Ingredients:
1 16 ounce package Northland Divisions Native American Products Wild Rice Pancake Mix. (See optional substitutes in the Ingredient Notes below.)
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1/3 C melted butter
1 3/4 C buttermilk, or 1 ½ C milk
2 large eggs, beaten with 2 T water
1/2 C maple syrup
3 1/2 C blueberries, fresh or frozen
12 T maple sugar, or substitute brown sugar
1/3 C minced dried cranberries, sweetened or plain
1 T cranberry or lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and generously butter a 9” x 13” baking pan, taking care to get into the corners well.
In a large bowl, mix or sift together the pancake mix (if using) or dry ingredients, including the spices.
Add melted butter, buttermilk, egg mixture and maple syrup to the dry ingredients and mix gently. Mixture should not be over beaten, the consistency of muffin batter, lumpy and sticky.
Transfer mixture to pan. It should need to be scraped with a spatula. Spread batter into an even layer. Layer blueberries on the top and sprinkle with maple or brown sugar.
Bake 25 – 30 minutes until the top is browned and berries are bubbly.
Remove cake from the oven and sprinkle with the dried cranberries and juice.
Serve hot or cold. Many say it is better the next day!
Serve with regular whipped cream or Maple Berry whipped cream: Beat 1 C whipping cream and add 2 T maple syrup and 1 tsp cranberry or lemon juice.
Ingredient Notes:
Northland Divisions Native American Products Wild Rice Pancake Mix can be found online and in their Minneapolis store.
Wild Rice Flour adds a nutty flavor and texture to plain pancake mix. Grinding Wild Rice into Flour is not difficult using a bullet blender or other high speed blender. If you can’t find or order Wild Rice Pancake mix, use 2 C of your favorite non-buttermilk pancake mix.
A simple homemade unsweetened pancake mix can be used in this recipe containing:
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt, or more to taste
Other Pancake Mix Brands include: Kodiak Whole Grain Flapjack and Waffle Mix, Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix, Pearl Milling Company (Formerly Aunt Jemima) Original Pancake and Waffle Mix, Hungry Jack or Bisquick
Pure Local Maple Syrup can be found by reading a few grocery store labels.
Maple Sugar can be found in bulk in some food co-ops or ordered online from Native stores like Tocabe Marketplace. Besides its sweetening properties, maple sugar has long been used to season meat, vegetables, wild rice and berries!
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Story:
The maple sugar sap has been running very early this year with the record rise in temperatures in the upper Midwest and lower Canada. It soon may be that "sugaring" or tapping maple trees will slowly move far to the north because of changing weather!
You are invited to St. Joseph Ridge’s FSPA land to join Integral Ecology staff, members of the Ho-Chunk community, sisters, and affiliates to participate in this annual tradition for the boil down of collected sap on March 4 and 5. It will take place from 8 am – 8 pm or until the sap is thick enough! It is a way to join our Ho-Chunk neighbors as they reclaim the wisdom of the land which is their heritage and legacy. The photo above is a commercial unit from the Vermont Evaporator Company The one used at the Villa is just as efficient!
Maple Blueberry Wild Rice Coffee Cake is one way to use indigenous ingredients to celebrate the wisdom of the trees and the art of syrup making that settlers learned from indigenous people.
Heid E. Erdrich, author of Original Local: Indigenous Foods, Stories, and Recipes from the Upper Midwest, the source of the recipe above relays that “Maple syrup and (maple) sugar are more than simply foodstuffs to Anishinaabe and other indigenous peoples of the Upper Midwest. Maple remains essential as the first harvest of spring, the lifesaving gift of the creator, the blessed substance that once broke the fast of winter’s starvation. Maple sap is also an icon in Ojibwe stories, connecting to women and our roles as life-bringers and protectors of the waters of the earth. The importance of maple shows in the name of the first month of spring in the Ojibwe calendar, called Iskigamiige-giizis or Maple Sugar Moon.” Heid E. Erdrich
Exploring and revisiting ancestral food ways is important for all of us. By diving into our own ethnic recipes and food traditions, we can better appreciate the value of food to the culture of other peoples.
