What Did The Natives Eat In The Winter?

So, having begun my research into this local eating business, and finding little success beyond my local Chinese food and Pizza joint, it really got me wondering what people did before there were grocery stores stocked with out-of-season products from all over the world all year long? So, as always, I turned to my friend, the Google search bar.

"what did the indians eat in the winter?"

(You don't have to be politically correct when searching on the internet. They knew what I was talking about. No articles came up telling me what's on the menu in Mumbai this time of year. Oh, and by the way, did you know they don't call it Bombay anymore? I hate to sound completely ignorant, but if I hadn't Googled Bombay, India just now I never would have known. I've heard the name Mumbai on the news, I just didn't realize it was the same place. They should write a song about it. That's how I learned that Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul not Constantinople, but that's nobody's business but the Turks.)

Here is a compilation of what the various native tribes ate through the winter:

• They live by game, which is abundant in this country, and on Indian corn, of which they always gather a good crop, so that they have never suffered from famine.
  
• Their squashes are not of the best; they dry them in the sun, to eat in the winter and spring.
• The most important source of food was fish - eels, suckers, trout, and especially salmon. Some were eaten fresh, but large amounts of fish were dried on elevated wooden racks or kept in storage pits, so they could be saved and eaten in wintertime.
• Another important source of food were roots of certain plants. The main root was the camas bulb, but bitterroot, onions, wild carrots, and parsnips were also gathered. Many roots could also be saved for the winter.
• Hunting for meat occasionally played an important role, even in the winter. The Indian hunted primarily deer but also bear and caribou.
• In the winter he tracked animals on long and narrow snowshoes
• They dried many foods to eat in the winter. And they also drank water from freshwater rivers.

Okay then. So, if my research hasn't failed me, the way to eat local in the wintertime in the Northeast, as we did before refrigerator trucks and Super Walmarts, is to set up snares for the unfortunate woodland creatures who live nearby, track animals in my snowshoes, send my hubby out with a spear to snag me a deer, bear, or caribou, catch a lot of fish in the summer and then salt it, dry it, and store it for the winter, dig up a bunch of root vegetables and save those somewhere dry, grow me some indian corn, and set my squash in the sun so it can be dried out for winter storage. Well...I'm not an Indian and, as I mentioned before, I want my kids to live past 30. So there. Good to know how they did it. Not going to copy it.


P.S. Like the picture? My husband said my blog needs pictures.