(woman) Prairie Mosaic is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and by the members of Prairie Public.

(woman) Welcome to... a patchwork of stories about the arts, culture, and history in our region.

Hi, I'm Troy Davis.

And I'm Barb Gravel.

This week's Prairie Mosaic episode is incredibly inspiring.

Chef Candace Stock invited our production team to go foraging!

She gathered edible plants from the wild following traditional practices that she learned from her grandmother.

(Troy) Yes Barb.

Then she incorporated the native grown ingredients into a stunning dish rooted in cultural history.

The Indigenous Corn Pudding she prepares is mix of nourishing the body... and the spirit.

[acoustic guitar; finger-picking the melody & chords] (Candace) These are guild bracket mushrooms, and there's a lot of new growth.

There's also hen of the woods that grows back here, but they are in larger clusters.

and will have a slightly fruity aroma to them also.

my culture has always influenced my perspective in cooking.

I like to bring the element of food medicine to everything that I do.

As far as indigenous cuisine it's just being elevated now.

But a lot of the practices have always been there.

So now it's my job to kind of take what I've learned with my cultural background and bring that to the people.

it's just an invitation really for people to see what's out there, to taste it, then get a little bit of knowledge on how they can go out and do it themselves.

My name is Candace Stock.

We're just north of Moorhead, Minnesota on Doubting Thomas Farms.

Foraging is land stewardship practice.

it's going out into the wilderness and interacting with all the plants.

It is a necessary interaction.

Foraging heals me and I heal the land by tending to it.

There are a lot of invasive species.

So in foraging that is also our practice in going out and pulling those invasive plants so that the native plants can flourish.

Then being able to harvest all these nutrient dense plants that can be consumed at home.

People have been looking for food medicine, they've been looking for more natural ways to cure their ailments so, especially being Native American, diabetes has always been a big issue.

So getting back into the indigenous diet really helps to resolve those issues.

This little flower has the anti-anxiety properties to it.

I'll make beverages with these kind of properties.

Staghorn Sumac is also a really good one.

It kind of gets the blood flowing, makes people feel a little bit more relaxed.

I grew up on a farm near White Earth, Minnesota and harvesting throughout the year was always a big part of my childhood.

So my grandmother on my mom's side is full-blood native, and so she taught me about the medicines and how that would be applied and how to harvest it honorably in the Native way.

[bass.

guitar & banjo play in folk rhythm] ♪ In a native way, foraging is about building a relationship with-- our involvement has always been that we are designed to tend the earth.

And I think that in society we've been working backwards.

This is nature's candy.

This knowledge is supposed to be multigenerational.

We're supposed to be talking about it, we're supposed to be practicing it.

And so the more people that are interested, the better.

Getting the youth involved right away-- incredibly important because these are memories that last.

At Doubting Thomas Farms, we bring groups out to the farm.

I'll forage with them, do a small cooking demonstration afterwards or to show them how to process some of the ingredients that we forage.

I think that the long walks and the interaction with the plants, and then having that nourishment at the end really drives home the purpose of why we do it.

People get to taste the fruits of the labor right away, and it creates a stronger memory and absorption of the process.

In the harvesting practice, I pick with intention.

I think it's very important to be prepared.

You have to bring proper bags, baskets, and you want to align them in respect to plants so that it keeps its integrity.

Learning foraging, if you don't have a guide, there are a lot of plant identifier apps now.

I think it's best to just go out and catalogue as much as you can.

Once you find things that are edible, you can take them home and process them if you feel comfortable.

If you don't, it's best to have a friend that you can bounce some these thing off of.

I think the foraging community in the Moorhead and Fargo area are really expanding.

More people are processing these different land stewardship practices.

So there's more of a platform for it, I guess.

I always feel good when I forage.

It's the best way for me to ground myself, to heal, to kind of reset.

Working in a kitchen or in an office really drains me, and so the only way to really build myself back up is to be able to connect with nature.

I'd say there are a lot of lessons that I've learned in my career when it comes to preparing medicinal foods.

So the practice of foraging really connects me to my ancestors.

This land was meant to be tended to, was meant to be shared.

And as far as the nutrients that come from it-- a big part of my mission and my career as a chef is to share that medicine and that nourishment.

[acoustic guitar plays brightly] Hi.

My name is Candace Stock.

Today I will be making an indigenous porridge topped with rolled oats, and fruits, berries, nuts, and roasted squash.

First I'm going to start with the granola that will go on top of our porridge.

Here I have our rolled oats, a little over a cup, a cup and a quarter.

I'm going to top that with maple syrup.

It was harvested in Naytahwaush, Minnesota.

I'm going to toss in some of these curly dock seeds that we foraged just north of Moorhead.

Then I'm going to mix in some of the coconut oil.

You want to get everything incorporated well.

The maple syrup will help rehydrate the oats.

The coconut oil helps develop those clusters of granola.

next we're gonna add in some hemp hearts with cinnamon and pepita seeds.

And lastly some smoked sea salt and vanilla bean powder.

Once our vanilla mixture is well-mixed, we're just going to place it onto a baking sheet.

Spread this out... nice and evenly.

I don't push the granola mixture too close to the edges 'cause otherwise it'll burn.

A nice thin layer with some good spacing otherwise that maple syrup will start to pool at the bottom and it won't get that nice crunchy texture.

Now we're going to put this in the oven at 300 degrees, and it will bake for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Next we're going to prepare our squash and our roasted aronia berries.

I'm going to cut the tips off of the squash and peel.

This is a delicata squash, so it's pretty mild in flavor, it will hold its integrity well when roasting so it won't get too mushy.

Cut this in half.

We're just going to do a medium dice on this squash.

Then we're going to add the aronia berries.

Next we are going to melt just a little bit of butter to add into our squash and aronia berry mixture.

We do 2-1/2 tablespoons of butter.

We're also going to add just a pinch of salt.

This whole meal is set up so that you have a successful day, that you have energy and good fat for your brain.

There's a lot of antioxidants in this as well.

You'll find a good amount of fiber.

The butter is melted.

We're just going to pour that over our berries and squash.

Give that a mix so the butter is well-covered over the berries and squash.

Next we're going to place it on our baking sheet.

Just on the parchment paper.

Then we're going to bring this over to the oven to roast at 350 degrees.

Next we're going to prepare the corn cereal.

We're going to start by mortaring some cedar boughs.

Cedar bough is a ceremonial ingredient but also has great health benefits.

I'm going to take a little bit of the cedar bough, about a teaspoon.

We're going to add it to our pan along with about 3 tablespoons of butter.

The corn is a Haudenosaunee black corn it's nixtamalized and then ground.

I use juniper ash to process the corn.

It's alkaline, but it's also high in magnesium.

Our butter is just getting ready to boil and releasing all the essential oils that are in the cedar bough too, so it's becoming quite fragrant It almost has fruity notes when it's mixed into the butter like this, it smells really good.

We add in our corn.

I'm going to add in water.

What I have here is about a cup and a quarter of black corn meal, and then 4-1/2 cups of water.

Starting to get some bubbles.

So it's beginning to thicken.

Now I'm just going to cover this up.

And let it cook on low heat and take the time to check on our granola.

Yeah!

It's starting to brown on the edges a little bit.

I'm going to take a look at the sauce.

Nice!

It looks pretty good!

Our squash and aronia berry mixture has come out of the oven, and our granola is nice and crunchy.

So I'm going to start by taking our corn pudding mixture and just transferring it to our bowl.

Just smooth that out, just create a channel for all of our toppings.

Start with the squash and aronia mixture.

All the way around.

Then we've got our granola.

This is a mixture of cranberries and some of the black walnuts that we foraged.

They're just toasted.

We have candied spruce tips.

Just going to go around the edges here.

Use a little bit of this.

These are candied in just a little bit of sugar and maple sap.

Then this is a mixture of wildflowers that were foraged this season.

There's some lavender, grape hyacinth, jasmine, calendula flower, the goldenrod that we picked, and rose petals.

It's like a medicinal confetti.

Just going to sprinkle that around the top.

Then we'll finish off with just a little bit more of that smoked sea salt.

And there we have it-- indigenous corn pudding topped with roasted squash, aronia berry, organic granola mixed with some beautiful foraged ingredients from Minnesota.

With each stroke of her paintbrush, Jennie Ward evokes a mix of high energy and calming serenity.

She captures the natural beauty of Lake Park and shares her abstract work in local galleries for everyone to enjoy.

[piano plays in bright rhythm] I am a wife and mother of 2 children.

We also live on a little hobby farm, so I take care of the farm and just working.

Painting gives me a way to play and a way to be someone that I know I am.

And I have a lot of fun painting-- it's not work.

The colors and the smell of the oil paint and the feel of the oil paint when it goes on the canvas is innocent.

How beautiful!

It's a spiritual thing for me.

I love to paint and I love to draw.

I've been drawing since I was really young.

Growing up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, everybody wanted me to draw.

So that has continued all throughout my life.

I had dabbled in painting a little bit through high school.

But I never knew that I would fall in love with painting until my very first painting class at college.

I was able to let go and do something that I had never known before and didn't know existed.

When I first began painting in college, I was opened up to the possibility of finding something that sparked something inside of me that I never have been able to get rid of.

I worked at the Walker Art Center when I was in college, and Joanie Mitchell was having a huge show, retrospective of her work.

I'd never seen a Joanie Mitchell painting.

I was a young student at the time, and the moment that I got to work that day, and I was all alone with her paintings, it's like you're seeing outside.

The colors of her paint and the thickness of the paint-- I would be nose-to-nose with that paint, and I knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Since I was really little I wanted to be an artist.

The dream was always to have a farm and to live in the country and to have a family.

I didn't know that was possible until years after college.

I find inspiration from my animals currently.

The colors, the shapes and the lines of things-- I'm constantly looking and seeing things that really intrigue me and draw my attention.

Then when I'm down in the studio, painting is a whole different situation.

So the process of making a painting begins with building the stretches and the canvases down in the studio.

Really after they're gessoed and they're up, you just go from there and start putting paint on.

I don't have a picture in my head, it sort of developes as I'm working.

I found my style through years of working, through years of painting and just continuing to do what I love.

My style I would define as very abstract expressionistic style.

It's a lot about looking at the paint as I'm working and responding to what I'm seeing.

it's very physical for me and working a lot where I'll go from my palette to the wall-- the process of like weaving back and forth.

It's like a dance!

[violins play softly] There's no screwing up.

There are no rules down in the studio.

There's no rules when I have a piece of charcoal in my hand or when I'm mixing paint.

I think every time I finish a painting, I stand back and go wow, I didn't know that was in me.

Finishing a painting is letting it go-- a vulnerable thing to let a piece of yourself out there.

One of the first shows I had was in Fargo, North Dakota, at Ecce Gallery.

That kind of opened the door for me to just explore-- hey, I can paint while I'm a mother and a wife.

It was a challenge, but that was an opportunity for me to just learn that I can do a little more than I thought I could.

The tradition of so many wonderful painters, to do with oil, it's natural, and I love the smell, I love the texture, and this being a part of something that's so much bigger than me and adding to that story.

I think painting and drawing has always just been a part of what I do and how I see the world and how I respond to the world, how I process my feelings.

Living in Minnesota, I'm really drawn to the land, especially the farming landscape and the wide-open fields as opposed to the cityscapes of buildings.

There's something about the land here that is special.

And you can feel God in the sky and in the fields.

Dakota Pro Musica is a music and performing arts organization that provides professional- caliber performances and educational outreach programming to communities across North Dakota.

Now let's listen to a selection from their performance on Prairie musicians.

Hello, my name is Dr.

Jason Thoms.

I am the founder and Artistic Director of Dakota Pro Musica.

"God's Son Has Made Me Free" by Edvard Grieg is one of the favorite pieces of folks in the upper Midwest.

It's a Norwegian piece that sings about the gift of God giving his son to us to free us so that we may live.

So you'll hear the excitement and the joy of this folksong-like melody and the boisterous fun, energized singing.

♪ God's Son God's Son has made me free ♪ ♪ God's Son has made me free ♪ ♪ From Satan's tyranny ♪ ♪ From fear of death and bonds of sin ♪ ♪ From all that plagues my soul within ♪ ♪ The Holy One divine ♪ ♪ Became a friend of mine ♪ ♪ From heaven high from starry sky ♪ ♪ He came to live to die ♪ ♪ O boundless love He came He died ♪ ♪ He rose forever glorified ♪ ♪ He came to give ♪ ♪ To die that I might live ♪ ♪ Might live from heaven ♪ ♪ From Heaven on high He came ♪ ♪ To die that I might live ♪ ♪ Might live with Him eternally ♪ ♪ God's Son has made me free ♪ ♪ God's Son God's Son has made me free ♪ ♪ God's Son has made me free ♪ ♪ From Satan's tyranny ♪ ♪ From fear of death and bonds of sin ♪ ♪ From all that plagues my soul within ♪ ♪ The Holy One divine ♪ ♪ Became a friend of mine ♪ ♪ From heaven high from starry sky ♪ ♪ He came to live to die ♪ ♪ O boundless love He came He died ♪ ♪ He rose forever glorified ♪ ♪ He came to give ♪ ♪ To die that I might live might live ♪ ♪ From Heaven on high ♪ ♪ That I might live ♪ ♪ Might live with Him eternally ♪ ♪ God's Son has ♪ ♪ Made me free ♪ ♪ God's Son has made me free ♪ ♪ God's son ♪ ♪ Has made me free ♪ ♪ Yes free ♪ ♪ Yes free ♪ ♪ Free free ♪ ♪ Free ♪ ♪ God's Son ♪ ♪ Has made me ♪ ♪ Free ♪ If you know of an artist, topic, or an organization in our region that you think might make for an interesting segment, please contact us at... (Barb) You can stream this and other episodes of Prairie Mosaic online, and be sure to follow Prairie Public on social media For more updates and content.

I'm Barb Gravel.

And I'm Troy Davis.

Thank you for joining us for another edition of "Prairie Mosaic."

[guitar, bass, and drums play in bright country rhythm] (Barb) Prairie Mosaic is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, the North Dakota Council on the Arts and by the members of Prairie Public.