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Vanessa’s Wild Berry Pemmican
A contemporary recipe published with Valerie Segrest’s permission among recipes from Muckleshoot Nation, combining jerky, dried berries, raw nuts or seeds, and nut butter.
The University of Washington Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center printed this recipe in its Fall 2019 magazine. It appears within an article about Coast Salish foodways and Valerie Segrest’s food-sovereignty work. The magazine says Segrest gave permission to share recipes from Muckleshoot Nation and credits the cookbook Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit by Segrest and Elise Krohn. The recipe title names Vanessa, but the issue does not identify her further. This record describes the published batch, not a claim about who invented it, an ancient pemmican recipe, or a method shared by all Coast Salish communities.
The batch uses one cup of dried venison, elk, or beef jerky; one cup of dried wild berries; one cup of raw nuts or seeds; and one-third cup of nut butter. The berry list includes huckleberry, salal, blackcap raspberry, elderberry, salmonberry, service berry, soapberry, thimbleberry, wild blackberry, and wild strawberry. The issue gives “c.weda’x” as a Southern Puget Sound-language name for huckleberry. The nut and seed options are hazelnuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, or almonds. It does not name the nut butter, give ingredient weights, or state a batch yield.
The method is assembly rather than cooking or fermentation: chop the jerky into small pieces, add the dried berries, nuts or seeds, and nut butter, then blend the mixture in a food processor. The magazine instructs cool, dark storage and claims several months, but supplies no drying process, moisture measure, packaging specification, or validation for the mixture. The supplied collection’s separate adaptation recommends refrigeration. These are distinct statements; neither establishes a safe shelf life for this exact batch.
The recipe starts with already dried jerky and does not explain how it was made. USDA FSIS advises heating meat to 160°F (71°C) before home dehydration because low-temperature drying may leave pathogens alive. Those controls concern jerky manufacture and cannot be inferred from the pemmican mixing steps. The National Center for Home Food Preservation gives storage information for properly dried jerky on its own; it does not test or validate the finished mixture of jerky, berries, nuts or seeds, and nut butter. No shelf-life duration or room-temperature safety claim is established here.
The recipe appears in a 2010 cookbook cited by a University of Washington magazine in 2019. The source documents its publication, not its creation date or an ancient pemmican method.
Scaling: source batch only
This recipe assumes ready-to-eat jerky and gives no jerky-making process. USDA FSIS warns that pathogens can survive low-temperature drying if meat is not first heated to a safe temperature.
Hazard sourceThe magazine gives a several-month storage claim but no moisture, packaging, or validation details for the finished mixture. Its shelf stability is not established by this recipe.
Hazard sourceUse jerky prepared under a food-safety process. If making jerky at home, follow current USDA guidance for the meat and drying method; this pemmican recipe does not make or validate the jerky.
Control sourceDo not use the magazine's several-month statement as a validated shelf life for the mixed batch.
Control sourceThe source does not establish a safe storage duration for this finished mixture.
The recipe does not describe how the jerky was made or validate the safety of home-prepared jerky.
The magazine places this permission-published recipe among recipes from Muckleshoot Nation. This records publication context, not a precise birthplace or an ancient or universal Coast Salish pemmican method.
Pemmican is dried meat mixed with rendered animal fat, sometimes with berries. Sources link it to Indigenous North American food traditions and later fur-trade provisioning. This documentary entry gives no home preparation or storage method.
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University of Washington Alzheimer’s Disease Research CenterMethod · Geography · History
Dimensions, Fall 2019, p. 15: Vanessa’s Wild Berry PemmicanPDF page 15, extracted lines 686–698: 1 cup dried venison, elk, or beef jerky; 1 cup dried wild berries with named options; 1 cup raw hazelnuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, or almonds; 1/3 cup nut butter; chop, combine, blend in a food processor; cool, dark storage and a several-month claim.
The magazine credits the recipe to Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit by Valerie Segrest and Elise Krohn and says Valerie gave permission to share recipes from Muckleshoot Nation. The article does not identify Vanessa further or establish this formula as an ancient or universal method.
Cited in: A permission-published contemporary recipe; The source’s ingredients and options; Assembly and storage evidence
USDA Food Safety and Inspection ServiceSafety
How can I make meat or poultry jerky at home?Current FSIS guidance says meat should reach 160°F (71.1°C), and poultry 165°F (73.9°C), before dehydration; the drying method must maintain the recommended dehydrator temperature. This is guidance for making jerky, not a validation of the pemmican mixture.
Cited in: Jerky safety is upstream of this recipe
National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of GeorgiaSafety
JerkyThe guide describes safe jerky handling and heating, and notes that properly dried jerky alone may be stored at room temperature for two weeks in a sealed container; it recommends refrigeration or freezing for longer quality. These statements do not establish a shelf life for jerky mixed with berries, nuts, and nut butter.
Cited in: Assembly and storage evidence; Jerky safety is upstream of this recipe
Muckleshoot Indian TribeGeography
Muckleshoot Tribal Lands & AcknowledgementThe Tribe identifies its Duwamish and Upper Puyallup ancestry and describes its history and territorial relationship in the Puget Sound region. Used only to contextualize the magazine’s Muckleshoot Nation publication attribution, not to locate the recipe’s origin.
Cited in: A permission-published contemporary recipe