In the classroom this week we finished watching the episode of Tending the Wild called Decolonizing the Diet: How Native Peoples are Reclaiming Traditional Foods that we started in our first week of the unit. We learned about the Chia Café Collective, a group in Southern California working to preserve Indigenous foodways, including native chia, which is no longer accessible in large enough quantities for people to eat.
In the kitchen we made a Cafe Ohlone recipe for chia porridge, a simple and energizing way to start your day. We garnished the porridge with a wild huckleberry sauce, bee pollen, pumpkin seeds, and the edible flowers of a pineapple sage we are growing in the school garden.
While we waited for the porridge to set, we played an Ohlone game that is traditionally played with elderberry or willow sticks. One side of each stick is decorated. Each player throws the sticks down and points are awarded depending on how the sticks land (all blank or all decorated = 2 points; half blank/half decorated = 1 point; all other configurations = 0 points). The first player to get to 5 points is the game of staves champion.
In our closing circle, we each shared our favorite recipe from the unit this semester and an appreciation. It’s been a wonderful nine weeks and we look forward to our field trip in January and one last class in the spring!
