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Where did the early Californians get their food from ?

As with the closeness between available materials and housing form and materials, this understanding of how to best maximize the natural bounty is also evident in the early Californian’s diet. There were certainly no supermarkets trucking in packaged foods grown in other distant lands, but for early Californians, each family had its own health food ‘store’ with as much local food stuffs as they thought they would need for 1-2 years at a time. A limited amount of food was traded for with distant tribes or divisions of their own tribes, and these precious food sources were highly prized if they were not native to a location, and if they were only available at seasonal or annual festivals and trading times.

The Northern region relied primarily on salmon and wild game, the Sierra region on acorns, trout and large wild game, the Western coastal region on shellfish, deep sea fish, acorns and wild game. And the Southern desert region on mesquite beans and occasional small wild game, with some cultivation of corn, beans and pumpkins along the Colorado River.

Deer meat found in the mountains was traded for deep sea fish from the islands. Acorns from the coastal mountain oaks and plains were traded for vegetables grown inland. Acorns were also traded from the high Sierras over to the eastern hills and valleys and for salt, pine nuts and even obsidian. But for their primary foods, the early Californians had to rely on what was locally available.

The native preparation of pine nuts and abalone into food
                         Video              Audio

The native preparation of acorn meal from oak acorns
                         Video              Audio

If you have an oak tree anywhere in your community, look to see if it has left any acorns on the ground. Collect at least one acorn and compare it to those provided in our camp Outpost supply pack .Tell us at camp@rain.org – are your acorns larger or smaller, darker or lighter, or in what other way different than the ones from the coastal live oaks we have gathered to share with you ?