Page 34 - Georgina Island

Some members harvest plants for food, flavour, or medicinal
purposes. For example, dumpniig (horseradish root) is
traditionally used for flavour or as a remedy for pain. We also
harvest apples from the many apple trees on our island, and
many of us grow and harvest food from our gardens.

In the spring, one of our favourite delicacies is fried morels. A morel is We also enjoy puffballs very much,
a wild mushroom that has a rich woody flavour. It is always a bit of a another type of edible mushroom.
competition between community members to try to collect the most We sometimes bathe puffballs in
morels and boast of a good meal. Good harvesting areas are kept secret by milk, and then we coat them in
those who know where to find morels. breadcrumbs and pan-fry them for
a treat.

When the Trent Canal system Wild rice is a grass that is a staple of the Anishinaabe diet.
was built between 1879 and
Families no longer travel to local ricing sites in the fall to harvest
1920, flooding destroyed the
as they once did. Instead, a few community members may
conditions needed for valuable
wild rice and cranberry plants travel to rice beds and harvest as a small group in September of
to exist. Today, we partner with every year.
others who work on the health
of Lake Simcoe. Our projects
include a program to restore
wild rice beds in partnership
with conservationist Will
Wegmen, who is with the
Ontario Ministry of Natural
Resources, and the Lake Simcoe
Muskie Restoration Program.

Anishinaabe families travelled
through the rice beds by canoe,
bending over stalks of wild grass
and beating them with a rice stick
so the seeds that we cook and eat
would fall off.

32 Georgina Island First Nation

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