Minwanjige Cafe

By Alison Welwood

Within the last few years, the Minwanjige Café has established itself as a local lunch spot, gift
shop, a perfect place for visitors and locals. This is perhaps why the White Earth Land Recovery
Project and Native Harvest is working through the café and other White Earth establishments to pro-
mote tourism at White Earth.The café itself represents a strong community bond within the reserve.
This is shown partly through its support of
local producers as the menu is made up
mostly from local ingredients. “We use as
much local produce as possible, but some
ingredients (such as cheese) are too hard to
get locally, simply because there is no one
on the Reservation who makes them”, said
Keira, of Native Harvest’s Farm to School
program who also works closely with the
café in acquiring the few ingredients that
need to be ordered from outside of the
reserve. The local ingredients are usually
acquired by Chef Jenise Skramstad, who
works closely with producers on or near
White Earth. She also utilizes the garden
found in the back of the café each summer.
The café features unique products like
freshly roasted Muskrat Coffee, a brand
owned by Native Harvest. The coffee is a mix of beans from all around the world and is roasted at the
café. Each variety comes from Fair Trade suppliers, not to mention its eclectic mix of flavors is rich and
complex. The café also sells many other Native Harvest products including Wild Rice that has been
harvested on the reserve, and wild rice products like their famous Wild Rice Cake mix. Other unique
items include their homemade salad dressings, jams and maple butter.
The Minwanjige café is a humble little log-cabin nestled into the outskirts of one of White
Earth’s many forests. It exudes a homey feel, in an original made-from-scratch sort of way, and its
interior reflects this feel quite consistently. The walls are lined with homemade Native American crafts
and goods, and the smell of the current days lunch wafts towards the door waiting to entice anyone who
might enter. The dining area of the café consists of about eight wooden tables fit tightly together in the
largest portion of the single room dining room. The only two apparent staff members on duty greeted
us kindly (we found out later that only one was an official staff member). Jenise the self-managed cook
and server was busy attending to several White Earth locals who had stopped by for lunch, and Keira
who helps with non-local ingredients, sat down with us to enjoy a homemade meal.
There are no menus in the café, and that is because there is only one lunch item available each
day. The café is usually only open for lunch, and has recently introduced an occasional dinner. With
slightly more limited options of ingredients, it’s much simpler when there isn’t a schedule of menu
items to follow. “I usually decide what to make either the night before or in the morning, and usually
whatever I’m in the mood for is what I make”, continued Jenise, “There’s always a soup and a sand-
wich with a side salad, when I can get vegetables from the garden”. Unfortunately food sourced as
locally as your own garden does have the disadvantage of not being available year round.
 On this sunny autumn day Jenise had probably arrived and decided to use the buffalo meat she had
recently acquired, because the lunch of the day was buffalo meat and wild rice soup, served with a cheddar
cheese and turkey sandwich on a homemade bun with a side salad. As soon as the food was brought to the table,
the homemade feeling resonating in the air was increased by ten-fold. It was an experience almost indistinguish-
able from that of sitting in your grandmothers kitchen as she served you her own soup that had been simmering
all day in the pot, and the smell of fresh baked biscuits drifted from the cooling rack. The soup was brothy with
chunks of braised Buffalo meat from a local buffalo farm, wild rice harvested by a local, and potatoes from a
local organic potato farmer. The salad was a compilation of vegetables and greens that were freshly picked from
the café’s garden that very morning. It was served with a choice of Native Harvest’s dressings and the bread for
the sandwiches had come from the oven just minutes before. “I put them outside to try and cool them off
enough to cut, they’re still a little warm”, warned Jenise. Although, there was no warning needed, their wheaty
sent and soft warm texture amplified the flavor of the sandwich. The meal itself was every bit at delicious as its
smell had foreshadowed when we first arrived. It ended with a couple baskets of large assorted cookies that had
been baked fresh that morning.
One of the benefits of locally sourced food is
of course a better tasting product and a notice-
able freshness. By supporting the local produc-
ers, the Minwanjige Café also supports White
Earth’s community, economically. This support
is based on the philosophy of community build-
ing, which is apparent in almost every aspect
of the café. From the relations with producers
to the hungry customers, they maintain friendly
almost family-like relationships. Bill Paulsen, a
local wild rice harvester and miller had joined
us for lunch and by the end of the meal there
were already a couple of wild rice harvesters
who had stopped by the café in hopes to make
an exchange. Local producers have been known
to drop by with produce for sale. It is these
exchanges that also help diversify the menu from one period of time to the next. Jenise uses recently acquired
ingredients over in several dishes until the café either runs out of what’s currently been stocked or there is a new
purchase of different ingredients.
Customers are welcomed to the café as family members to dinner, or breakfast apparently. Even though the
café isn’t regularly open for breakfast, the next morning, we were invited back for an late morning meal. When
we arrived we found that Jenise had woken up early to begin preparing for us. We also found that she had in-
corporated many of the same ingredients that were incorporated in our lunch the day before. We were served a
spread of wild rice porridge with the same rice that was milled from Bill (with pure maple syrup from Native
Harvest), potatoes from the organic potato producer with sausage, freshly baked bread toasted and served with
Native Harvests maple butter, egg bake, ripe apples, Minwanjige roasted coffee, and fresh juice. As we ate,
Jenise prepared the kitchen for the days lunch. Two of her younger daughters were also at the café this particular
morning, helping out. They assisted their mother here and there with tasks they seemed to find amusing, and of
course stopped to enjoy some of the delectable breakfast spread.
Although it is a small establishment, seemingly hidden away on the White Earth Reservation, the Minwanjige
cafe is making a big impact on the community of the White Earth by purchasing locally and strengthening the
economic community while establishing friendly working relations with its local producers. It also serves as an
example to other rural establishments who are looking towards sustainable practice and of course, to serve good
food.