How much agricultural produce would one expect to find stored in an Algonquian community in the Canadian Shield at the onset of winter? Would it mostly be produced locally or would it be imported through trade with more southern Nations such as the Wyandots or the Haudenosaunee?

by Gargatua13013

By produce, I basically mean corn, squash and beans, of course

alice-in-canada-land

I can't answer your question, but I'm here to say; don't forget about wild rice.

Wild Rice, or Manomin is a staple crop of the Algonquian/Anishnaabe people. It grows in shallow lakes just south of the Shield and would certainly have been a part of winter storage crops. I have been told it was traded across the continent and to the tip of Patagonia, but I have no written sources for that.

[If you're like me, your only familiarity with this food is as long, hard black grains in an Uncle Ben's rice mixture. It wasn't until I moved to Anishnaabe territory, and got to try it properly prepared and cooked, that I came to understand how delicious it is. Fluffy and nutty-tasting, it's not what I thought it was at all.]