Our Recipe for Intentional Cooking at Slate School

By Julie Mountcastle, Head of School and Chief Innovator, and Grade 7 Educator

At Slate Upper School this year, our passion for history and food is flourishing in the school kitchen. We’ve been exploring the lives and traditions of Native American peoples, reflecting on how their agricultural knowledge and skills were vital for early settlers and shaped the course of history. Our students in Grade 7 are growing their understanding of the diverse perspectives on the celebration of Thanksgiving. We read one of the few surviving accounts of the event, and while the meal was certainly one of thanksgiving for the harvest, it likely differed significantly from the modern version of the meal. There may have been turkey, but venison was more likely, and any fowl would have been stuffed with onions and nuts instead of bread stuffing, as there was no butter or wheat flour available to the Pilgrims. Our beloved mashed potatoes had not yet arrived in North America from South America, and the Sweet Potato had similarly not yet arrived from the Caribbean. Cranberries were probably eaten, but without sugar, their role was that of a very tart ingredient rather than the sweet sauce we know today. The harvest of vegetables that likely prompted the celebration were corn, beans, and squash, known as “The Three Sisters”, a practice shared first by the Wampanoag People with the Pilgrims. It is a practice of interdependence, literally and metaphorically. Our ancestors learned that planting corn, beans, and squash together supported all three individual plants. The corn provided a stalk for the beans to use as a trellis, while the beans added strength to the stalk against the wind blowing from the sea. Planted beneath the corn and beans, the squash shaded the soil and helped it retain moisture even under the warmest summer sun. The success of this trio was likely a primary reason for the successful harvest, celebrated at the meal that Abraham Lincoln later formalized as Thanksgiving. The practice is not new to the students of Slate School, as they have been planting this trio together in our school garden for years.

Our students thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to cook food for themselves and each other. This week, the recipe we chose to make was Three Sisters Fritters. We have several considerations for any cooking we undertake. Dietary restrictions for some of our students make gluten, dairy, and eggs problematic, in addition to nuts, which are absolutely out of the question. This recipe checked all of the boxes and was, with the help of air fryers, imminently manageable. The work began by preparing and baking two halved acorn squash. In lieu of egg, we opted for the meat of roasted sweet potatoes from our garden to bind our fritters. We chopped and sauteed onion with corn, and we mashed the beans to be ready for combining with the cooled squash. We added corn meal, formed the patties in roughly 1/4 cup measures, and put them in the air fryer. While they cooked, we made a honey mustard sauce. When they came out of the fryer, we sprinkled them with coarse salt and served them warm to the rest of the class. The fritters were widely appreciated, and the recipe was shared with many. It doesn’t take much to create connections to the past with food. Although our recipe certainly made accommodations for a more modern palette, it was the idea of the Three Sisters that resonated as we ate together. The ingredients grew together and then complemented each other both in taste and texture in the fritter. We hope you’ll try this recipe at your house this year and that it brings you even closer to understanding and appreciating the gifts we share and receive from one another throughout the year, just like The Three Sisters. While we celebrate the bounty of the Three Sisters, we also recognize that for many Native Americans, the history of European settlement and the legacy of colonization are intertwined with this harvest tradition. It's important to approach these foods and their history with respect for the cultural and historical significance they hold.