In my kitchen lately, I’ve been trying to focus on celebrating the flavors of the season before the weather changes over the next few months. There’s a passage from a favorite cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman, that’s been inspiring me. He writes:

“Think of August’s sweet corn roasted over a fire to be crispy and succulent, of poached eggs on a bowl of soft cornmeal, of a hearty, rich black bean soup. Not one of these dishes is difficult or complex and they’re made with ingredients found right outside our back door. To build the indigenous kitchen, I began by turning my focus to the foods that have always been available here.”

As Sean has shown us so deliciously through projects like the award-winning restaurant Owamni and the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), seasonality in our kitchens, prioritizing local and Indigenous ingredients, and elevating the wisdom of folks who’ve been practicing sustainability for generations all go hand-in-hand.

“There’s so much amazing knowledge that we could really integrate from Indigenous communities on a global scale, understanding all these diverse food systems,” Sean told me on an episode of the Food Talk podcast. “When we’re looking at Indigenous values around food systems, it’s really community based,” he tells Food Tank.

That’s what Sean’s upcoming projects on Indigenous and local food systems aim to accomplish, too. He and a couple collaborators have a new cookbook coming out this fall that I’m very excited for, called Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. And he’s expanding operations in Minneapolis with a new commissary kitchen space that’ll allow NATIFS to supply Indigenous meals to hospitals, schools and colleges, large corporations, and other institutions. Plus, he’s a featured speaker at Food Tank’s Climate Week NYC programming next month—so CLICK HERE to explore our whole lineup and learn how you can join us.

Read the full article about Indigenous and local food systems by Danielle Nierenberg at Food Tank.