Meagan Baldy is changing Native eating habits one video at a time.
From her home kitchen, Meagan Baldy, director of the Hoopa Community Garden, is teaching people how to cook meals with local, Native ingredients. Baldy launched her cooking series in fall 2013 on YouTube and Facebook to promote healthy lifestyles and agricultural sustainability in her community and throughout Indian country.
This week’s menu features black trumpet, kale and salmon stir fry—all sourced from local Native businesses or the Hoopa Food Distribution Program and Vegi Club shares—a Community Supported Agriculture.
She promotes leafy greens and superfoods, like kale and trumpets, as well as wild fish and game.
“Mushrooms are a great source of vitamin E; they’re full of antioxidants,” Baldy says on her most recent video. “They have a lot of qualities good for us if you’re trying to loose weight; they are a metabolic booster,” she tells viewers. Holding up the kale, she explains it’s a good source of iron.
“I like to take comfort foods we’re used to preparing and add fresh new ingredients,” Baldy told the Two Rivers Tribune. “You have the familiar flavors, plus something new and nutritious.”
Over the past six years, Baldy has converted the diet of her family. “My family, especially my husband, was the meat and potatoes type of family,” Baldy said. “But now they all love kale. They know it goes well with everything. Now they love to promote it, and other healthy foods just as much as I do.”
Beyond her weekly cookng show, Baldy can be found in the Hoopa at K’ima:w Medical Center’s Diabetes Program, and leading short cooking lessons at Hoopa Elementary School. She’s even got some students hooked on kale smoothies, she told the Two Rivers Tribune.
Baldy’s videos are filmed in collaboration with Hoopa Food Distribution, the Klamath-Trinity Resource Conservation District, Hoopa Food Policy Council, K’ima:w Medical Center, Hupa Resource Center and other organizations. Check out her YouTube channel here.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/12/hoopa-howcast-antioxidant-packed-stir-fry-trumpet-kale-and-salmon-153536 Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/12/hoopa-howcast-antioxidant-packed-stir-fry-trumpet-kale-and-salmon-153536