Talkin’ turkey with local chefs, plus the gift of Buffalo Creek squash

By Robyn Doyon-Aitken ,

Catie Talarski, Meg Dalton, Tagan Engel, Stephanie Stender, Katrice Claudio

Published November 20, 2023 at 4:03 PM EST

A photograph of a carved turkey on a platter. Next to the platter is a gravy boat and sides of cranberry sauce and green beans.

1 of 11 — Turkey Dinner

Lauri Patterson / Getty

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Jason Sobocinski and sons Tavin and Ry enjoy a silly moment during Thanksgiving, 2022.

Provided / Jason Sobocinski

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Raquel Rivera is the chef/owner of A Pinch of Salt

Provided: Rebecca Rivera / Lucas Photography

4 of 11 — November 06, 2023 - Buffalo Creek Squash

Yale professor Hiʻilei Hobart sits in the Lazarus Pavilion at Yale Farm where she is involved in the efforts to grow and save the seeds of Buffalo Creek squash and other plants Indigenous to the Northeastern woodland tribes.

Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public

5 of 11 — November 06, 2023 - Buffalo Creek Squash

Rebecca Salazar is a Yale undergrad studying Ethnicity, Race and Migration and is a Seed Keeper and Programs Liaison between the Native American Cultural Center and the Yale Sustainable Food Program.

Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public

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Professor Hiʻilei Hobart describes the Buffalo Creek squash grown at Yale Farm as "spectacularly present giants."

Provided / Jeremy Oldfield

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Posters were made this fall after all but one of the Buffalo Creek squash growing at the Yale Farm in New Haven were taken.

Provided / Fafa Van Ha

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Three returned Buffalo Creek squash rest on the outskirts of Yale Farm after posters went up announcing the squash went missing.

Provided / Fafa Van Ha

Yale professor Hiʻilei Hobart holds the contents of a sachet gifted to attendees of the Yale Farm's fall feast. The gift included three seeds each of white-cap corn, skunk beans, and Buffalo Creek squash. Sachets also included origami envelopes of native Hawaiian sea salt, to incorporate professor Hobart's Hawaiian heritage.

9 of 11 — November 06, 2023 - Buffalo Creek Squash

Yale professor Hiʻilei Hobart holds the contents of a sachet gifted to attendees of the Yale Farm's Indigenous fall feast. The gift included three seeds each of white-cap corn, skunk beans, and Buffalo Creek squash. Sachets also included origami envelopes with native Hawaiian sea salt to incorporate professor Hobart's Hawaiian heritage.

Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public

10 of 11 — November 06, 2023 - Buffalo Creek Squash

Yale professor Hiʻilei Hobart holds an announcement card for the Yale Farm Indigenous Fall Feast. A "three sisters" succotash was served, among other dishes.

Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public

11 of 11 — November 06, 2023 - Buffalo Creek Squash

Late morning sun is framed by a cornstalk drying in the Lazarus Pavilion at Yale Farm, where a "three sisters" garden is cultivated for Indigenous crops: white-cap corn, skunk beans, and Buffalo Creek squash.

Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public

This hour, chef Raquel Rivera, a cooking teacher and owner of A Pinch of Salt, and Jason Sobocinski, a local food entrepreneur, share tips for cooking a Thanksgiving turkey with all the fixins’.

And intern Lateshia Peters talks with her mom Nicole Lewis about why their Thanksgiving meal is centered around the food of her Grenadian heritage. Think: Caribbean-spiced salmon, fry-bakes, and cocoa tea.

Plus, producer Tagan Engel speaks with Hi’ilei Hobart, a professor of Native and Indigenous Studies at Yale, and Rebecca Salazar, a student seed keeper with the Yale Native American Cultural Center and the Yale Sustainable Food Project. They spoke at the Yale farm about their adventure this year - growing and saving seeds of the special Haudenosaunee Buffalo Creek squash. These two indigenous women also speak about the importance they feel in connecting with indigenous and ancestral foods such as the three sisters: beans, corn and squash - to counter the challenges of colonization.

GUESTS:

Raquel Rivera: Chef/owner of A Pinch of Salt
Jason Sobocinski: Co-owner/partner of Caseus Provisions in Wallingford, Crispy Melty by Caseus, Olmo Bagels, Ordinary and Haven Hot Chicken in New Haven, Mystic Cheese Companyin Groton and Black Hog Brewing Company in Oxford.
Lateshia Peters and Nicole Lewis: Lateshia is a CT Public Intern and Nicole is her mom.
Hi’ilei Hobart: Assistant Professor of Native and Indigenous Studies in the program of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University. Also author of Cooling the Tropics and editor of Food Ways Hawaii.
Rebecca Salazar: Undergrad studying Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale. Rebecca is a Seed Keeper and Programs Liaison between the Native American Cultural Center - (NACC) and the Yale Sustainable Food Program (YSFP).

This show was produced by Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Catie Talarski, Meg Dalton, Tagan Engel, Stephanie Stender, Katrice Claudio, Meg Fitzgerald, and Sabrina Herrera. Special thanks to the Yale Sustainable Food Program and to Fafa Van Ha, Lazarus Fellow at the Yale Sustainable Food Program for contributing to the Buffalo Creek squash segment.

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