Cranberries or Mashkiigimin in Ojibwe have been used by American Indians for many purposes. The berry has immense medicinal properties and was sometimes used to dye cloth. Check out this old-fashioned Uncooked Cranberry Relish Recipe and consider your favorite uses of the cranberry.

Try this simple Native American Corn Hominy Soup and give thanks. Corn is a sacred food and bringing it from seed to table is a sacred process. Learn more about Sister Corn and her place in the whole community.

National Native American Heritage Month in November invites us to explore the heritage, culture and experience of Indigenous peoples both historically and in American life today. This month The Seasoned Franciscan will include recipes for foods sacred to Native Americans.

This fall recipe for "Pumpkin Soup" offers pumpkin food ways facts. Find out how scholars use food like squash and pumpkin to trace history and culture from Central to North American, Europe and back to American tables. Even China and India produce and export pumpkin. Once again, stories connect us across the globe!

In September and October, local Apples featured in the "Fall Apple Salad" Recipe are at their peak in most of North America. For those of us who are not farmers, there are lots of markets for "pick your own" and bagged apples. This post includes a link to help you find a pick-your-own farm for apples and much more near where you live!  Read on for tips for to freezing fresh apples!

Three Sisters' Harvest Bowl recipe uses what Native peoples consider their siblings: squash, beans, and corn. Native languages do not use the pronoun "it" when referring to the natural world. Trees and all plants, animals, rocks and water are "he" or "she." Read about the importance of food plants as family. Look for celebration of Indigenous People's Day this week in your area.

Original Local refers to the foodways of Native peoples, indigenous to the Americas who called the western hemisphere long before European settlers arrived. The next few recipes will feature native foods such as this easy recipe for Butternut Squash, one of the Three Sisters in their cuisine and a fall favorite to many!

Summer abundance. It pours forth richly and wonderfully in oh so many ways. Including tomatoes!  Making quick and easy meals gives us more time to enjoy summer abundance. Pasta Fresca is one of Margaret Bluske's family favorite quick and easy recipes, made all the more delicious by the fact that it is strictly for this time of year, when the tomatoes are vine-ripened and the basil is fresh.

At this time of year, tomatoes couldn't be more gorgeous! This Tomato Upside Down Cornbread celebrates them. One of the healing secrets of food is that when we slow down, we can more intensely appreciate the beauty of all that our Mother earth produces! Use all your senses to take in the beautiful color and shape, fragrance, feel and intricacy of the fruits of creation!

Many of us did not know Sister Eulalia, yet her cornbread is remembered long after she passed from our midst! When we make something with love, the gift and the love it embodies is present. Honor her as you enjoy her cornbread recipe and whet your appetite for some tidbits about corn.

An easy recipe for Homemade Salsa from Vicki Lopez-Kaley and her friend Karen Imholte is great with chips, as a base for chili with beans, or in Mexican dishes. Learn how to can it to put “summer in a jar”!

September 1st through October 4th is the Season of Creation. Find out how this Season introduced by Pope Francis can help us reflect, learn and act in a deeper partnership with our brothers and sisters of the human and non-human world! Check out the information and opportunities to honor Creation.