Insight into the Luiseno Diet

The property on which Tierra Miguel farms is owned by the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, one of seven bands of the Luiseno Indians. We, here at the farm, strive to connect to the cultural past of Pauma Valley and its native inhabitants, and in so doing continue to learn about the Pauma Indians and their traditional diet. Before the times when cheap food could be quickly shipped around the world, people of all cultures had to depend upon locally available foodstuffs to make up most of their diet.

Below are some traditional foods that the Luiseno have enjoyed since time immemorial.From the Pauma Band website
( http://www.pauma-nsn.gov/pauma-tribal-culture.html ):

The Luiseño people enjoyed life in a land rich with diverse plants and animals. Our people have been described as hunters and gatherers. The men hunted deer, antelope, rabbits, wood rats, ducks, quail, seafood and various insects. Hunters used bows and arrows, spear throwers, rabbit sticks, traps, nets, clubs and slings to catch game. Fishermen and traders used dugout canoes in the ocean and tule reed boats or rafts in the rivers and lakes. Family groups had specific hunting and gathering areas in the mountains and along the coast. Individuals from outside these groups only crossed the boundaries of these areas upon permission.

Women gathered seeds, roots, wild berries, acorns, wild grapes, strawberries, wild onions and prickly pear in finely woven baskets. The Pauma and other Luiseño peoples are world renown for their expertise in coiled baskets made from the flora of the region.

At the heart of our traditional foods is wìiwish, a tasty ground acorn mush and healthy food staple rich in protein. Evidence of acorn and seed processing and shellfish use dominates ancient sites throughout the Luiseño territory. The most visible evidence is the bedrock milling stone mortars used for processing seeds like acorns. These bedrock mortars sites are located throughout our region.

The traditional territory of the Luiseño people extends along the coast, from the north near San Juan Capistrano, south to the Encinitas/Carlsbad area and east to the valleys of the coastal mountains and Mt. Palomar. Today this area is in northern San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties.

Tierra Miguel is growing domesticated versions of the following traditional Luiseno foods; roots, wild berries, wild grapes, strawberries, and wild onions. Currently growing at the farm are carrots, beets, radishes, potatoes, grapes, raspberries, strawberries and onions among many other items.

Wiiwish is the Luiseno dood that I would most like to taste. My understanding is that it was a staple of their diet. Stay tuned to read how wiiwish and other traditional foods continue to be part of the Luiseno diet.

Student Garden

The experimental/educational/student garden at the farm is growing by leaps and bounds. The hops and grapes are being trained to grow into living walls of the ramienda and create a cool place to relax. Yesterday the raspberries were sheet mulched to help them survive the blazing summer heat. New trees are being added as well, including pomegranates, apricots and chinese mulberries. The pecan trees are recovering nicely as well, after being chewed back to twigs by the squirrels last year.

As I learn new techniques through my permaculture course, they will be implemented in the garden. It's a big experiment and so far things are going well. Stay tuned for additional updates as new things are always happening.

Are Traditional Diets Important?

Traditional diets connect people to their cultural history, but more significantly than that, peoples have co-evolved with food. The co-evolution of peoples with their place-specific diets has allowed the consumers to efficiently assimilate into themselves the necessary nutrients from regionally available foodstuffs. Changes in diet have consistently occurred over time, though on a gradual basis, in tune with the migration of people. New food items are introduced into diets by traders and travelers and if accepted have been cultivated when possible. Subsequent generations of the introduced crop become adapted to the region as well as to the people who inhabit it.

For those groups whose diets evolved more rapidly than the consumers, re-establishing a connection to the diet that they evolved with would contribute to the reduction in diet-related disease. Additionally a reconnection could act as a vector through which an increased connection to ones cultural history could be achieved. America has become so proficient at exporting its diet to the world, it has become desired globally. Now the foodstuffs alone do not suffice, the ideology is desired and has begun to permeate the belief systems of other regions as well. The efficiency of globalism in making the foodstuffs themselves and the ideology behind their production widely available has allowed for their adoption more rapidly than the novel consumers can evolve to efficiently utilize thus leading to disease in the forms of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.