One, two. One. Mic check.
Yeah, we're good. (speaking Anishinaabemowin
language) Thanks for tuning in.
This is Stories From The Land. ♪ Ryan: Corn Soup. When you put
these two words together, most people might imagine a pretty lacklustre
expression of food. But when these words
are mentioned to anyone from The Confederacy
of Six Nations, or other Haudenosaunee
Communities, they will smile, they will get excited,
and they will tell you about the last time they had
a good bowl of corn soup. That's because what corn soup
represents is so much more. It became a staple
at powwows and social dances because it is the literal
expression of the struggles of the Haudenosaunee
Communities of the Six Nations. Recipes and techniques
are passed down from generation to generation. And to make it the right way
can take eight to 12 hours. Some say it can take days. In Fort Erie, two men are just
beginning their relationship with this time-honoured dish. Karl, a former Red Seal chef, and Edgar,
cultural knowledge keeper. Together, they make their corn
soup to carry on the tradition, to remember the stories,
to feed their community, and to make their humble bowl of
corn soup the bowl of legends. ♪ (inaudible) What I said there
was in the language there, it says...
(speaking Indigenous language) "He intended this way." He intended us for...
(speaking Indigenous language) It's not just saying hello.
It's that peace. So, we're talking
about a peaceful mind. Edgar: I put
my tobacco in the fire and I put
my sense of mind into this. And this is all...
It all plays together. 'Cause the smoke,
it will go up where He lives... (speaking Indigenous language) And that's the Creator
that we're talking about. And I just made, what
they call "bundling our minds." (translating to
Indigenous language) "Now our minds are one." ♪ (Edgar speaking
Indigenous language) My name's Ahosenae.
That's what they call me. And it translates
to "He's known." Or, "That's his name." I also said there...
(speaking Indigenous language) "I'm Wolf Clan.
Part of the wolf family." And...
(speaking Indigenous language) "People of the great swamp."
The swampy areas or marshlands. And I also said...
(speaking Indigenous language) "That's where
I go to longhouse, is Sour Springs longhouse." And...
(speaking Indigenous language) It's where I live.
"Buffalo Creek." ♪ Karl: My name's Karl Dockstader.
(speaking Indigenous language) I said, "My name is Sunrise
of the Oneida Bear Clan." And, I gave
a greeting that said that "It's a nice day and I'm very happy
to be here with you today." When I was
in my late teen years, I can openly admit that I was
suicidal and addicted to pills. So, my family put me
with my grandmother and she showed me how to cook. And it gave me
a connection to something. And that connection is
eventually what I used to climb my way out of a lot
of the demons that I had. Those times were dark. Like, those teenage years were
lonely, and I felt isolated, and we moved a lot. And I didn't have
a connection to anything, but I was
connected to my grandma and she was connected to food. And we were all
connected through that. And now I can share that
connection with other people. I started cooking
because I needed money. I met a chef named Chef Roddy. And he was the first guy
who said, you know, "Why don't you cook?
Why don't you become a chef?" I was a hotel executive chef,
but it's a fast lifestyle, and a lot of stuff
caught up with me quick. So I left.
Like, I swore off cooking. This is a pork loin,
but, it's both the centre cut and it's got the rib roast. I like it
'cause it's got lots of fat. Normally, you would use
pork belly for salt pork. Again, 'cause it was
a cheap secondary cut. But it's not
cheap and secondary anymore. Like, salt pork
became this premium, like $15 a pound,
$20 a pound sort of thing. So, that's gonna
become the building block for the soup itself. And then that's gonna give
the flavour to the corn soup. A little bit, above and beyond
the corn and the beans. These are just
store-bought kidney beans. These will soak overnight and these will be beautiful
tomorrow, nice and soft. I'm gonna save this liquid
though and use this as part of my cooking liquid
because I want every last bit of starch and flavour that's
gonna come from these beans. I can't talk about
corn soup enough. Corn soup is one
of the most wonderful things that you'll ever have. It's absolutely tasty. It's also
culturally important to us. In my case, I try to make it
the way my sister told me that our grandmother made it. I'm presuming she made it
the way her mom made it and her grandma made it. So it's a way of travelling
back to all their kitchens. The time and love that goes into
preparing corn soup is immense. Making corn soup the real way
is a labour of love. Ryan: Corn soup
begins with, of course, corn. Dried corn to be specific. The dried corn is boiled
and put through a process of nixtamalization
before being washed and added to a bean
and protein-based broth. It sounds simple enough,
but the nuances are complex. Karl: This is last year's corn.
This is where we got lucky. We had about
30 people helping us. This is a fair amount of work. Each one of those people
put their thoughts, and their energy,
and their good thoughts, and their bad thoughts, and the things
that they enjoyed, and the things
that were troubling them. All of that
is gonna go into the corn that we're gonna prepare. We'll just pop these off and they'll just
snap off like nothing. And then we'll
take one of these. And then we'll start one. I'll start
the first one with my hand. It's not really great 'cause
it's kind of harsh on the skin, but I'll just take
these kernels off here. And then that's it.
Eventually, we'll have enough for the amount of corn
that we need today. We're gonna cook up about
four quarts which will double in size to
about eight quarts of cooked corn once it absorbs
all the water and everything. So it'll get
a nice good size on us. To keep from cutting my hands
now, um, 'cause it'll... You'll actually get little cuts
and stuff inside of your hands. So to keep from doing that,
I can just use this cob now. And then use it to...
to take off everything. Edgar: So, what I was told,
is that we take this much, we give back to the animals,
and this will be our seeds. Seeds, animals, and then whatever's
in the middle is what we ate. So that helped us sustain
for the future years. We always made sure
we had an abundance. When you see these long braids,
it was just a small braid. But the elders, they would
make braids like this long and maybe have 30,
30 in one braid. They wanted, um, a secure diet. You had to think
at least three years ahead so we had enough food for a bad winter
or a big drought. Ryan: In 1779, during
the American Revolution, the American colonies
lead by General John Sullivan began the Sullivan Campaign. Sullivan's army carried out
a scorched earth campaign. Methodically destroying
dozens of Indigenous villages through the use of fire. They also targeted the
villages'
biggest commodity: corn. The Sullivan Campaign
was an active effort by the American army
to destroy us as a people. And I think that when you think
of the first guerrilla warriors that gave western colonizers
a run for their money, I would say that, arguably, it
was the Haudenosaunee people. One of the reasons that
we were able to be so effective is we had food, man. And if you want to be a people, like, you have
to be able to eat. But, where the British
were stockpiling gold in a vault somewhere,
we were stockpiling our gold. We were stockpiling white corn. From what I had heard,
you had to have like at least two years' worth of
corn reserves to get through bad winters,
or else you were considered
to be a poorer village. So the Sullivan Campaign,
specifically, was a massive,
massive campaign of violence and brutality,
but centred around the fact that they took away
our food source first. And then that's what
made us vulnerable. And our corn fields were burned.
Our reserves were down. And, had it have not been
for the will of our people to take a seed,
and to make a point of taking that one kernel
of corn and to make sure that they put that kernel back
in the earth, one more time, then it's possible that
would've been the end of all the Haudenosaunee
people forever. Edgar has actually, like, in
the process of cooking out here, he's burnt corn. And the first time he did it,
I remember looking at him like, "What are you doing, man?" Like, "Why'd you just throw
that corn in the fire?" And then he told
the story of the burnt corn in the Sullivan Campaign and, like, it's almost at
the same time that he was like, "Go ahead and eat this too
while I tell you this story." And it was like, at the same time that
that kernel hit my mouth, at the same time
that the flavour hit me, the realization of, again, what we had to do,
as a people to survive, hit me. Edgar: One little kernel
can make a stalk. You take a whole cob and
you take off all the kernels, you have enough
to plant an acre. Tying back to our ancestors,
when they burnt the crops, they took those. It was healthy enough to eat and they grew
these stalks. They did the best
they can. Karl: We, again, have this
thing that connects us to that time
before colonization. (singing in Indigenous language) (singing in Indigenous language) (singing in Indigenous language) ♪ Woman:
Best corn soup ever is definitely
Oneida-style corn soup. And, uh, specifically, in my family
it's always my grandma's. Everybody knows that Oneidas
make the best corn soup. Especially from
Oneida of the Thames. It was a food vendor that used to travel
around the powwow circuit. They were known
as The Mohawk Soup Kitchen. You can find the best bowl
of corn soup in the world at my grandma's house. Ryan: When making corn soup
in the traditional method, you get to utilize techniques that most of us
would've never imagined. One of these techniques is to
use the ashes of other fires to break down
the hard hulls of the corn. Karl: We have hardwood
ashes that Edgar collected. We'll take a pile like this
and we'll just add it to our boiling water
with our corn already in it. It'll actually
cause a chemical reaction that'll cause
nixtamalization in the corn. And that chemical reaction will change
the composition of the corn. Uh, but it'll also help
remove the hull for us. Gary: It's getting
pretty close now. Karl: I'll get in there.
I'll get that in there. So you can see
the change happening. This is my favourite part.
- Karl: Yeah. 'Cause you can smell
the aroma of the corn. This just brings me back
to my childhood. And that's that medicine
that we talk about. This brings us
these good thoughts. It's certainly nothing that
you've probably ever smell, or can relate to
because it's just so unique. It has such a roasted...
a roasted aroma to it. If roasted umami was a word, I would say that roasted umami
is just that, like, mouth wateringly delicious. You know, you kinda wanna
go to popcorn and you wanna go to roasted corn,
but it's different from that. It's its own
kind of special roasty flavour. Definitely woodsy.
Even earthy tones. Edgar: It's looking good. And so, um, this orange here,
it's almost all the way off and we're getting into
the insides to open it up. That's what we're trying to do. And these black things here
are called the eyes. That lets us know
if the corn's opening up. Gary: My name is Gary Parker. I had a chance to teach Karl
how to make corn soup, which was a really good feeling because Karl has
a culinary background already, which helped make it easier. He understood a little bit more
of how to put soups together. It felt especially good because, you know, he had to learn
to do it a different way. I didn't know that Karl
was gonna be the one that would really pass on
the tradition as well, but I'm very appreciative
that he did. Because the more corn soup
makers we have is important. In history, we had
a lot of corn soup makers and a lot of people
who could do it. It's a long process
for somebody to learn that. So, I'm appreciative that, you know, Karl is also
sharing that knowledge as well. Karl: There's something about
the health of a corn field that I think reflects
the health of a community. I'm Oneida and you're Cayuga,
so we're Six Nations, but... but we live in the city. Edgar: Mm-hm. So I wonder what
we can bring from here back to our home community. It just blows my mind on how, when we get together,
and things happen like this. Even like this, it took
much work to plow this field. Karl: I don't know if people
know, like, how rewarding it is to help with
this, you know? Like at the time it's
a really hard day, right? But then after the fact,
you get to reflect and go, "Everybody
who is a part of this now is a part of something
much bigger than themselves and it's beautiful." And I just would love it
if we could have more of that. I imagine that our grandmas could've been really good
friends back in the day if it wasn't for colonization
and for being driven away from their home territories
into the urban environments, in both their cases actually. But I'm glad at least
that you and I can be friends. And maybe we can resume
that conversation that they never got to finish. Edgar: Absolutely.
I think that would be great. I'm glad.
I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful
for your friendship and... that we're standing
in this beautiful corn field. Karl: Yeah, we're lucky. ♪ (speaking inaudibly) ♪ Karl: We're giving this a wash.
This is our first wash. And, um, I think that
what I was taught is that this is a good time to,
again, put your words in there, to offer
your words of thankfulness. This is one of the few parts,
where in this process, you really have your hands,
like, right in the corn. Like, I'm right with
this corn right now. So, I, even
as I'm talking to you, I feel like
I'm one with this corn. And that wherever it came from,
and wherever it's gonna go, I feel like we're just
connecting at this point. So, I wanna bring
all the goodness, and good intentions,
and my well wishes for Davey, and the other people
who are gonna enjoy this, and that I wanna
put all of that in there while we're giving it a wash. I'm gonna call this
my 24 hour salt pork. I'm gonna dice this
and add it right to my beans, which is gonna make
a nice, tasty broth and build a real good basis
for the flavour and, uh, it's gonna be strong,
but not so strong that it overpowers
the corn flavour as well. Corn's got a delicate flavour. So I want a broth that is strong
enough, but not too strong. And I think this is gonna be
a nice balance right here. Karl: What do you think, Edgar?
Should we give this a try? Yeah, I really think
it's finished there. Yeah, it looks ready.
All right. There you go, my friend. Edgar: Want me
to hold your cup there? Karl: Take a little bit of this
here. No, I've got this. All right, let's find out.
Let's find out how this is. - Karl: Mm.
- Spot on. It's ace. Edgar: Beauty.
The beans give it a good taste. I think it's spot on. I've got a little bit
of saltiness from the pork and the right amount
of meatiness. And then I like that,
I like that fat, that fatty taste too.
So, it's pretty good. Edgar: I'm gonna give
this to Jill Isaacs. She does a lot of community
members favours with smoke dance
and their regalia. And she has little ones. We've gotta think
about all of her kids. She has a big family,
has a big heart. I think it's
a great way to give back. Karl: I'm gonna give this one
to Geralda Jamieson. Geralda's given a lot
to our community. Her dad, Kasai, was regarded as one of the better corn soup
makers in the community, one of the strongest
voices that we had. And Geralda is strong in
different ways from Kaisai. And, I think that that's
important that we take on some of our parents' best traits, but then also, that we find
different ways to contribute. And she's done a lot for
the centre, but also for people
outside of the centre, and for part of this community. I love being able to serve
corn soup to our elders. It's a real honour. Gary: Corn soup, it has
a very important meaning. Uh, you know,
we've gotta remember that our ancestors kept this
alive for us, you know, to have today, and it's
not just a bowl of soup. There's so much
that goes into it. There's a lot
of things that happen when soup is going together. You know, you use a good mind,
tell a lot of good stories, you share. And all that energy
is going into the soup and it's very meaningful. It's not just a bowl of soup. (Indigenous singing) Ryan: For Karl and Edgar,
the chance to make this soup only comes along
once in a while. It's important to them
that they do it right, that they
practise the techniques, hone the traditions, and it's important that they
share it with their community. That's what this dish
is really all about: closing the circle. Yes, you can talk
about food sovereignty and use all the million dollar
words you want, but really, at the end of the day,
this bowl is about community. Karl, Edgar, and others, understand that providing
a simple bowl of soup for their families and their
community teaches them about so many other
important elements of life: community, service,
traditions, and history. A little bowl of corn soup can
teach you a lot about life. ♪ ♪ If I could have a bowl
of corn soup with any celebrity, I would have to say it would be
Adam Beach from Smoke Signals. It's gotta be Mohawk Honey.
Hands down. I'd be calling her up and say, "Come on over.
Have some soup." It would be Taylor Lautner from the Twilight Saga.
(Laughing) Buffy Sainte-Marie.
No question about it. I love that woman. It would just be an honour to
bring her a bowl of corn soup.
My corn soup starts when I sprout the kernel and sing to it as I plant it. Months of labor and love goes into it.
Corn soup fucking rocks.
sweet
Removing kernels... always fun haha.