The following excerpt is a chapter from Survival Food: North Woods Stories by a Menominee Cook, released in fall 2023 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. In this hybrid work of modern foodways, Indigenous history, and creative nonfiction, Thomas Pecore Weso recalls 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, which his mom called “survival food.” Weso writes in his introduction, “I cannot tell a story without thinking of the food connected to it.” This chapter, titled “Commodity Foods and Mom’s Cooking,” features Weso’s…
