Old Growth Table – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to The Old Growth Table — a new series celebrating the deep roots of Coast Salish food traditions and the sacred relationships we hold with the land, water, and all our relations. 

Hosted by Valerie Segrest, Native Food Nutritionist, Food Activist, and enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Tribe, this show is an offering into the traditional foodways of the Coast Salish people: harvesting, preparing, and sharing ancestral foods with family and community.

Our first episode, Food Is Our Medicine, premieres Earth Day, April 22, 2025! Make sure you’re subscribed to get notified of our release. Follow now at oldgrowthtable.com and on instagram at @oldgrowthtable. T’igwicid for being on this journey with us and we’re so excited to share these teachings with you! 

We are so grateful to be in collaboration with the team at All My Relations, and to be produced in their new home, Tidelands in downtown Seattle. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who made this show possible! T’igwicid!

In our debut episode, Our Food Is Our Medicine, Valerie Segrest, a Native nutritionist, food advocate, and member of the Muckleshoot Tribe, invites you to the Old Growth Table — a place to remember, reconnect, and root ourselves in ancestral Indigenous foodways.

We begin with learning about our wild spring greens relatives — young stinging nettles and tender dandelion greens — as we explore how these early plants help us awaken from winter and fortify our bodies, minds, and spirits for the seasons ahead. Through stories, teachings, and community voices, Valerie guides us in understanding how food is not just sustenance — it’s medicine, ceremony, and a bridge to our culture and traditions.

In the spirit of community, Valerie also welcomes two powerful voices in Indigenous food sovereignty—Mariah Gladstone of Indigikitchen and Sean Sherman, author of The Sioux Chef—who call in to reflect on the concept: Our food is our medicine.

🌿 Welcome to The Old Growth Table. We’re so glad you’re here. Let’s listen, gather, and nourish

Please support the work of our amazing guests:

• Mariah Gladstone – Founder of Indigikitchen on at www.indigikitchen.com/  and on Instagram at @indigikitchen
• Sean Sherman – Chef, author of The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, at https://seansherman.com/  and on Instagram at @siouxchef

Help us grow The Old Growth Table by subscribing, rating, and sharing:
🔗 oldgrowthtable.com
🎧 Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @oldgrowthtable
💌 Share with your community — and let us know how you’re (re)connecting to ancestral foods

We are so thankful to be in collaboration with the team at All My Relations, and to be produced in their new home, Tidelands Studio in downtown Seattle. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who made this show possible!

We are so grateful to be in collaboration with the team at All My Relations, and to be produced in their new home, Tidelands in downtown Seattle. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who made this show possible! T’igwicid!

Let’s talk about  our relationship with water—not just as a tool for hydration, but as a sacred, living relative.

In this episode, “Sacred Hydration: Infusions, Ancestors & Listening to Water”, Valerie explores how water draws out memory, medicine, and meaning from the world around us. Joined by special guest Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet, Cherokee) – founder of Indigikitchen and author of Mountains to Oceans: Kids’ Recipes from Native Land, they share stories, wisdom, and even a recipe demonstration that reframes water as kin. This conversation reminds us of water’s teachings and its sacred power to heal. Because water remembers. It listens. And it deserves more than just mindless consumption—it deserves reverence for all the quiet miracles and great healing it carries.

Resources & How To Support Us:

Follow Mariah Gladstone @mariahgladstone and Indigikitchen – an online cooking platform revitalizing Indigenous foods. Order her book, Mountains to Oceans: Kids’ Recipes from Native Land on their website. 

Support us on Patreon! Our patrons can download exclusive content like our seasonal meditations and recipes and so much more content to come 🌿 

Find us at patreon.com/OldGrowthTablePodcast 

📲 Follow us on:
Instagram: @oldgrowthtable
TikTok: @oldgrowthtable.podcast
YouTube: youtube.com/@OldGrowthTable

We are so grateful to be in collaboration with the team at All My Relations, and to be produced in their new home, Tidelands in downtown Seattle. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who made this show possible! T’igwicid!

We are so grateful to be in collaboration with the team at All My Relations, and to be produced in their new home, Tidelands in downtown Seattle. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who made this show possible! T’igwicid!

This is the summer season. Breathe deep, take it in. Let the warmth settle into your bones, and imagine reaching out to collect a sun-ripened berry on a hot summer day.

This episode is all about berry medicine — why it’s good for us, the stories and reverence wrapped around it, and how these small, vibrant foods have nourished our people for thousands of years. Berries like strawberry, huckleberry, blackberry, and blueberry are among the first foods of this continent, present in our creation stories and honored across Indian Country in the naming of our lunar cycles.

We’re excited to share with you səswix̌ab Martha Lamont’s berry picking song, sung by Tulalip youth at the Lushootseed Language Camp, to be joined by special guest Colleen Echohawk (Pawnee and Upper Athabascan), a community organizer and longtime Seattle leader whose work uplifts Native visibility and Indigenous-led solutions to homelessness, food insecurity, and justice, and to be gifted a poem by her sister and dear friend, Abi Echohawk. Together, we reflect on what it means to live the berry way of life — how to bring ancestral food knowledge into urban spaces, grow what we can, respect the land and our relatives through our honorable harvest, and reconnect to the land even in the middle of the city.

When we walk into harvesting with intention — making offerings, prayers, and sharing our harvest with our communities — we receive deep nourishment in return. And as the elders remind us: the best time to harvest is the time you have.

Resources & How to Support Us:

Follow Colleen at @cechohawk, and make sure to check out her organizations: Eight Generation and Chief Seattle Club. You can follow Abigail Echo-Hawk at @echohawkd3.

Support us on Patreon! Our patrons can download exclusive content like our seasonal meditations and recipes and so much more content to come! 🌿
Find us at patreon.com/OldGrowthTablePodcast 

📲 Follow us on:
Instagram: @oldgrowthtable
TikTok: @oldgrowthtable.podcast
YouTube: youtube.com/@OldGrowthTable

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We are so grateful to be in collaboration with the team at All My Relations, and to be produced in their new home, Tidelands in downtown Seattle. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who made this show possible! T’igwicid!