baked. A little more oil is needed for frying and so too good ventilation.

Below are several recipes that made good Bannock.

4 heaping cups of flour
1/3 cup level - baking power (with Sodium Pyrophospate) or double acting baking powder. (try Blueribbon brand)
1/3 cup level - white granulated sugar
2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups water

Mix together dry ingredients. Sift if you need too, generally flour is presifted. Add in water all at once, and mix just enough so that the dough is not too sticky and not to dry. Add more flour (1/4 cup at a time) until you have a nice dough ball.

Measure 1/8 cup of dough for small bannock or dinner rolls, 1/4 for medium size, 1/2 cup for large buns (hamburger size) and for hot dog buns, 1 cup for bannockettes (like a french bagette)

Once dough has been shaped place on greased (oiled) cookie sheet. About 20 small per sheet, 12 medium per sheet, 8 large per sheet. Hot dogs and bannockettes require a different sort of baking sheet, but can be done on a cookie sheet if necessary.

Paint buns, and other shapes with more vegetable oil using a butter brush. Sprinkle on hot dog buns, dried crush rosemary for additional flavour and look.

Bake in pre-heated convection oven at 375 degrees F, for about 7 minutes per side. Remove from Oven flip buns and return to oven for another 7 minutes. The Hot dog buns and bannockettes are baked for 15 minutes then removed and cooled before using.

Place buns in basket or similar container lined with paper towels to soak up any dripping oil. Serve sameday or even the next day. Reheat as necessary.

1/2 batch recipe

2 heaping cups of flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cup water or so

1 1/2 batch recipe

6 heaping cups of flour
1/2 cup baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt

To make a bannock loaf, such as the one pictured in this post.

3 cups flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup cranberry raisins
1 cup crushed hazelnuts
3 cups water

- substitute 1/2 cup maple syrup for sugar and reduce water by 1 cup, experiment !

Dungeness Crabs

2011-12-27T22:41:00.000-08:00

Harvesting
Dungeness crabs, K’ust’áan, are caught all year except in March. The main way of catching them is with crab pots. In earlier days, they used a rock. First they tied a rock to a line, and then tied the line to a kelp. Then they put bait such as fish, clams, or just anything in between the rock and the kelp. Then they let this whole thing stand in the water for awhile. Then they quickly pulled up the line and took the crab off.

Dungeness crabs can also be caught by pulling them into the boat with a hook. The hook is attached to the end of a stick. They are also collected by hand when you find them buried in the mud, or the sand of the beaches at low tide. It is also a lot of fun, using hand held dip-nets and hip-waders catching crabs in the surf at low tide.

Cooking
Cook them by boiling them in salted water for about 15 minutes. The shell will be red after it is cooked. Take the crabs out and clean the meat from the shell. Use it in salads or as the main dish for dinner. Dip it in melted butter and lemon. Make a white sauce and cream the crab meat in it, and then put that on toast.

If you have too much meat, freeze some. You can also can the crab meat. Dungeness crabs are really delicious to eat.

More Natural history info:
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/commercial/shellfish-mollusques/crab-crabe/bio-eng.htm

Black Seaweed

2011-12-04T20:27:00.001-08:00

Black seaweed on sand

Harvesting Seaweed

The black seaweed is collected in the month of May. It is gathered by pulling it off the flat smooth rocks with your hands. You should never cut off the seaweed with a knife. You simply pull it off the rocks with your hands and gather it into clean white flour sacks, or white pillow cases which are what the people use nowadays.

Drying Seaweed

After the seaweed is gathered and taken home, some people let it age for two days in the sacks. Then when the sun is out and it is good weather, the seaweed is dried right away. It is taken out of the sacks and spread on flat boards, plywood boards, or clean sheets which are put over the grass in the yard, or some other place. When the seaweed is drying, be sure to turn it over every two or three hours.

Some people grind their seaweed in meat grinders before it is completely dried. It is easily ground. After it is ground, it is once more spread out on the boards as before to dry in the sun until it is kind of crispy.

Before the seaweed is completely dried, some people sprinkle a little clam juice, or chiton juice, on it to give it some flavouring. For those who want crispier seaweed, they put their seaweed in the oven for additional drying. This makes the seaweeds very crispy and very delicious for eating especially when mixed with boiled salmon and other fish.

Historical Uses

Years ago, the seaweed was treated in a different way from the one we have explained above. The dried seaweed was placed in flat wooden boxes which were about one square foot in area. First a layer of seaweed was placed in the box and sprinkled with clam juice, or some other shellfish juice. The the whole thing was pressed down tightly and covered over with a layer of thimble berry leaves. Then another layer of seaweed was placed on top, juice sprinkled on that, and covered over with a layer of thimble berry leaves. This process of alternating seaweed layers with thimble berry leaves was repeated until about six layers of seaweed were in the box. The whole thing was pressed firmly and then rock weights were placed on it. The seaweed started to cake up firmly. It was then put away in the food boxes.

Gardening

2011-12-01T07:27:00.001-08:00

The Haida’s had great big garden plots where they planted potatoes, turnips, carrots, rutabagas and cabbages. This planting was done in May.

Harvest was usually done in September, but sometimes some people did not harvest until October. Harvest season is called tatliit in the Haida language. After the crops were harvested, they were stored away in root houses.

It used to be that the root houses were located right by the garden plots, but they were moved closer to the villages when some people began to steal from them and destroy them. Food stored away in these root houses often lasted the families (clans) an entire winter.

Making a garden was something that each family participated in. So there were some very productive gardens, and most often these were large enough that the Haida used their garden produce for trade with other people (like the Tsimshian) for food items they did not have.

Most people took care of their gardens and some used natural fertilizer such as seaweed and herring eggs on them. When they added this fertilizer, the crops were much better quality than those grown without fertilizer.

Fern

2011-12-01T07:02:00.001-08:00

Western Sword Fern

The young leaves of the fiddle ferns are collected in June. They are washed cleaned and steamed. They taste just like fresh spinach.

The fern roots are also edible. They look like bananas.

Now you boil them, but long ago, they used to cook them in native ground ovens. They made a hole and built a big fire in it. Then they put rocks in there and when the fire went down they placed the roots in the ground oven overnight.

In the morning, they would take them out and eat them. After the roots were washed and cleaned, some people sprinkle a little sugar on them before they ate them. Some people prefer to use salt instead of sugar. It is eaten by itself and not with other food.

It can be called an appetizer, or a snack which you can have between your main meals.

Deer Stew

2011-11-30T07:21:00.001-08:00

Ingredients:
some vegetable oil for frying
1 lb. deer meat cut for stew
1 onion, chopped
Lots of garlic powder
2 potatoes, cut in half and then quartered
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1/2 pot of water
14 fl. oz. can of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper

Directions:
Fry meat first
season with salt pepper and garlic powder.
Boil water and onions and celery and let boil for 10 minutes
Add carrots to water and boil for 15 minutes
Add potatoes and boil for 10 minutes, optional add turnip chopped
Mix in stewed meat and tomatoes and boil for 10 minutes

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds venison stew meat
3 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups water
7 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 pound carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water

Directions
In a frying pan, deeply brown the meat in oil.
Add onions, garlic. Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, oregano, salt, and water.
Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until meat is tender.
Add potatoes and carrots; cook until tender.
Combine flour and water. Stir into the stew.
Remove bay leaf before serving.

Deer

2011-11-29T07:39:00.001-08:00

k’áat

Hunting Deer

Deer was hunted all year around, but mostly in the fall before the rutting season. August and September are the best months because the animals are fat from summer feeding.

Long ago they used bows and arrows, but later on they used guns. Sometimes they used to chase the deer in canoes and cut their heads off with knives while the deer were swimming. When hunting deer on an island, you let trained dogs off at one end of the island to chase the deer out the other end of the island. After you let the dogs out, you have to paddle very fast to the other end of the island to get the deer as they start to swim in the water out there.

As soon as the deer is killed, you cut it open on the chest from the throat down and clean out all the insides. Save the stomach. Save the fat from the stomach, the heart, and the liver. The windpipe and the lungs plus the intestines are thrown away.

Clean the stomach and turn it inside out. The stomach is usually green from all the vegetation the deer has been feeding on. Clean it well and wipe it with green moss. Swish it in water and clean out all the blood. Save the fat from the inside for tallow and face cream. Wrap the chosen inside parts in skunk cabbage leaves and put them back inside the stomach cavity. Now pack the deer out by crossing the legs and carrying it out.

Once the deer is brought home, it is hung from the rafters by the hind legs with a cross stick. Some people prepare a place to hang their deer and they have a little pulley there. There the deer will be allowed to hang for a day before skinning. Others start skinning right away.

Deer Leather

Start skinning from the legs down. Keep using the side of your hand between the skin and the fatty layer of the animal. When you come to a place from which the skin is harder to pull, use a little knife, or an ulu, the eskimo woman’s knife to loosen the skin. After that, pull off the skin completely.

Take the skin and put it in a sack. Take the sack to the beach. Put it in a place just above the low tide marker, and weigh down with some rocks. Leave the sack there for about seven to ten days. At the end of that period, the hair comes off easily. You can pull it off in hunks, or you can use a flat board to scrape it off. You can do this in just a few minutes and the whole skin will be clean. Some people clean off the hair by pulling the skin between their thumb and the rest of their fingers.

After the skin is cleaned, take it and stretch it. Then take a rounded piece of wood, or metal, and scrape off all the scum and then soften it. Often you will tighten the strings that are holding the skin on the rack. After this, let the skin dry on the rack. Every now and then work the skin over and over again in a wringing fashion until it becomes pliable. Once this is done, the skin is all tanned and can be used for making clothing, moccasins, bags, dolls, and booties.

Deer Meat

While the animal is still hanging, take a saw and cut it from the head to the bottom right through the back bone. Some people would cut down both sides to save enough on the back bones for T-bone steaks. Cut out the hams, the two back legs. Then cut the ribs and the stomach flaps together into three or four pieces for smoking. Some people do not do this as they want to smoke the whole side, or cut it into smaller chunks. Save the shoulder cut and have it for smoking.

In smoking the meat, use the meat from the hind quarters, the ribs, and so on. Place the meat to be smoked in a sugar cured brine which is made by mixing salt and five pounds of sugar in a large vat, or a small barrel. Mix the salt and sugar until a potato floats when it is dropped into it. Soak the meat for one half hour and then hang it out to drip dry. Then take it and place it in the smoke house by hanging it from the racks. Smoke hard for two days using alder wood. After smoking the meat, take it out and paint it with olive oil. Then hang from the rafters in the house for winter use. Years ago, they put the cooked meat in vats, or storage containers. Then they covered it with seal oil for future use.

After the meat is butchered, it can be smoked, canned, salted, and frozen. Deer meat is good for stew. It is excellent when fried in steaks. It tastes delicious if baked, roasted or boiled. It makes excellent stew, and pot roasts. Salted deer meat is good.

Other Uses

Some bones are used for needles for the making of baskets, and for scraping the meat and fat during tanning. The sinews are used for thread. The stomach, liver and heart are very good food. The tallow is used in face cream. Perhaps it is mixed with powder before it is put on the face. Deer hoofs are cleaned with bleach and saved for rattles. Deer horn is used for hat racks and hangers. The skin is used for rugs. Deer fat is used like lard for cooking.

K’áat

2011-11-28T15:50:00.001-08:00

K’áat K’ál Isgyaan K’áat Ki’u

K’áat k’ál xúut k’ál gingáan tl’ istgáangaan. Táng tl’aa gam tl’ gya’ándlaangaan tl’ tlagaadaas gyaan gáw ’wáast chánhlgaangaan. Ahljíi tl dánggásgats gyaan xúut k’ál gingáan tl’ tláawhlgaangaan. Ki’íi hans tl’ táagaangaan. T’íits’ hans tl’ skíidgaangaan.

Cumshewa

K’áat k’ál awáahl tl’ dáhgaangaan. T’íits hans kinang tl’ istgaángaan. Ki’íi hans tl’ gya’ántgaangaan, táaw an. K’ál tl’ dánggásgats gyaan tl’ kíhltanaang. Gin kwáanan k’ál tl’ tláawhlgaangaan. Gúujaaw isgyaan st’ahlk’únk’ hans. Ki’íi hans gudilaa tl’ tláawhlgaangaan. T’íits’ tángdaas sgyaan t’iíts hans tl’ skíidaang. Kwáan tl’ káhldaayaan. K’áat ki’iitangaa uu ’láagang. K’íits’ hans ts’aslanggang. Tl’ák’ul hans tl’ táagang. Gyáa hans ’wáast tl’isdáang. Xáng k’ál gáhl tl’gyaadaang. Ihlíi gin sgúnwalaa súut istgánggang. K’áat táw hans gaa gin tl’ gáalanggang. Táw gingáan.

Ki’íi iik tl’ kínanangs gyaan táng aa tl’ t’lakdaang. Tíl isgyaan xiwíi hans tl’ákdaang. K’ásgat inwáay dluu. Ásgaayst táanaa náay iik tl’ k’yáadaang. Sáng sdáng uu tl’ skíidaang. Kál uu tl’ gya’ándaang. Sáng sdángs dluu tl’ dangwúgang. Táw isgyaan gyáa éihl tl’ táwdaang. Awáahl k’áat ki’íi gálangaa xúut táw iik tl’ istgáangaan. Xáhl táwt’ isgyaan táwt’ iik tl’ istgáangaan, sánggaa k’yuu.

Seal

2011-11-21T09:31:00.001-08:00

A male fur seal basks on the rocks

Hunting Seals
Seals can be hunted all year around. A xúut taaygaas is a resting place for seals on rocks off the coasts. They spend nights at these places too.

Long ago seals were caught by clubbing. Men often sneaked up on them too, on their rookeries and they would shoot them with their bows and arrows. Sometimes the men hunted seals with pitch sticks in a cave on a certain rocky island.

Seal Oil
After the men killed the seals, they took them home to skin them. They took off the skin and trimmed the fat after they aged them a little. Then they rendered the fat into oil by cutting it into small pieces. The pieces were then simmered and the oil was scooped off the top and put into containers. This oil was used for preserving smoked meat. The smoked meat was first boiled until thoroughly cooked before being put in the oil.

Seagull eggs and deer meat after they were smoked a little bit were preserved in oil.

To boil the seal meat, the meat is first sliced and soaked in baking soda all night. In the morning, the meat is taken and fried.

Roasted Seal Flipper
Roasted flippers are prepared by singeing them first. After that, scrape off the hair and skin. Make them clean. Then boil them well to get the white gristles.

Seal Liver
The liver can be fried. It is very much like beef liver.

Seal Leather
The skin was usually tanned by putting salt on it and submerging it in a brine solution. It was kept weighted down with heavy rocks. In springtime, the salt was washed completely off. The skin was scraped and all the meat and flesh were removed by used a bar of naptha soap. After that, the skin was rinsed clean and stretched on a flat board. Baking soda was applied to the skin and all the fat was scraped off. When the skin was tanned soft enough, it was again washed clean. It was stretched again on the board and tanned some more. This was done until the skin was completely tanned. Then it was ready to cut and be made into moccassins, boots, dolls, and vests.

Other Uses.
They used the seal stomachs for floats for their nets. In the old days, they were also used as containers.

Xúut

2011-11-21T07:07:00.001-08:00

X̱úut gyaa gudílaa ga tl’ sáaygaangaan. Tiijíit x̱úut táayggaas iik ga tl’ hálgaangaan. Jakw isgyaan hlg̱íitsan, kit’úu isgyaan sáts san eihl tl’ tiygaangaan. Tliijíit x̱úut táaygaas iik uu tl’ íijaangaan. G̱áalgwaa diín aa táaygaas dluu sḵ’áangw ḵ’áajaa tl’ g̱údaas éihl tl’ ḵinggaangaan. Xuudáay tluúgwaay tl’ isdáas gyaan náak tl’ istgáangaan. ’Wáakw uu gei tl’ hlg̱ánggulaayaan. Áajii x̱uudáay ḵ’ál wáast tl’ tl’ást’aang. Asgaayst tl’ dángg̱asgíidang tl’ dlán.giist dluu. Stláandlaanw aa. G̱áay ’wáast g̱áhlaang, g̱áhldaa.u eihl. ’Wáast han uu tl’ kíhltanaang. Ḵ’ál st’ahl k’únk’ an isgyaan gin gwáalaa an isgyaan k’uudáats’ an hans tl’ tláawhlaang.

Skedans, Haida Gwaii 1880

X̱úut táw gáakw uu g̱áay tl’ gyaa.alanggang. G̱án íwaanda aa uu tl’ tsáslanggang. Sáaw tl’ istgans gingáan táw ’waa ingkwis tl’ isdáang. X̱úut táw ḵwáan.ganggang. Xáhl táwt’ aa tl’ da’áang. Ki’íi tl’ skíidaang. Ásgaayst tl’ ts’áslangs g̱yaan g̱íihlgiis dluu táanaa náay iik tl’ḵ’yáadaang. Ásgaayst uu x̱áhl táwt’ aa x̱utáw aa tl’ da’áang. K’áat ki’íis waa gingáan tl’ isdáang. Sḵ’ín ḵaw aa hans xutáw aa tl’ da’áng. Tl’ ts’áslangsgúst.

X̱úut ki’íi uu tl’ g̱áalanggang. Gin x̱áwaa k’útsgat ’laa aa t’lagaagust, g̱áal sg̱ásk’w. Ki’íi táw aa tl’ da’áang, g̱álangaas dluu. X̱úut uu tlasdluu.an ga tl’ hálaang. X̱úut táaygaas g̱án tl’ únsats gáak’w tl’ istgáangaan. X̱úut stláay tl’ jáalanggang. G̱áw ’wáast x̱alhíiluus dluu tl’ g̱áhlaang. Tl’ dlán.gang. Salíi tl’ ts’áslanggang. G̱álang’láas dluu tl’ táa’laagang. X̱úut k’íits hansan tl’ gya’ándaang. X̱akw tl’ xitsg̱áws dluu ’wéihl tl’ sḵ’átgaadaang. Táw hans g̱aa tl’ da’áayaan. Tl’ák’ul hans k’áat tlák’ul gingáan uu g̱íidang. Tl’ g̱áalanggaangaan.

X̱úut ḵ’ál táng ḵwáan iik sk’áts’aangw aa ḵúng hlg̱únahl dluu tl’ isdáang. Ḵ’intl’eihls dluu ’wáast tl’ isdáas gyaan tangáay ’wáast tl’ dlanhíiluugang. G̱áay ’wáast tl’ g̱áhlaang. Stláandlaanw tláats’gaa aa tl’ dlángang. Wéit uu tl’ kig̱asgíidang. Ásgaayst tl’ kíhltanaang. Wéit uu st’ahlk’únk’ an g̱ii tl’ ts’ananangang. K’úudaats’ an hans tl’ tl’íigang. Gwáahl an hans.