Saturday, October 17, 2009

ACORN SOUP PREPARATION

It is acorn time in October - it is called Big Time to the Coastal Native Americans. I have not tasted acorn soup - I have heard that it has a distinct flavor according to the Pomo Indians. They used to put red clay in the soup to sweaten it!! When I tell this to my classes they always frown about using clay as an edible additive. The process of preparing the acorns was primarily the women's job. They collected about 50 pounds in their burden baskets. Then as a group they cracked the shell open with a mano on a hard metate like stone. After the shell was off they pounded the acorns into a meal or powder using a mortar and pestle. The archaeologists in California have dated these tools to about 5000 years ago. Once the shell is off and the meal has been ground, they make a basin of sand about 3 feet in diameter into which the ground up acorn meal is placed. They pour either cold or hot water over the acorn meal and do this for several days until the tannic acid is leached out of the meal - it has a sweat taste after it has been leached of the acid. (I guess the squirrels have a different digestive system than we do!)

Once the leaching is done the meal is carefully scraped off the basin and placed into water in a basket sealed with pine resin. It is heated by placing hot rocks from a campfire. The leaching process is usually done along a drainage or river bank. It can be done by a village or up a stream away from a village. Once hot it becomes acorn soup and was the main staple of most of the Californian Indians.

The meal can also be made into a bread which is surrounded with soaproat leaves and baked in an underground oven. Their ovens were made by digging holes about a foot deep and lined with river rocks. They placed the leaves of the soaproot to surround the pit and then placed more leaves over the acorn bread. Then hot rocks from a campfire and some soil were placed on top of the bread and it baked for a day or so.

Today the Pomo make the acorn soup using a blender to grind up the meal and then use a cheesecloth to contain the meal and hang it around a dripping fawcet to leach the tannic acid. They still serve it at Big Time ceremonies in Santa Rosa, at the SRJC Native American dances, at Point Reyes, and at Stewart's Point.

You may want to check out the ceremonies that are open to the public.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

THE COTATI SPA AND OTHER SPAS

I have ocassionally gone to swim and sweat down at the Cotati spa where there is an indoor swimming pool, bicycles, pool exercises, a redwood hot sweat house, a steam sweat room, as well as a jaccuzi.

I have recorded and studied Indian hot springs throughout the western US during my career. They are facinating to me. One was Bartlett Springs in Mendocino County that has been revitalized. I love Calistoga Hot Springs and Thermopolis in Wyoming. My husband and I also lived in Hot Springs, South Dakota where we worked as archaeologists for about 3 years. One of the largest naturally heated indoor bathing pools in the country is there. And in the 1800's people were taken here by train from New York City to be treated of their rhematism. It is a town with about 6hot springs. We used to collect the water from an underground spring which had many minerals in it. We also swam outside in a stream where the Sioux Indians swam for many hundreds of years. It is cool and very refreshing in the summer.

I have enjoyed visiting and recording some of the hot springs around the west. Another springs is in the Mammoth Lakes where a group of archaeologists swam during a field trip. We attended a workshop where we learned to make obsidian tools.

THERAPUETIC CATS

I have two Snowshow cats that we recued from the Healdsburg Animal Shelter. A spiritual lady directed us to them. Kevin and I bought the two cats Sassy and Hunter who had lived with an older lady for about 5 years. Their pictures are on my website. They were given to us as special friends who represent two of our close friends who died in a car accident.

They are now about 7 years old and love to walk on a leash and I love having spirtitual cats. I have always loved animals and at one time wanted to work at an animal shelter. My son and I found a cat in Ukiah who we called Whiskers and she was with us for about 15 years. She was a long hair female cat with white, black, and a little yellow coloring. My Snowshoe cats have mostly brown bodies with black faces and white under their necks and white on all four toes.

They love meeting new people and going for walks around the block. They have been with us for about 3 years and they live up to their names. Hunter has caught a rat in one place I lived and they both have caught a mouse as well. One miracle is that they have been well taken care of by having healthy food and getting all their shots. They like both indoors and outdoors, and so do I.

They also like to have fish and chicken occasionally. I am wondering what the Egyptians used to feed their cats in prehistoric times. Guess I will have to research that.

I used to let them run around the area free and they would climb up trees. They love keeping me company and Sassy lives up to her name as she is very strong willed when she escapes from the house. It is difficult to catch her!

I love walking my cats outdoors and hope one day to make a carpeted tree post to fit into the house with ledges. They like to hang up on high places.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

A FIELD TRIP TO CRANE CANYON PARK IN COTATI

Today I drove to Crane Canyon Park. There were a number of folks visiting the park. They had attended a memorial for someone and were coming back from their hike dressed in leopard clothing?? In any case, I went all around the park and completed the hike in less than 2 hours. There was no water flowing in the creek and I followed the trails up around the dry creek bed, noting that the wind was picking up. I saw many yound men playing a game by throwing frisbies in the metal baskets. The park has gently sloping terrain with plenty of trees. I happened to find a good supply of tarweed, a staple of the Pomo. I picked a bunch of it to show to people on my walks. The pinhead seeds were eaten with a mixture of berries and called Pinole. There were hundreds of types of tarweed according to the ethnobotanical sources written in the 1800's.

I stopped for a while to listen to the wind and it told me that fall was in the air. The type of clouds were cirrus and there was a gentle wind. I could see for miles and I wanted to see Mt St. Helena but couldn't. Most of the country side had grapes growing and I could see and smell cows nearby.

There were only a few birds that I could recognize and many types of oaks and buckeye and bay trees, as well as big leaf maple and curly dock.

MY NEIGHBORS

I live by a family of five people from Palestine and Greece. They go to the same church I'm attending - an Episcopal church in Cotati. They have an extended family in one household - both of the grandparents live in the house and keep busy cooking and tending the garden. The father and grandfather are both ministers. They have a young 5 year old son. Their language is Arabic in the church and less than 10 people attend their church. The grandfather is very friendly and always seems to be doing odds and ends in the garden. The grandmother is also friendly and they speak a little English. They usually greet me when I pass by.

It is fun to watch their service with all the candles lit - the grandfather sometimes walks over to the church about 1 1/2 miles.

I have helped clean up the church garden several times and I love doing garden work.