This Issue

Look Behind the Scenes

One bright day in late summer, some of us on the Conservation Volunteer staff pulled our noses away from our computers at lunchtime and drove to northeast Minneapolis to go behind the scenes of a story in this issue. Over the course of several weeks, we'd been discussing and then editing art director Susan Binkley's "Home for the Holidays," her recipes for and ruminations on creating a feast of local foods. Locally grown, gathered, or hunted foods are worthy of celebration, she says. Whether you're the angler who caught the walleye or the gardener who grew the tomatoes, the closer you are to your food source, the more likely you are to savor every bite. What's more, eating local foods supports local farmers, helps save farmland from development, and even cuts carbon dioxide emissions (because of shorter delivery routes).

In celebration of Minnesota foods, Susan had invited us to see her holiday menu come to life in the kitchen and photography studio of Bill Lindner, famed fish photographer and wild food enthusiast.

From the studio parking lot, we picked up aromas of roasted garlic and smoked duck wafting out the open door of the converted warehouse. We entered and saw a small kitchen in a cavernous space dotted with islands of photo gear: computers, carts, tripods, lights, reflectors, cameras. People were bustling about, from the studio to an enormous attached garage storing boats and refrigerators, and to a back lot where a meat smoker was fired up.

We met Betsy Nelson, a freelance food stylist who wore pink cowboy boots and traveled with an industrial-size toolbox full of spoons, spatulas, and other utensils for testing recipes and making food look beautiful. While frying wild artichoke pancakes and blending a sweet concoction of hazelnuts, she answered our questions and offered tiny tastes of everything. Bill, the energetic impresario, led us deeper into the studio and turned spotlights on the table setting, which awaited the artful food.

Watching this layer take shape made us more appreciative of the whole package-original recipes, manuscript, photos, and design. In some ways, we were like family and friends gathered at the Thanksgiving table, pausing to acknowledge not only the feast, but also its preparation-the careful growing, harvesting, cooking, and presenting of food.

Also in this issue, "The Real Story of Chippewa National Forest" reveals the turn-of-the-20th-century characters behind the fight to save a log-rich land. Their struggle bears remarkable similarities to land-use challenges today. And their perseverance sets a lasting example for activism: If you want to make a difference, you have to show up and speak up, again and again.

Author Tim Brady acknowledges another layer of Chippewa's history: the barely told story of what happened to the Ojibwe people living on this land.

The recent opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., shows that the stories of Indian people are still unfolding today. The museum cafeteria features native foods-a living reminder of our inheritance. Today in northern Minnesota, the White Earth Land Recovery Project is working to restore native food systems. Under the label Native Harvest, the project markets maple syrup and wild rice from reservation land. It is also reintroducing healthy traditional foods into local school lunches.

As editor, I write this column as my letter to you, trying to add another layer-some food for thought-as you read the stories in this issue. If the Conservation Volunteer succeeds in serving you, your hungry mind will be fed with information and ideas that entertain, intrigue, and inspire.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Kathleen Weflen, editor