On Mar. 12, Ducks Unlimited co-hosted A Taste of Wabanaki at the Conservation Centre with Cecelia Brooks.
Throughout the event, Brooks taught participants to prepare three-sister’s chili, maple cornbread and sunchoke apple salad with cranberry vinaigrette.
Brooks noted a “wonderful” turnout of just under 20 people, with many being international newcomers.
“We had a group who were from Brazil. We had several from India, Nepal and they were coming to learn more about the wild foods in New Brunswick … they were curious what foods there would be out to forage here.”
Brooks has been working with Ducks Unlimited since 2019, with the latest iteration of A Taste of Wabanaki being the fifth year.
“I knew that they were managing some wetlands where wild rice is growing and I was eager to revive that cultural tradition. And so I went to them and said, ‘Hey, we should work together’… It’s been wonderful. They’re just so easy to work with.”
Ducks Unlimited is a North American non-profit focused on the conservation and management of wetlands and habitats that benefit waterfowl, including ducks.
With programming offered for the public to get involved, including for children, Brooks hopes for the organization to be further spotlighted.
During the food events they do, Brooks ensures the dishes they make are always vegan to increase accessibility.
“Mainstream society has this idea that Native people just walk around chewing on meat all the time, that’s not the case. A lot of the diet, in fact, the proteins came from non-meat sources and so cooking vegan using our traditional ingredients, the Three Sisters, is actually pretty easy and pretty natural for me.”
The Three Sisters in Wabanaki culture refers to corn, beans and the pumpkin or winter squash. Corn, Brooks explained, originated in Mexico 9,000 years ago, coming to Canada 4,000 years later. The three are planted together as companions that help each other to grow, with corn being the tallest in the centre of a mound, the beans growing around it and the squash being at the bottom.
“It wouldn’t be sweet corn, green beans and zucchini. It would be a flint corn or flour corn and then beans around that would climb the corn and then the squash or pumpkin at the bottom would act as a living mulch and maintain the moisture.”
Her personal favourite dish, the sunchoke apple salad, contained ingredients sourced in New Brunswick. Eating sustainable, they said, requires local ingredients and cooking as much as you can.
With tariff threats from the United States, Brooks believes it is more important than ever to forage and eat sustainably.
“Teaching people how to eat sustainably, it requires [you] to eat local,” they said. “I mean, it may not be local, just in your province, but certainly keeping it within Canada, it makes a difference. I think it’ll help our economy in the long run.”
Brooks wants to challenge the idea that organic foods, or food from a farmer’s market, aren’t affordable. They said that when Strawberry Hill Farm, a New Brunswick strawberry producer, was in town years ago, it had prices that matched or were lower than Superstore.
“[People] have this idea that they can’t afford it and you most certainly can if you’re able to cook. But cooking is really, really important … our bodies need that freshly made food.”
For those who want to begin foraging, Brooks advises to not take all of the food. Aside from the economic aspect, they emphasize the importance of being sustainable for environmental purposes.
“You want to save some for the birds, the animals, the wildlife who would also eat … we’re losing many species on a daily basis, so we have to be cognizant of that and make sure that we leave enough so that they can be here for next year or the next time.”
