Day-to-Day Life 
Large stone bowls were used for mixing and grinding food, especially seeds, nuts and berries, fruit and fish oil. These items and others were stored on racks above the sleeping decks.
Alder spoons, alder and maple dishes, cedar bowls, baskets and buckets some marked with family emblems like the bear or beaver, were used in the kitchen. Baskets were used for carrying water.
Women prepared the food by box cooking, roasting, and by using an earth oven. Box cooking was done by heating stones in a fire. The heated stones were rinsed and put in a water filled cedar cooking box. When the water was brought to a boil a basket of food was placed in the boiling water. A cedar bark mat was placed over the box to contain the steam.
Dried meat was often boiled after an overnight soaking. Soups were often prepared using roots and berries with either meat or fish. Saskatoon berries, obtained in their dried form from the Thompson, were used as sweeteners in soups.
Images from Cedar,
Copyright © 1984 by Hilary Stewart.
Published by Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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