Photo by: John Yuccas

Seward Co-op Creamery Café hosted its fourth Farm Table dinner on Tuesday, April 17 with Dream of Wild Health, a Native American-led, nonprofit farm and youth-leadership program. The meal, created by Chef de Cuisine Matt Kappra, featured Indigenous ingredients supplemented with locally raised, grown, or made ingredients.

Photo by: John Yuccas

Some of the Creamery’s Farm Table dinners have featured local farms which are too small-scale to meet the demand of Seward Co-op stores, but a perfect size to meet the volume of our Café. Most recent Farm Table dinners have highlighted SEED recipients. Diners were thrilled to enjoy ingredients sourced from Native-owned producers, and inspired by Dream of Wild Health’s community work. Fresh and crisp produce from Wozupi Tribal Gardens’—spinach, daikon radish, winter greens—brought color and brightness to plates throughout the three courses. Red Lake Nation Fishery’s wild-caught walleye took center stage in the smoked walleye rillettes and again with a slow roasted duck breast, their sweet-and-sour chokeberry sauce balanced the savory elements of the dish. Puffed wild rice from Autumn Harvest piqued the curiosity of many Farm Table diners and sparked conversation throughout the room.

Photo by: John Yuccas

Red Lake Nation Fishery— As an Indian Nation, the people of Red Lake Nation are the guardians of the land and protect its natural state by managing over development. They are dedicated to preserving the health of beautiful Red Lake and all of its inhabitants. The tribal fisherman still fish in the traditional ways, using the wisdom of elders that was handed down from generation to generation. The fish are wild-caught by tribal fishermen, employing local knowledge and ancestral practices to deliver quality fish products in the most natural way. In doing this the tribal-owned company is helping the local Red Lake economy grow, by providing many jobs, and reinvestment opportunities in their small community.

Wozupi Tribal Gardens is an organic farm committed to growing food in a way that nourishes the earth, the community, and people’s minds and bodies. Using environmentally-sustainable and fair labor practices, they grow vegetables, herbs and fruit, produce eggs, honey, and maple syrup, and provide educational, therapeutic, and fun opportunities at the farm and through community outreach.

Autumn Harvest—Ronda and Randy Beaulieu are proud to offer wild rice that is hand-picked by members of the Ojibwe Nation. The rice is then “parched” or finished, in Sawyer, Minnesota. Traditional wild rice is dramatically different than paddy-grown “cultivated” wild rice and offers a true taste of Minnesota.