Wet moss layers steamed camas bulbs in traditional pit ovens

Evidence

The camas was prepared by creation of a pit oven for baking and steaming. The earthen pit was lined with hot rocks and layers of camas bulbs were placed in the pit. A mat of wet moss was then laid over the camas, building up a stack of alternating layers of moss and camas. The entire oven was topped with ferns and a fire built over the top, which burned all night long. The wet mosses provided a source of steam, which permeated the camas bulbs and baked them to a deep brown color. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 438

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete instance of disturbance-and-stewardship land management (burning, weeding camas prairies) — the reader’s Reading the Landscape disturbance-history thread. — connects to: Sphagnum moss served indigenous mothers as the first disposable diaper — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 432