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Cooking Up Camas
(Camassia quamash)
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The beautiful blue blooms you see
in the fields and meadows in the Willamette Valley in early
spring is the camas - - a staple in the diet of the Kalapuya
Indians. A type of lily, the camas was (and still is) readily
available in the wild. The bulbous root resembles the onion
in shape and consistency but is considerably more bland in taste.
Camas has also been called a wild hyacinth.
According to the journals of Merriwether Lewis, the Indians
either ate the quamash "in its natural state, or boiled
into a kind of soup, or made into a cake, which is then called
pasheco. After the long abstinence, this was a sumptuous treat."
Other sources say the Indians dried the root in a very specific
procedure after harvesting. They started a fire at the bottom
of a hole they had dug and let it die down to hot coals. Then
they spread the coals over the bottom of the hole, covered them
with dirt and leaves, placed the camas on top, added another
layer of dirt and leaves, and built another fire on top of the
whole thing. They cooked the camas for 24 to 48 hours to preserve
it for consumption in the winter months.
The camas thus prepared was ground into meal in a large stone
mortar with a pestle. To cook it, sometimes water was added
to the ground meal to make a batter - - which was then fried
on a large flat rock - - to make something similar to a pancake.
Or, often the meal (and a small amount of water) was formed
into large bricks weighing up to ten pounds, which were cooked
in stone kilns that quickly seared the outside while leaving
the inside moist for future use.
Harriet L. Smith, who wrote an Oregon vignette entitled Camas,
the Plant that Caused Wars, says the name appears in Greek mythology,
which tells of a plant started from the blood of a beautiful
Spartan youth, Hyacinthus, whose death was caused by jealous
Zephyrus. But, in the Willamette Valley, camas preserved and
sustained life and brought beauty to Spring.
Written by Jordis Schick, compiled by Cynthia Harvey and Monica
Mersinger
Bibliography:
Marion County HISTORY, Volume XV, Page 4. (Previously published
May 1992, Vol. 30, No. 4)
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