Root Words

Bison and Home Butchering

This past week during an interview for root words I started getting a storm of messages coming in over my phone and it turns out that my brother Pete got a deer late one afternoon just before the snow storm came in. My father and I loaded up the car and a plastic sled and headed out To help drag. The whole ordeal took us three hours left is all good and tired. This weekend the family convened to do at home butchering of this harvested deer and I thought it would be nice to present a short snapshot of our amateur process, With a little professional context from my conversation at farmers market with Hunter Hubbard of Mountainview Bison in North Clarendon, Vermont.

Today, most folks probably haven’t had the experience of processing their own meat from an animal they’ve raised or harvested, even if they’ve been a meat eater their entire lives.  In many ways it can be like taking on a large gardening project, it can be a bit daunting to get into, a lot of hard work, and very rewarding and educational.  

As I mentioned in episode 13: Hunting, A Family Tradition, my father and uncle learned to process deer from their father, and from Uncle Lindy the family butcher.  Pete and I have stirred up this tried and true family tradition and knowledge a bit by incorporating some stuff we learned on the internet.  There are YouTube how-to’s on everything, and we can’t resist cosplaying our Italian heritage with the search for a delectable Osso Buco cut.   

We may have fallen short of the perfect Osso Buco, but we did make some more family memories, and we will make some great family dinners.  

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Hunter Hubbard from Mountain View Bison, my father Peter, my brother Pete, uncle Mike, and farmer Scott for letting us use his barn to process Pete’s deer.  

To learn more about Mountain View Bison, look them up on FaceBook.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

 

Abenaki Land Link Part II: Tribal Gardens, Processing, and Distribution

A lot of Abenaki folks as well as community partners are rebuilding Abenaki Foodways- growing, processing, and distributing Abenaki crops.

On this episode we hear from a few Abenaki gardeners, Chief Shirly Hook of the Koas Abenaki and Michael Descoteaux.  And later we hear what it takes to get from garden to plate, while we connect with Roland Bluto and Joe Bossen.  

The Abenaki Land Link project addresses the overlapping challenges of how to develop contemporary Abenaki foodways inside a western colonized food system while creating food security for a people historically removed from land access.  The project also opens opportunities for Abenaki and non- Abenaki folks to partner on solutions to these complex challenges.   If you would like to support the Abenaki in their journey towards food sovereignty, you can connect with Zea Luce at NOFA-VT about becoming a Land Link grower, and by keeping an eye out for Abenaki branded products.  

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Chief Shirly Hook, Michael Descoteaux, Roland Bluto, and Joe Bossen.

To learn more about the Abenaki Land Link program or to sign up as a grower visit nofavt.org.  Learn more about Chief Don Stevens’ food sovereignty work at abenakitribe.org, and to learn more about what Joe Bossen is up to in the kitchen, check out vermontbeancrafters.com. 

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Abenaki Land Link Part I

Food Sovereignty is basically when a person or a people have agency over their foodways.  Many people today do not have this agency, including Vermont’s indigenous communities.  We heard from Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan band of the Abenaki in episode 10, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont, about his three pronged approach to creating more food security for Abenaki citizens.    

For Abenaki people today, growing and distributing culturally relevant and healthy food is challenging because of the limited access to tribal lands.  Chief Don Stevens and others have addressed this difficulty by cultivating partnerships with generous land stewards and organizations like NOFA-VT, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.   

In episode 11 we heard about the work of Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi, Abenaki led programs that bridge traditional and contemporary foodways.  Many seeds from Seeds of Renewal make it into tribal gardens and Abenaki Land Link gardens across the state, gardens and growers that are coordinated by NOFA-VT.   

On this episode we get out to the field and hear about growing Abenaki foods in Vermont, while we connect again with Chief Don Stevens and with Zea Luce of NOFA-VT.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Zea Luce, and all of the Abenaki Land Link growers across the state.

To learn more, check out NOFA-VT’s Agricultural Literacy Week YouTube video on the Abenaki Land Link Project or at NOFAVT.org.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Foraging

Before there was home delivery, before there were supermarkets, before there was refrigeration, even before people cooked their food, people fed themselves and their families by foraging their landscape.  Collecting food, medicine, or provisions from our environment is perhaps the closest we can get to our food-source, and the places we live.  Much of the world continues a healthy relationship to their home though foraging, and even here in the US, foraging is having a re-emergence spurred by revivals of tradition and quests for self-sufficiency and connection to one’s landscape, even in urban environments.  

On this episode I head into the woods with my brother Pete, and connect with a few inspired foraging folks: Walter Collins and Tina Picz. 

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Walter Collins, Tina Picz, and the VT Foragers community for ID support and inspiration.  

To learn more, check out Vermont Foragers on Facebook and Tina Picz on Instagram at VermontFoodPhoto.  You can learn more about Vermont Releaf Collective at www.vtreleafcollective.org.  For a real treat, and this is highly recommended, check out Alexis Nikole on Instagram or Facebook @blackforager. 

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Hunting, A Family Tradition

On this episode of Root Words We’ll hear about Vermont’s deer hunting tradition.  Hunting is important in Vermont, it’s even protected under the state constitution. It’s one of the oldest ways that people have connected with their food source and their extended family, And on this episode, we’re going to hear from my family.  My father Peter, and cousin Joe’s daughter Valentina.  

Vermont has over 800,000 acres of federal and state land open to hunting and 65,000 resident hunters, most of whom hunt white-tailed deer.

Many youth first experience Vermont's forested landscape following a parent or guardian through the woods during hunting season and, if the hunt is successful, will have local venison to share with their family and friends.

This episode of Root Words was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Peter Abatiell Jr., Valentina Duval, Allen Mills, and the rest of my family.

Very deep thanks to the deer I harvested during the making of this episode and to the forest that raised it.  

You can learn more about hunting in Vermont, including hunter safety courses, seasons, and regulations by visiting Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife website at- www.vtfishandwildlife.com

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Veteran Food Security

Peacemaking was the original intent of Veteran’s Day.  In 1926 congress passed the resolution to set aside the 11th of November honoring the Armistice of World War I with these words…

“Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations…”

For this episode I spoke with Richard Gallo, who practices goodwill, feeding and sheltering the Veteran community. It’s a wonderful example of active peace making.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell

Special thanks to Richard Gallo, our Veteran community, and those who support them.  

To learn more about resources available to eligible veterans and their families, please visit The Vermont Veterans and Family Outreach Program online.  The 24 Hour Resource Line for Crisis Situations can be reached at (888) 607-8773  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi

Saving seeds from this year's crop for next year is one of the oldest ways that communities have planned for and preserved their future.

Seeds of renewal is adding a modern research component to plan for the future we face today, to build food system resiliency in the changing climate.

On this episode of Root Words, We talk Chief Don Stevens and Morgan Lamphere of Alnobaiwi.

And we’ll hear little about the Abenaki agricultural calendar's new life.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Morgan Lamphere, and the folks at Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi.  

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Season 2 Trailer

Season 2 of Root Words is coming!  This season we're going deeper into the ways that folks are experiencing their food system.  Join us!

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont

Vermont officially recognizes 4 Abenaki tribes today.  The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, and the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation.

Up until industrialization, and throughout much of the world today, a community’s access to food is tightly woven in with that community’s access to land.

On this episode of Root Words, We talk with Chef Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens.

And we’ll hear little about the Abenaki community’s connection to this land, game animals, and traditional food ways, and we’ll hear how these living traditions have continued to evolve and grow through contemporary times.  

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens.

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Vermont Food Hubs

In this episode we look at how we got to the global food system we have today, and the lessons that our past holds for a new, more local future.

This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell.

Special thanks to Greg Cox, Jack Crowther, The Rutland Historical Society, The Vermont Historical Society, Bob Hauslien, Harley Sterling, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders.

Additional music in this episode by the Victor Herbert Orchestra.

Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.