Midwestern Regional Cookery: Environment

Physical environment includes the topography, soil conditions, climate, wildlife, undomesticated resources, and crops and livestock adaptable to the region. Because of geographic variability, areas within the Midwest produce unique wild foods traditional to local foodways. Thimbleberries grow in small pockets for a limited season in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and are a favorite of that area, especially of the numerous Finnish Americans living there. From southern Ohio and Indiana to Kansas the wild persimmon grows in private yards and untended in pastures, along fences, and at the edge of woods, and its sweet orange fruit is highly coveted for cooking (pie, pudding, bread, cake, cookies, ice cream) and eating out of hand. Pawpaw and hickory nuts are also native to a broad area of the Midwest, but they are especially associated with Ohio. Wild cranberries, a fruit native to North America, once grew abundantly in the marshes of Wisconsin. The domesticated varieties are descendants of the wild berries that sustained Indian people and have appeared on settlers’ tables in sauces, baked goods, and beverages since the early nineteenth century. Wild blueberries, too, abound in forest clearings and other disturbed areas that have plenty of sunlight and dry, sandy soil. Another North American native, these berries were dietary staples for Native Americans and are traditional in others’ diets as well. Berrying was a major seasonal activity for the area’s Native people, and families across the cutover forests of the northern Midwest continue to enjoy berry-picking outings.