i just had a conversation the other night with a local chef who has spent his life studying native cuisine, and is about to open a restaurant in minneapolis that will focus on indigenous ingredients and cooking methods. of course bison will be on the menu. but my favorite part of his story had to do with salt. i frankly never wondered to myself how native americans found salt, or even if they used salt at all. but there was salt everywhere in the wild, if you knew where to look. we’ve all heard the term salt marsh. well, that was one source of salt. the plants in a salt marsh pulled salt from the soil so effectively that the salt actually crystallized on their stalks, and could be wiped off into waiting vessels, and kept for seasoning food. sometimes i think i want to live for a thousand years, so i can keep hearing stories like that about the world.

bison horns

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