Here’s an article from The Tyee about a revival of First Nations’ staple foods. The article summary: Women are leading a revival of First Nations’ staple foods. To get lucky, you have to get mucky. I’ve never heard of wapato (it’s mentioned in the article) before — have you? But the article does mention a plant that grows on Gabriola: camas. Here’s part of what the article says about camas:

Among First Nations on southern Vancouver Island and throughout the U.S. Pacific Northwest, women traditionally cared for the camas fields. Harvested bulbs were steamed in pits between layers of plants like salal, skunk cabbage and ferns. The bulbs could also be dried, pounded into flour and mixed with other foods, such as black tree lichen.

The longer you cook it, the better it is and the sweeter it gets, explains Sinclair Philip of the Sooke Harbour House, where camas bulbs sometimes feature on the menu. Camas bulbs, like onions, contain inulin fibres, so that they sweeten with cooking but have a minimal impact on blood sugar levels. Pit cooking adds a smoked flavour, and is especially good if you add salal and fern. No matter what you do in the kitchen, you’ll never achieve the same results as with pit cooking.

Camas are found only in the extreme coastal southwest of the province and southern Columbia Valley. There are two varieties, each with pale to dark blue, star-shaped flowers: common camas (Camassia quamash), and the great camas (Camassia Leichtlinii), which is a deep-soil variety. Then there is the meadow death-camas, a lethally poisonous plant that is easy to tell from the others when in bloom — it has white, clustered flowers — but has bulbs virtually identical to those of edible camas. Harvesting is recommended only when the plants are in flower. [continue]

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