Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke: This week on Wisconsin Foodie .

- Shekoli swakwe-ku.

Yostayowaluts niyukyats.

My name is Laura Manthe.

My Oneida name is She Goes Over the Clouds.

So this is our first year growing our heirloom white corn on this site.

Look at this beauty.

That is a lovely cob right there.

My feeling is, is that I'm reestablishing my relationship with this corn.

This corn is part of our DNA.

– Rebecca: What we're doing today is checking out if any of these are contenders for seed cobs.

So we would go through and select these out.

And this cob has the kernels that will bring forth the next generations of our corn.

It takes a lot of cobs just to fit into one jar, and it takes about one hour's worth of work, will get you two pounds of corn.

There's a lot of work that goes into this, but it's really a labor of love.

– Luke: So what are we doing in your kitchen?

– Jen: I'm gonna show you how to process white corn.

– Luke: Mm-mmm!

It smells delicious.

It makes sense to me, why you go through so much work and preparation, and take so much care, to have this corn come to this point.

It truly is more than eating a bowl of soup.

It feels like you're being woven into a very large story, a very beautiful story.

– Jen: I like that.

– Luke: And it tastes really good.

[gentle music] Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie , and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk with just a few simple ingredients: sun, soil, rain, and grass.

And grass, and grass.

- Yee-haw!

- Organic Valley Grass Milk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, Visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from the Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high quality butchering and packaging, the Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at feedingamericawi.org.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[gentle music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie .

[gentle chiming music] - Shekoli swakwe-ku.

Yostayowaluts niyukyats.

My name is Laura Manthe.

My Oneida name is She Goes Over the Clouds.

And today, we're in the 4H field, on County H on the Oneida Indian reservation with our heirloom white corn.

So this is our first year growing our heirloom white corn on this site.

And the soil here is amazing.

This is the best crop that we've had.

This corn is different than the corn that you see at the farm stand or on the side of the road.

That's mostly genetically modified corn with a high sugar content.

This corn has a higher protein content, and we have to care for it and cook it a different way.

This corn is part of our DNA.

It's part of our creation story.

It is also in the Code of Handsome Lake and in the Great Law of Peace.

People of different nations easily identify with certain food items.

Some tribes are known for rice.

Some tribes are known for fish.

Some tribes are known for corn, and we're one of those tribes.

So we're taking care of the corn and the corn is taking care of us.

It's a reciprocal relationship.

Okay, so we're just gonna take a walk through the corn field.

This is a little baby one, but it still has corn on it, so we're gonna take it.

No kernels left behind.

Ooh, look at this beauty.

That is a lovely cob right there.

You can see that there's some really beautiful green silks on here, and each one of these silks is connected to each one of the kernels.

And then the pollen comes from this part of the plant, and then it shakes off and it pollinates this part of the plant, and that's how you get a beautiful corn cob like this.

And we can also use many parts of the plant for medicine.

You can boil these dried husks into a tea and it will really improve your memory.

You can make a tea out of the silk and that helps your bladder.

So we have many uses for the corn plant.

it's not just the corn kernels; we use the whole thing.

And they're different, the cobs are different lengths.

So a machine that will work for genetically modified corn that's perfect is not gonna work for this corn because it has just too many variables to it.

And so when you look down the row, you can see that they're coming in at different heights and that they're at different lengths, and that would make it difficult for machinery.

But perfect for humans.

Little humans can pick lower, tall humans can pick higher.

[laughing] My feeling is, is that I'm reestablishing my relationship with this corn.

We have a conversation.

When we plant in the springtime, we sing songs, we sing planting songs.

Before we harvest in the fall, we'll have a tobacco burning and we'll give thanks to the plants for fulfilling their responsibility.

Here's a fine example that we're coming up on right here.

This is what we want, right here; this is a perfect example.

And now we can unwrap the present.

Okay, this one's going to be special because for whatever reason, it stopped growing right here, and it kept growing up here.

So that's like a really unique thing.

And each one of these kernels has an individual husk on them.

So inside each one of these little tiny husks is a special seed that has the DNA for all the varieties of corn on Earth.

It's a very, very special seed.

Well, it's a blessing really, because we didn't plant this corn here.

We didn't plant the grandmother corn.

So it...

It showed up, and it tells me that we're doing the right thing.

That this is a sign to us that we're doing the right thing for our community.

[gentle music] - Rebecca: Ready?

– Man: Ready.

- So I'm one of the founding members of the Ohe-lku White Corn Co-Op with Laura here.

And we are in our sixth year of growing our corn together as families.

What we're doing today is we just harvested a small batch of corn from the field, and we're checking out if any of these are contenders for seed cobs.

And we are pulling the husks off and putting them over here, and then we're going to be braiding them up soon.

They've appointed me to be the person that keeps the seeds and decides which cobs are suitable for seed.

Apparently it has something to do with how picky and particular I am, and so... [laughing] So this one is a seed cob for sure.

She's got a really nice, long length, which her variety, this is a Tuscarora white corn.

This is a really good length for her.

The kernels are all very uniform, and each kernel should be nice and plump and full.

There's no dents, there's no dimples in the cobs, and there are eight straight rows.

If there's, you know, 10 or 12 rows, that means that it's been crossed with some other type of a corn.

She has a little bit of a twist in there, but we think that that's just fine.

So if we see any other miscolored kernels in here, a yellow kernel here and there is okay, but if you see, you know, blues or purples or reds or things, that that's a possible sign of cross pollination, and that cob will be perfectly fine to eat.

We just wouldn't wanna keep those kernels for seed.

So we would go through and select these out.

And this cob has the kernels that will bring forth the next generations of our corn.

This is our sixth year as a co-op growing the corn.

But the year before that, we had seedlings from Laura.

So this will be our seventh year I believe of our family growing the corn.

And our family does not have a history of growing corn, so we are just at the beginning stages of reclaiming that.

We all thought, "Oh, we've been to the husking bees "for years at Tsyunhehkwa with the tribe, we can do this, right?"

Well, we didn't know what we were doing, but that's okay, because we didn't grow up with this.

This wasn't a natural part of our lives And we had a lot of mistakes, but the corn responded so lovingly to our efforts, and she provided such a bounty for us, that we were able to incorporate more of this corn into our daily diets, and we were also able to share this corn with our community members, who had limited access to the corn.

When we look at these seeds, we know that these seeds were entrusted in the hands of our people since creation.

And even though all of our families didn't hold onto that knowledge, there were enough families that kept this alive, so when the rest of us felt comfortable enough to pick up our ways again, that somebody held that knowledge and could share with us.

And this corn, she is so forgiving that it doesn't matter that we don't speak the language.

It doesn't matter that we maybe don't know all of the intricacies of what's going on in our ceremonies.

She still responds to us and gives back so much more than we put in.

The way the corn is caring for us, that's helping us reclaim what had been taken away from us.

[gentle music] So now we can go check out our basement, and that's where we store a lot of our food for the winter months and then in subsequent years.

And also that's where we hang our seed corn to dry.

So this corn here is our seed corn from the co-op from last year.

My husband jokingly refers to these as the supermodels.

So this is the best of the best of our corn from last year.

But we put the flowers on top of the seed braids so that we know that those ones are seed cobs.

They are important because this is where our future generations of the corn are gonna come from.

So these seeds have a, these cobs here have huge responsibilities to carry us forward into the future.

So this is where we store our corn, and this is mostly corn that we grew as part of the co-op.

And we store them in these glass jars to make sure that we can control for moisture and to make sure that bugs don't get at our corn.

This is two seasons' worth of growth.

This would probably last our family about three years.

So our goal is to try to get to seven years, just as a goal, but we keep trading quite a bit of our corn with different community members.

So it's something that we can shoot for in years to come, but for now, I think we definitely have enough corn for our family and to share with the community.

Most of this corn, with the exception of some corn at the top and over here, this all came from us being part of the co-op.

So the way we determine how much corn a family gets is how much work you put in.

So we track our hours and at the end of the season, we weigh the corn and then we divide it out by how many hours you put in.

It takes a lot of cobs just to fit into one jar, and it takes about one hour's worth of work, will get you two pounds of corn.

This is more than two pounds of corn, so this took over an hour, just to make this one jar of corn here.

So there's a lot of work that goes into this, but it's really a labor of love.

And we just couldn't be happier with the corn that we have here.

And also looking at this, it means that we are food secure.

We have food for our family.

If something really terrible happened, we can provide for them.

And we have so much here, we can also provide for our community.

We use it quite a bit, I would say during the winter months mostly, and I'm not quite sure why, but we eat it, you know, three, four times a week.

So we eat quite a bit of our corn in different ways.

We try to get creative with how we use our corn.

I do not sell any of our corn or our seeds.

We trade quite a bit for it, and a lot of people are kinda frustrated with that sometimes.

They'll ask, "Well, how much is it?"

Well, we don't sell it.

They say, "Well, what do you with that?"

I say, "Well, we barter for it and we trade."

And sometimes depending on the situation, we might just gift it to people.

But we primarily trade and people will think, "Well, I don't have anything of value."

And it's like, well, we have to think outside the box.

Stop trying to determine what your value is by what your salary is, 'cause that doesn't decide our worth as human beings.

So we've done things, we've traded for jam, jelly, you know, fish, venison, just maple syrup.

But we've also traded for skills and for help, helping find medicines, teaching us songs.

We've had people help build this house and we paid them in corn.

So there are just a lot of different ways that we can empower people to know that they have worth and it's not necessarily tied to something that money can dictate.

– Luke: I'm fascinated with the story, and I wanna learn more.

So now I'm traveling across the Oneida Reservation to meet with Jen Faulk, who's agreed to teach me how to cook with the sacred Oneida white corn.

So what are we doing in your kitchen?

- I'm gonna show you how to process white corn.

You saw how it grew, you've been to the barn, you've gotten some history about it, and today, we are going to cook it.

- Okay.

- This is the fresh corn.

So this has just been taken off the cob and that's it.

We're gonna start by putting this in some hot water with some hardwood ash.

This corn is a flint corn, so each and every kernel has a hard shell around it.

So we have to boil this corn in some sort of, we're gonna use hardwood ash in this case.

We're gonna boil that for an hour, and that ash is gonna dissolve that hull from each kernel.

So this is the ash bucket.

We heat our house with firewood in the fireplace.

So this is just what comes out of the fireplace in the morning after the night's fire.

- Cool.

- And then what we do... - Just sift the ashes.

- Sift the ashes.

- Much like you would find a pastry chef sifting powdered sugar over a cake.

I mean, you really do it with the same artistry and care.

- If you say so.

[Luke laughing] And now we've got a bowl of ash that we can cook with.

- Does it have a flavor?

I mean, like... - Taste it.

- I will.

It's smokey.

- It's, yeah... - I mean... - It adds, I think it... You know when you've eaten corn, you're eating corn that's not been cooked in hardwood ash, you know it.

There's a difference for sure.

- Here, let me get the lid on this.

[gentle music] - There we go.

- Awesome, I'll take that.

- Okay.

So that was about a pound of corn, and now I'm gonna add about two cups of ash.

- Sure.

Is it important to be precise?

- No.

So I say a couple cups, but usually I just stand here until it's the color I like.

And if I have to add more, I add more.

The corn is starting to turn orange.

- That's incredible; I've never seen this before.

Look at how bright that one is.

- So the water is boiling, the ashes are in there, and the alkaloids in the ashes are now gonna dissolve that shell that's around each of those kernels.

- What a process.

This needs to cook for about an hour, right?

- Yep, about an hour.

But this morning, I did this already, so all we have to do now is wash that.

- Like, do we just wash it in the sink or do you grab... - We're gonna use a corn washing basket that I brought.

- I'll grab the pot.

Just dump the corn right into there.

- Okay.

- So this is, this basket has the bottom, the holes are very large, so the water and ash can run out the bottom.

And this basket is specifically made for washing corn.

- Got that?

- Yep.

- Okay, cool.

- So now got all the ash out of there and now I'm gonna start rubbing it.

And that hull is gonna slough off the kernels, and it's gonna go through the bottom of the basket.

Now if you don't have one of these baskets, you can use like a big colander.

- Sure.

- But this really is the way to go.

So you can feel when your corn is clean once you get the knack of it.

Feel a little... - Oh, yeah.

- A little slime.

- A little slime, right.

- Okay, so we are going to take this clean corn and we're gonna put it in cold water and we're gonna boil it for an hour.

So what would typically happen is this corn, after an hour, would be cooked and you would add it to your soup.

- You've already put together the soup, right, because that's such a long process.

- Yes, I have.

- And you said that this takes two days to put together the soup?

- Well, generally, I wash my corn and I cook it in the afternoon, and then I put it in the fridge.

- Okay.

- And then I get a NESCO out and I'll put a pork hock or two in the NESCO with kidney beans or bear beans or cranberry beans.

And I will let that go overnight, and then in the morning, I'll come back and I'll put that cooked corn in the soup.

- Okay.

So giving it that night to rest, you know, it doesn't swell up or blow out in the soup assumedly.

And then like, do you season this?

- There are two camps, the smoked pork hock camp and the not smoked pork hock camp.

- Okay.

- And I am in smoked pork hock camp, so it's pretty salty.

Oh, and I, what I didn't mention, I'll give you my little secret.

This is turkey stock from a turkey that I shot this spring out back.

- Okay, so we have turkey stock from a wild turkey, we have kidney beans in here it looks like, we have the smoked pork hock, and we have the corn.

- Yep, so what I would do at this point is I would pull all of this pork out of here and shred it, and then put it back in.

- Pork hocks are generally found, like if you considered the calf or the thigh of the animal, that's where the hock meat comes from.

And I love it because it's super succulent, number one.

You get all of, kind of the attributes of that really delicious ham flavor, but when it's smoked like this, it's a really lovely way, after a little bit of braising, to get that dense, smoky, porky sweetness into your soups and stews.

Mm-mmm!

It smells delicious.

You know, you get a little bit of that, that wood essence, you get that sweetness that you can only get from smoked pork somehow.

There's also that delicate fragrance of corn.

The thing that actually I'm overwhelmed with, standing over the pot, is that this tastes and smells like the most comfortable comfort food you've ever had.

I can't wait to taste it; let's do that.

What was it like the first time you tasted it?

- For me, as I was talking earlier about having not grown up here and wanting to be here and wanting to learn about my culture, it really was a huge milestone.

It was, it was a big deal for me.

And I just remember it being like, "Wow, this is like a, this is like a symbol "that I got here and I'm here and I'm learning, and now I'm eating the food."

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah, for sure.

My mom had a lot to do with me ending up here, and my mom passed away a few years ago.

So every time I put corn in a pot or I'm washing corn, I'm thinking of her.

And I'm hoping that she knows that I'm here and that she's proud of me.

- I'm sure she is, I'm sure she is.

And now you're sharing it with the rest of the world.

- I am.

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

- It's delicious.

- Mm-hmm.

I'm glad you like it.

- That's so good.

- It is good, right?

- Obviously you get the smoky essence, but the corn, you would imagine that after cooking for multiple hours and simmering together, that there wouldn't be much there.

But when you eat it, there's this consistency, it's a crunch.

It's something that reminds you that it's a vegetable, and it's vibrant and it's there and it demands your attention.

It makes sense to me, why you go through so much work and preparation, and take so much care, to have this corn come to this point.

It truly is more than eating a bowl of soup.

It feels like you're being woven into a very large story, a very beautiful story.

- I like that.

- And it tastes really good.

[gentle music] - So now I can take you down.

It just sounds bad.

I'm gonna take you down to the basement.

[Luke laughs] - PA: This smells so great.

- Tell me about them beans.

[beatboxing] - Okay.

– PA: One more time without that.

- Okay.

– PA: I loved it though.

- Those are exquisite.

- Aren't they pretty?

[beans scatter] Why don't you just throw 'em around?

- Take two.

[both laughing] These are native to the Oneida people?

- Yeah, yeah.

[both laughing] - Wanna try that one again?

[laughing] Let's try that again.

– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie , and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk with just a few simple ingredients: sun, soil, rain, and grass.

And grass, and grass.

- Yee-haw!

- Organic Valley Grass Milk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at feedingamericawi.org.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[gentle music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find past episodes and special segments just for you.

[gentle music]