Looking Ahead to More Food Security
August 2017
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Kids learn to make fruit leather at Back to the Garden. Ramona Taylor photo.
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Ayukîi, Aiy-ye-kwee', Waqlisi, Hello!
The five-year Klamath Basin Tribal Food Security Project wraps up official operations this month. We thank our many local partners who made it possible to hold a huge range of workshops, classes, and community events reaching literally thousands of folks on the river - and we thank you for participating!
Many of you have told us that your community seems more food secure and is changing in other positive ways, and that means the Food Security Project has done what we set out to do.
But building food security doesn't stop here. To keep on strengthening the food system, our Food Security partners have plans for the future, and we need your help! We invite you to keep in touch and stay involved in whatever way works best for you and your family.
What will happen next:
The Karuk Tribe's new Píkyav (Fix It) Field Institute
builds on the Tribe's Food Security programming to provide culturally relevant, academically challenging, and traditionally holistic environmental education that supports career development for Tribal and non-Tribal students in Karuk ancestral
territory. O
ngoing activities will include developing and using the
Nanu'ávaha ("our food") K-12 Curriculum in area schools, expanding the Sípnuuk ("storage basket") Digital Library, Archives and Museum collections, and hosting Native foods workshops, seasonal youth camps, and periodic community programs.
The Píkyav Field Institute will also foster
collaborative research using both traditional ecological knowledge and environmental science, with partners including UC Berkeley, Humboldt State University and the University of Oregon.
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Karuk Intertribal Youth Campers prepare plant specimens. Grant Gilkison photo.
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Píkyav Field Institute Program Manager Lisa Hillman will continue to coordinate these initiatives for the Karuk Tribe. For the current schedule of activities and contact information, go
here. You can reach Lisa at
[email protected] or 530-627-3446.
The Klamath Tribes now has four community greenho
uses in gardens open to
all in C
hiloquin and Klamath Falls, OR. The new Food Security Tribal Communit
y Kitchen is under
way and should be completed by the end of the year in Chiloquin. Tribal Master Gardeners can give you garden advice and will likely lead new Seed to Supper courses next Spring.
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New garden at Hilyard Tribal Elder Housing in Klamath Falls, OR. Photo courtesy Perri McDaniel.
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Food Security Coordinator Perri McDaniel will continue to organize activities at least through the end of 2017. Contact Perri to find out about upcoming events at
[email protected] or 541-882-1487 x 235.
The Yurok Tribe will continue to maintain its community gardens in Klamath and Weitchpec, provide fish and other traditional foods to elders, and offer occasional workshops on gathering, preparing and preserving food through its Social Services Department. Food Security community apple presses will be housed at Crescent City Food Distribution and the Weitchpec Tribal Office; the Tribal Herbarium will be housed in the new Klamath Visitors' Center.
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Squash blossoms in Klamath Community Garden. Chris Peters photo.
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Contact Yurok Food Distribution Manager Chris Peters to borrow the apple press or help out in the Klamath Community Garden: [email protected] or 707-464-1852.
Mid Klamath Watershed Council will continue to maintain the treasury of Food Security information compiled on its Foodshed web pages, where you can find how-tos on growing fruit, nuts and berries, establishing a successful home garden, soils of the mid-Klamath, and much more. (See below for an excerpt from MKWC's Orchard Revitalization Manual.)
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| Kid-prepared seeds for fall school gardens. Ramona Taylor photo. |
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MKWC will assist the Karuk Tribe with student outreach through the Tribe's new Farm to School project, and will continue to host Third Thursday dinners and celebrations. Keep an eye on the MKWC website or the Mid Klamath Foodshed Facebook page for these and more event updates.
Carol Earnest will be coordinating MKWC's Farm to School work in collaboration with the Karuk Tribe. You can reach her at [email protected] or 530-627-3202.
UC Berkeley researchers are completing data analysis and writing up the results of field research, the Klamath Basin Food System Assessment surveys, interviews and focus groups made possible with the help of many of you. They are also evaluating the overall impact of the 5-year program on individual and community food security. Stay tuned for upcoming final reports, testimonials and publications. Jennifer Sowerwine, Megan Mucioki and Dan Sarna will share our findings with Klamath communities over the next months.
This Newsletter will go out from time to time with updates from Food Security partner tribes and organizations. You can contact Edith Friedman with news or events at [email protected] or 510-643-9534.
THANK YOU!
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Pruning workshop with Food Policy Council for Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands. DNATL photo.
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Mark Dupont of Mid Klamath Watershed Council has put together a beautiful how-to manual on the care of neglected fruit trees, based
on MKWC, the Karuk Tribe, and the Salmon River Restoration Council's
five years of collaborative work to restore local orchards as part of the Food Security Project. Here's a preview:
Orchard Revitalization and Heirloom Fruit of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers: Preserving the Past, Securing the Future
Introduction
You've probably seen them, on the edge of the woods, or in a clearing that was once a homestead. Old fruit trees blend into the surroundings - they're hardly noticeable until they're covered in blossoms in spring, or heavy with fruit in the fall. They stand quietly year after year, with no care or tending, no pruning, irrigation, or fertilization. Yet somehow they survive, and even thrive, producing fruit year after year. They've become part of the landscape, and each has a story to tell: of a great grandfather who managed to obtain a seedling or a graft from some faraway place, a family that planted and tended the orchard, kids who grew up in the shade of the trees and picked and ate the fruit through the summer and fall.
These old legacy trees are not only part of the past; they are an important part of a bioregional food system, vital for the present and the future. They have survived years of drought, heavy winter snow and freezing, heat waves, and intense storms. Those still standing and producing have proven to be well-adapted to their habitat's specific soils, pests and microclimate, and they produce food with little or no extra water and care. Many of these trees are unique, one-of a- kind plants, and nearing the end of their lifespans. Once they are gone they can never be retrieved.
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Dugout canoe at Orleans, CA bridge. Grant Gilkison photo.
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How is Food Security like the Orleans Bridge?
Ramona Taylor, Foodsheds Program Director for the Mid Klamath Watershed Council, has been reflecting on kids, kale, and how five years of building food security is like building a bridge. She pulled it all together in a recent blog post,
Bridging the Community Food Divide. Check it out!
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It's Not Too Late to Take Our Survey!
Got 10 minutes? We could use your feedback! Please take our short survey to help us learn what the Food Security Project means to you. Your opinion is important. Thanks!
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Community Notices
Happy Camp Farmers Market - Thursdays from Sept 7th - Oct 26th, 5:30 - 7:30, Gail Zink Park. Dinner served every week! More info:
hccommunityaction.org/farmers-market or 530-493-5400.
KTRCD Monday Night Markets - every other Monday through Nov 6th in Hoopa, CA. More info: KTRCD 530-625-4441.
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| Stormy Staats, Klamath Salmon Media Collaborative photo. |
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We're In the News
See stories about the
Klamath Basin Tribal Food Security Project from around the web
on our website
.
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Spring carrots. Ramona Taylor photo. |
FOOD SECURITY RESOURCES
Wondering what, where and when to plant? Visit the Mid Klamath Watershed Council
Foodsheds pages
for excellent free online info on the vegetables and fruits that grow best here, along with planting calendars, soil, and disease prevention advice.
Keep in touch with us! Find upcoming events, see photos, ask questions, let your neighbors know what's going on in the foodshed! All that and more on the
Foodshed Facebook page
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NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
Missed an issue? See what your Food Security team has been doing
here.
The Karuk Tribe's
Sípnuuk Digital Library supports food security and sovereignty with information on our regional food security issues, solutions and knowledge of traditional and contemporary foods and materials. Easy to use and open to all - sign up now!
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The goal of the collaborative Klamath River Basin Food Security Project is to rebuild a sustainable food system that supports healthy communities, ecosystems and economies among the Karuk, Klamath and Yurok Tribes.
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