One summer I backpacked around New Mexico, hitching a ride to visit the Acoma pueblo ‘mesa’, a 365-foot flat-topped mountain arising from the dessert. A few Native Americans live there all year round but thousands of tourists visit each year.
We looked around the traditional buildings, the people and the craft shops. In one shop a large friendly red-faced American tourist naively asked a tiny shrivelled Native American lady how old she was. Her reply was scathing “How dare you ask me how old I am. How dare you come here and insult me like this. You are talking down to me, this is typical of the white man, patronising us”. The hapless tourist gabbled apologies. It was embarrassing and awkward.
Her anger punctured our cheerful curiosity about their mesa village. We suddenly became aware that we were interlopers, that they didn’t like us, that we were there on sufferance, so that they could make money to survive.
I’m still fascinated by Native American life; I’d love to spend some time in a teepee, naff thought that might be nowadays. The architecture of the teepee is particularly feminine; many Native Indian tribes are matrilineal. The teepee field at Glastonbury always inspires and I often go there during the festival to have some chai, listen to guitar, by the fireside as dawn breaks.
For this Secret Garden Club I researched Native American food, starting with the planting trio ‘Three sisters’: corn, beans and squash. Foods they ate were mainly corn-based but also included tomatillos (husk tomatoes), berries (Sumac made ‘Indian lemonade’), acorn flour and oil, game and fish, wild potato, Yucca, Squash and zuccini, watermelon, turkeys, maple syrup and pinon nuts.
To find out more about companion planting such as the Three Sisters go here.
Cherokee Blueberry Honey Cake
Ingredients
- 120 g butter, room temperature
- 120 g caster sugar
- 200 g honey
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 125 ml whole milk
- 140 g white flour
- 70 g wholewheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 380 g. fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 175c or bake in the Aga baking oven, bottom shelf.
- Cream the butter, sugar and honey together.
- Beat in the eggs and milk.
- Once well combined, sift in the white flour, wholewheat flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
- Dust the fresh blueberries with a tablespoon of flour then fold them in gently with the batter. I reserved a cupful and sprinkled them on top.
- I tipped the mixture into a lined loaf tin and baked for 45 minutes. In a conventional oven it may take an hour.
- Keep an eye to make sure the top isn't burning, if it is, cover it with foil.
- It's done when you test with a metal skewer and it comes out clean.
- This cake was beautifully moist and not too sweet.
- Dust with icing sugar (I use a tea strainer as a mini sieve).
*Don’t make the mistake I once did in an American cafe and order a ‘dingleberry’ pie.
The next Secret Garden Club (workshop, supper and bouquet) is on the subject on edible flowers: how to grow them and which ones can you eat. Book here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/157921 £45
I love this yummy cake. This is really delicious. It is soft & can be made easily. Thanks for this sharing.
I love the colours of the first photo – almost out-of-this-world!!
Would LOVE to go to Seville. On my list of places to go to very soon.
That looks absolutely delicious. I have bookmarked and will be attempting it soon. Thank you!
Huckleberries are like mini blueberries. And if they are ripe, they are very good. I have picked them on top of a mountain where they grow,… Wild. My brother carried a gun, because the Grizzlies eat them too. And often come to the spot where we were!!
Hi Pamela
I've since seen huckleberries when I visited Alaska, Seattle and Portland and they do look very good. It sounds so romantic, grizzlies and wild huckleberries! Thanks for commenting
Hey…
I tried this recipe in my home as your steps you write in this article and this is so easy to make this recipe. It is amazing to make and very interesting.
Very useful and helpful for me to make recipes like that very easily in my home.
Thank You!!!
I grew up, and still love in, huckleberry country. For me: blueberries are the tame, watered down cousin of the huckleberry. Blueberries are less expensive to buy and easier to obtain though.
I bet the cake tastes fine but I don’t see the connection to the Cherokee people.
Did you read the post? The original recipe used huckleberries but you can’t find them in London.
As a white, American woman (with an English expat great grandmother that I never met) that’s married to a Choctaw man from Oklahoma, I couldn’t get through the blog post. I just wanted to know where the recipe was from, but dear Jesus. This is AS awkward as the tourist dehumanizing the auntie. This anecdote and accopanying musings are absolutely the equivalent of me including, for no discernable reason, that I have an English great grandparent. Gerkins, Big Ben, double decker bus, narrow flats, car boot, lift, crisps, and here’s someone else’s recipe for a steamed pudding with old fruit, the entre is, of course, a culturally innacurate curry, a newspaper full of chips, something boiled, and a bottle of gin with a nip of sherry laid out special for Nan. Mind you, I see the date on this post. But here’s my 2025, 3am contribution. For what it’s worth. Also, yes, we see what’s happening over here with the Tangerine in Chief. The descendants of the biggest rejects from England, France, and Spain ransacked a continent and called it an Empire. Like it was ever gonna end well.