First of its kind: Indigenous Food Lab debuts at Minnesota State Fair with 1,200 pounds of bison meat

To prepare for the Indigenous Food Lab’s first appearance at the State Fair, manager Jason Garcia had to reorganize the restaurant’s kitchen. Garcia started ordering ingredients — including 1,200 pounds of bison meat — in June.

“We had to completely redo our freezer storage downstairs to make room for all of the bison,” said Garcia. “We are really pushing ourselves this year.”

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

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

The Indigenous Food Lab thought of a meal that would be easy to serve and to eat at the Fair. Popoca Aguilar worked with James Beard Award-winning chef Sean Sherman to craft the bowl.

“We want to make sure that people identify Indigenous food with what we are presenting,” said Popoca Aguilar.

The bowl is made with precolonial ingredients purchased from Indigenous vendors. The wild rice is sourced from the Red Lake nation, and the nixtamal corn comes from the Ute Mountains. The meat used in the bison meatballs originates from South Dakota, and is prepared with cranberries. A vegan option is available, with sweet potato dumplings. On top of the preparation, 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 vendors. “We want to be careful that we’re not overbuying from one particular vendor and wiping them out,” Garcia said.

The team estimates it will sell up to 8,000 meals in six days at the Fair. Those sales will have a great economic impact. “We are taking this opportunity to be able to push money back into the Indigenous economy,” Garcia said.

During the first week of the Fair, the Nepali and Indian restaurant Momo Dosa will be using the Midtown Global Market’s booth. The Indigenous Food Lab will move in overnight and use the same equipment starting August 28.

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

“It’s a cool incubator program for people to get 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.

North American Traditional Indigenous Food System (NATIFS), the parent organization of the Indigenous Food Lab, has been present at the Fair for the past few years, hosting Indigenous People’s Day. The programming focuses on Indigenous culture, food and arts.

“We’re going to be able to teach people more about food and then send them over to try it,” said Emily Halberg, main event planner for Indigenous People’s Day at NATIFS.

The Indigenous Food Lab hopes to reach an audience from outside the Twin Cities metro area that is unfamiliar with their products or with Sherman’s Owamni restaurant in Minneapolis.

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

“With the economics of the reservation system, a lot of times Indigenous people don’t have access to their own traditional foods,” Garcia said. “So by being able to be at the State Fair and offer those things, it gives Indigenous people a little bit more feeling of, ‘This is for you, too.’”

Midtown Global Market’s Indigenous Food Lab:

Address: Taste of the Midtown Global Market booth, in the International Bazaar, east wall

Dates: From August 28th to September 2nd

What to know: Clients can choose bison meatballs or sweet potato dumplings. Cricket and seed mix topping is optional.

For more information: Visit the Indigenous Food Lab’s website .

Correction: Indigenous Food Lab Market manager Jason Garcia’s pronouns have been updated in this story.

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