Where to go when you need a taste of home

For some Mt. Edgecumbe High School students, living far from home also means living far from familiar foods. That’s where teacher Blossem Twichell’s culture room comes in. It’s a place where students can learn how to harvest and prepare traditional foods, exchange treats sent by family in far-flung corners of the state – and, when homesick, get a taste of home.

KCAW’s Rich McClear has the story.

Downloadable audio.

I met with students Xochitl Martinez from Gustavus, Zoey Guild from Anchorage, Katherine Leinberger from Bethel, Korbin Storms from Unalakleet, Jo Caczokowski from Tok, Laura Ekaba from Minto, and Regina Pingayak-Simon from Chevak.   I asked them:

Rich: How important is it to have foods from your own culture here at Mt. Edgecumbe High school? (they laugh at my question.)

Korbin: I grew up eating all sorts of kinds of Native foods from Salmon eggs to fermented walrus flipper to seal oil.  For me eating the traditional foods is kind of like a sense of community and having a meal together is very intimate.  You get to know more about yourself and more about the people surrounding you.  Everyone likes eating.

Laura: Sometimes we get food from the interior.  My Grandma, she boxed up some dry meat and she sent it to me.  Dry meat is cut up moose into strips and it’s hanged and you can put pepper or anything on it or you can try it plain and it tastes beautiful (Laughter).

Katherine: I know I crave Native food when I’m homesick.

Korbin: Tastes like home.

The students have the chance to try native foods from all over the state.  Sometimes the same ingredients can produce very different results.

Korbin: I’m really sorry for anyone from Southeast but you guy’s seal oil tastes horrible. (Laughter)  Southeast seal oil is weak.  Down here they fry it to get the oil out.  I grew up fermenting slabs of seal fat into oil, so it’s a lot different, like ours is kind of in your face (laughter.)

Zoey:  I grew up in Anchorage, I’m not Alaska native so I didn’t get to grow up on any of these foods.  I tried all sorts of things.  Seal Oil was probably the most exotic thing I have tried.  It was fermented seal oil and that was pretty interesting.  At first it was oh man I don’t know (Laughter) but it didn’t kill me and I ended up eating it at the end.  Later on in my life when I’m like 30 and I’m pregnant for the first time that’s going to be my weird craving.  I’m going to be in New Zealand or something and I’m going to be like “Man, I really need seal oil” (General laughter) and I’m not going to get any.

Salmon eggs are what lead me to the Mt. Edgecumbe culture room.  For many of the students, especially those from the interior, salmon eggs are not part of their traditional diet.  But when I asked the students which was their favorite native food most of them agreed.

Laura: My favorite that I’ve had here is caviar.  It tastes wonderful and I pile as much of it as I can on one piolet bread cracker and I just stuff it in my face.  It’s my first time trying it here.

(Regina) I’m the same as Laura, the one thing I enjoy most from the culture room is caviar because it was unlike anything I’ve ever had, and it was my first time having it here also.

Zoey: I’ve also gotten a liking for Caviar since I’ve been here, I’m enjoying eating this batch of caviar that we’ve gotten to make.  We eat it with pilot boy crackers.

Xochitl: I’m kind of a picky eater (everyone laughs) My roommate over there is nodding.  Something that I like that I didn’t like when I tried it is caviar.   And so I’m thinking about that now — and it’s sitting on the table and I really want to eat that. (Laughter)

Miss Blossom had a big jar of caviar that the students prepared set out on the table with a box of Piolet crackers. The interview ended in a feast.