Published by Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
Summary
In these coming-of-age tales set on the Menominee Indian Reservation of the 1980s and 1990s, Thomas Pecore Weso explores the interrelated nature of meals and memories. As he puts it, “I cannot separate foods from the moments in my life when I first tasted them.” Weso’s stories recall the foods that influenced his youth in northern Wisconsin: subsistence meals from hunted, fished, and gathered sources; the culinary traditions of the German, Polish, and Swedish settler descendants in the area; and the commodity foods distributed by the government—like canned pork, dried beans, and powdered eggs—that made up the bulk of his family’s pantry. His mom called this “survival food.”
These stories from the author’s teen and tween years— some serious, some laugh-out-loud funny—will take readers from Catholic schoolyards to Native foot trails to North Woods bowling alleys, while providing Weso’s perspective on the political currents of the era. The book also contains dozens of recipes, from turtle soup and gray squirrel stew to twice-baked cheesy potatoes. This follow-up to Weso’s Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir is a hybrid of modern foodways, Indigenous history, and creative nonfiction from a singular storyteller.
Author
THOMAS PECORE WESO is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Nation of Wisconsin. He is the author of Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), which won a national Gourmand Award, and the children’s book Native American Stories for Kids. Weso is an alumnus of Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas, where he earned a master’s degree in Indigenous studies. He is a born-and-bred Cheesehead and a happy family chef. He currently resides in Sonoma County, California.
Reviews
“This book is not only about survival food, but about the singular beauty, creativity, and fortitude that comes out of that survival.”
—Chef Sean Sherman, author of The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen
“Nothing brings people together like good food and good stories. There’s an abundance of both in Thomas Pecore Weso’s latest memoir. As Weso attests, food can bring back happy, loving memories of times that were far from happy. Even a tray of funeral sandwiches brings a kind of comfort. This is a wonderful, honest portrait of northeastern Wisconsin, enlightening even to those of us who call this area home.”
—Jared Santek, Founder & Artistic Director, Write On Door County
“Survival Food provides ample nourishment for the mind and body. . . . The stories, told with humor and affection, are complemented by recipes ranging from mouth-watering instructions for cooking wild asparagus to ever-so-interesting advice for preparing bear stew.”
—Lucille Lang Day, author of Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place and coeditor of Red Indian Road West
“Rich with captivating tales that include driving a convertible on logging roads, agreeing on terms before throwing eggs at passing cars, and his grandmother’s brief stay in a jailhouse she’d later purchase, Weso’s entries offer readers catharsis—demonstrating how to laugh, boast, debate, eat, mourn, and heal.”
—Ryan Winn, College of Menominee Nation, Tribal College Journal
Awards
- 2023 Silver winnder of the Midwest Book Award for Cookbooks/Crafts/Hobbies
- 2023 Finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Multicultural Adult Nonfiction
- Library of Congress Centers for the Book Great Read title from the state of Wisconsin
- 2024 Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Achievement Award
- 2024 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence
