Indigenous Food Lab debuts at Minnesota State Fair

To prepare for his first State Fair, Indigenous Food Lab Market manager Jason Garcia had to reorganize his kitchen. In June, he began ordering ingredients—including 1,200 pounds of bison meat.

“We had to completely remodel our freezer downstairs to make room for all the bison,” Garcia said. “We’re really trying hard this year.”

A year after opening its market in South Minneapolis, Indigenous Food Lab will be a new food vendor at the State Fair. During the final week of the fair, it will serve a bowl of nixtamal and wild rice with bison meatballs or sweet potato dumplings at the Midtown Global Market booth.

In the words of Ismael Popoca Aguilar, culinary director of the Indigenous Food Lab, it will be the State Fair’s “first Indigenous vendor selling Indigenous foods on Indigenous land.”

The Indigenous Food Lab came up with a meal that would be easy to serve and eat at the fair. Popoca Aguilar collaborated with James Beard Award-winning chef Sean Sherman to prepare the bowl.

“We want to make sure that people identify what we offer with indigenous cuisine,” said Popoca Aguilar.

The bowl is made from pre-colonial ingredients purchased from indigenous traders. The wild rice comes from the Red Lake Nation and the nixtamal corn comes from the Ute Mountains. The meat for the bison meatballs comes from South Dakota and is prepared with cranberries. A vegan version with sweet potato dumplings is also available. To top it off, the chefs add wóžapi sauce, a wild berry condiment.

In addition to the bison meat, the Indigenous Food Lab ordered 12 50-pound bags of wild rice. To find that much, Garcia had to contact new Indigenous suppliers. “We want to be careful not to buy too much from a particular supplier and then put them out of business,” Garcia said.

The team estimates it will sell up to 8,000 meals during the six days at the fair. These sales will have a major economic impact. “We are using this opportunity to pump money back into the Indigenous economy,” Garcia said.

During the first week of the fair, Nepali and Indian restaurant Momo Dosa will use the Midtown Global Market booth. The Indigenous Food Lab will move in overnight and use the same facilities starting August 28.

The Minnesota State Fair is one of the largest in the U.S., and last year it was attended by more than 1.8 million people. Fair spokeswoman Maria Hayden said one of the biggest challenges for new vendors is dealing with the scale of food production. She sees the booth at the Midtown Global Market as an opportunity for new vendors to experience very large events.

“It’s a cool incubator program for people who want to have a real Minnesota State Fair experience without really committing to the 12 days of the fair and having to invest in their own space and things like that,” Hayden said.

The North American Traditional Indigenous Food System (NATIFS), the parent organization of the Indigenous Food Lab, has been present at the fair for several years and hosts Indigenous Peoples Day. The program focuses on indigenous culture, food and art.

“We will be able to teach people more about food and then send them out to try it,” says Emily Halberg, lead event planner for Indigenous Peoples Day at NATIFS.

The Indigenous Food Lab hopes to reach audiences outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area who aren’t familiar with its products or Sherman’s Minneapolis restaurant, Owamni.

Garcia also sees the State Fair as an opportunity to introduce indigenous foods and products to people living near reservations or even to members of indigenous communities themselves.

“Because of the economics of the reservation system, Native people often don’t have access to their own traditional foods,” Garcia said. “So by being at the State Fair and being able to offer these things, we give Native people a stronger sense of ‘This is for you too.'”