Maxwell Museum Offers Program on How Traditional Foods Interact with Culture and Health

Gary Paul Nabhan will present a lecture on “How Traditional Foods Interact with our Inheritance, Culture and Health on Friday, April 30, 7 p.m. at the Maxwell Museum. On Saturday, May 1 at 1 p.m. Lisa Huckell will speak on “Harvesting the Past: Wild Plant Foods and Their Role in Contemporary Culture.” At 2 p.m. on May 1, there will be a wild plant sampling.

The Food and Life series is a two part program that explores the cultural significance of traditional foodways and the archaeological, historic, and modern uses of regional botanical foods in health applications. The series will present keynote speaker Gary Paul Nabhan, an Arab-American writer, lecturer, food and farming advocate, rural life-ways folklorist, and conservationist whose work has long been rooted in the U.S./Mexico borderlands region.

Paleoethnobotanist Lisa Huckell, will provide an overview of wild plants that have been used by past Southwestern cultures and the relevance for modern diets. Huckell has been a practicing paleoethnobotanist for more than 30 years, investigating the interrelationship between people and plants of prehistoric and historic cultures in the Southwest and California using plant remains recovered from archaeological contexts.

The series includes an edible wild plant sampling event: modern recipes that use ancient ingredients, challenging participants to “try something old that’s new.” Included on the menu are Cholla buds, Chia smoothies, Sunflower cakes and Prickly Pear lemonade.

All events are free and the public is welcome. The Maxwell Museum is located on the west side of the UNM campus. For more information about the event, call 277-4405 or visit: Maxwell Museum

Media Contact: Mary Beth Hermans, (505) 277-1400