Food For Talk Cookbook Club: Turtle Island

About this event

Food for Talk is a book club for anyone interested in cooking! Instructions on how to join this community of home cooks and fellow culinary travelers can be found after the description of this month's cookbook. If reading about food, experimenting with new recipes and learning from other cooks sounds fun, sign up and join us on the second Sunday of every month at 3pm! Locations vary.

This month: Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America by Sean Sherman

Please register with Barbara Shatara at bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov

About this month's cookbook: Turtle Island by Sean Sherman

Growing up on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman understood that his people’s food was rich in flavor, heritage, and connection to the land. It was in the midst of a successful restaurant career mainly cooking European cuisines that he realized the lack of understanding about Native American foodways—a revelation that sent him on a journey to learn more about how Indigenous communities have preserved and evolved their cuisines through the centuries. Now a leading figure in the Indigenous food movement, he shares in Turtle Island the unique and diverse Native foodways of North America through both traditional and modern recipes made with ingredients that have nourished Indigenous peoples physically, spiritually, and culturally for generations.

Organized by region, this book delves into the rich culinary landscapes of Turtle Island—as many Indigenous cultures call this continent. Learn to eat with the seasons, consume meat and fish nose-to-tail, focus on plant-forward dishes, and discover how to better feed yourself. Alongside delicious recipes like Smoked Bison Ribeye , Wild-Rice Crusted Walleye Cakes , Charred Rainbow Trout with Grilled Ramps, Sweet Potato Soup with Dried Venison and Chile Oil, Sunflower Seed “Risotto,” and Sweet Corn Pudding with Woodland Berry Sauce (and so much more), you’ll see the inspiring Indigenous food scene through Sean’s eyes.

Exemplifying how Native foodways can teach us all to connect with the natural world around us, Turtle Island features rich narrative histories and spotlights the communities producing, gathering, and cooking these foods, including remarkable stories of ingenuity and adaptation that capture the resilience of Indigenous communities.

How to Join:

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. Register with Barbara Shatara bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov

2. Pick up a copy of the book from the Library's Main Desk.

3. Read it, make a dish (not required though) and bring it to the discussion at 3 pm.