Indigenous People's Day in Watertown MA: Food, Culture, History

10.10.22 Branch Line Restaurant, Arsenal Yards, Watertown, MA

“Join us September 30th through October 10th to celebrate Indigenous Food Week! Organized by the Pigsgusset Initiative, a working group of Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice and the Environment. Pigsgusset Initiative and Branch Line have partnered with acclaimed Wampanoag Chef Sherry Pocknett to bring you three Wampanoag dishes: Three Sisters Garden Succotash, Corn Cakes, and Cranberry Chutney. By introducing diners to Wampanoag cuisine, we honor culinary traditions perfected across hundreds of generations by the original peoples to inhabit this land.”

Serendipity:  At a recent social at my house, the first since March 2020, my neighbor Mishy Lesser asked, “Would you put up a yard sign for this event?”

Mishy is one of the shakers and movers who created “Watertown Celebrates Indigenous People’s Day” along with a team from The Pigsgusset Initiative.

Mishy floated the idea to  Branch Line Restaurant owner Garrett, who viewed it as an opportunity to widen the lens on the menu and serve cultural awareness along with food associated with Native American history.

Like a pebble tossed into a pond, the ripples of the original idea spread around town to lap against a well-known restaurant. a famous chef, community organizations and The First Parish of Watertown.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Watertown Community Foundation, Mishy reached out to Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett who developed a menu with Branch Line’s chef Ivan Conill.

The two chefs had fun together in the kitchen, tasting, tweaking, and beaming with delight. Then Chef Sherry and Mishy trained the kitchen and wait staff in the in the culinary history and meaning of the dishes.

Saturday evening, October 1, Branch Line Restaurant

My dining companion and I enter a culinary time machine and sample both of Chef Sherry Pocknett’s Wampanoag dishes...Three Sisters Succotash (Paquahog Clams with local squash, beans, corn) and Journey cakes.

The 2 generously sized journey cakes, cornmeal flatbread cooked on a griddle were served with oh-so-good thick sweet cranberry chutney and garnished with chopped scallions. The journey cakes were the size of the dinner plate, a meal in itself. Likewise, the Three Sisters Garden Succotash, a large shallow bowl filled with  half a dozen Paquahog Clams with local squash, beans, corn, and chopped scallions. The clams are just one of the ways Chef Sherry adds protein to the dish.

These two staples of Native American northeast coast tribes required no refrigeration, were dried, and used in foods for months after harvest.

Journey Cakes, also known as Johnny Cakes, have their roots in Native American culture but recipes exist in latitudes from Newfoundland to southern states to the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

Confederate soldiers stuffed them into their pockets for sustenance on the march.

Johnny cakes were a staple for Rhode Islanders for centuries.

Here’s where the water gets deep. In the Ocean State, fist fights have broken out arguing about the provenance of johnny cakes.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/15/garden/johnnycake-is-traditional-and-controversal-in-rhode-island.html

Keep this in mind when you branch out to try Johnny Cakes. 

Many thanks to Mishy Lesser who contributed facts to the story and corrected an earlier version.

Entering Branch Line during construction in Arsenal Yards

Branch Line, heated open patio on L and restaurant on R

Indigenous Food Menu

Rockey's Spritz - Aperol, Rockey's Liqueur, Cava, highly recommended by this writer.

Journey Cakes served as a pair, we each had one. Deliciously dense, moist, filling (and larger than appears in  photo).

Three Sisters Garden Succotash: a large shallow bowl filled with  half a dozen Paquahog Clams with local squash, beans, corn, and chopped scallions.

Branch Line, heated open patio on L and restaurant on R

Interior

Illuminated stack, remnant of original 1816 Watertown Arsenal Building reported to be one of the largest steel-frame structures in the United States, sized to accommodate both very large gun carriages and the equipment used to construct them. A venture to Branch Line serves as an appetizer to visitors interested in history of early American mechanized industry.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Other resources

https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/johnnycakes.htm

https://watertowncitizens.org/working-groups/pigsgusset-initiative/

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/10/09/arts/tess-lukey-appointed-first-curator-native-american-art-trustees-reservations/

Comments

[Francesca]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for sharing your blog post. Wonderful -- as were the whole initiative AND the Wampanoag dishes that I too savored last evening at Branch Line with Andrea and a couple of other friends who joined us from Somerville for the special event. (Thank you, Mishy!)

[Paul A Tamburello, Jr aka pt at large]

Happy that the event is drawing a crowd to savor and appreciate the deep culinary roots all around us.
Sharing food with friends is so satisfying and in this case a learning experience.
PT