Spring is almost here and for tribal communities across the state it means wild onion dinners.
Wild onions are known as spring tonic. Ginny Underwood is with the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.
"Growing up, I remember enjoying the first taste of spring where wild onions are harvested and then cooked in potatoes or scrambled eggs."
Wild onions are harvested February through March and are cooked into dishes and used as fundraisers for churches across the state.
Ollie Starr is a Cherokee citizen and is hosting a wild onion dinner this Saturday at the The Indian Women’s Pocahontas Club in Claremore to help raise funds for the scholarships they give students for college.
"When I was a little girl, I go out with my father and we go up to the woods and we would rake back the leaves back and find the green tips in the wild onions and dig them with a stick and you left the roots in the ground so they come back for the next year," Starr said.
The dinner typically includes ham, brown beans, fry bread and grape dumplings.
This weekend First Americans Museum will host two wild onion dinners at their 39 Restaurant. Ollie Starr, who fried more than 25 pounds of bacon will be hosting her wild onion dinner on Saturday.
Watch a short video produced by First Americans Museum about wild onion harvesting here
First Americans Museum: Dinners will be held Friday, March 18th at 5:30 and 7:30 and Sunday, March 20th at 5:30 and 7:30pm. You can make reservations here: https://www.thirtyninerestaurant.com/wild-onion-dinner
Indian Women's Pocahontas Club:
Learn more here: https://www.indianwpc.org
