Corn soup: from field to bowl

SIX NATIONS – The Grade 7 class at Emily C. General School is learning the art of white corn preparation for traditional corn soup.

Last week, teacher Suzie Miller and Floretta Hill, Early Childhood Development Worker for Six Nations Health Services, brought the students to a white corn field on Fourth Line Rd. to start the long process of making corn soup, from field to bowl. The reward will be eating their own soup together.

“A few people have stopped producing white corn so it has created a shortage, so people are going to have to go back to the basics and learn how to produce it themselves,” says Hill.

Six Nations Police Services lent out the community van to transport the students.

“I’ve never been in a white corn field before,” says Miller. “So we are here, and we are just picking corn, and we’re going back to the school, and we’re going to braid it, dry it and we’re going to be making corn husk dolls. Then we’re going to learn how to lye the corn. We’re doing everything.”

Before going out on their corn harvesting field trip, the students learned about the historical significance and spiritual importance of corn soup to traditional Haudenosaunee people.

“My favourite part of the teaching is that when you have a braid of corn hanging in your home, it’s like having a baby, so you really have to watch your words and have a good mind,” says Miller. “And so, we are going to hang some corn in our classroom. It just reminds us how to treat each other.”

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