Farm-to-Table With Indigenous Food At The STAR School In Arizona

Nizhónígo Iiná means 'beautiful life' in Navajo language; this cookbook is intended to support our young students’ recipes that can be used for personal home meal plans. The standardized recipes at the end of this book can be used for public foodservice facilities. Through Nizhónígo Iiná we are reviving the Navajo ways of utilizing healthy traditional foods and using the freshest and most nutritious, locally grown conventional foods. We incorporate Navajo traditional foods into our breakfast and lunch weekly menus.

By volunteering our time to help with cleaning, irrigating, planting and harvesting at our local Navajo farms we have built a strong relationship with our Navajo farmers. After trying a new recipe and are happy with our taste-testing process, the students use the recipes presented in this cookbook by preparing traditional meals for parents and elders once a month.

Pictured below, students are gathered around Stacey Jensen, a local Navajo Traditional Farmer who is preparing students to plant blue corn and onions in the fields. 

North Leupp Family Farms is located on the Navajo Nation in Leupp, Arizona.  The farm provides Navajo white corn, blue corn, onions, assorted squash, watermelon, greenhouse lettuce greens and chili peppers for the communities.

Download the file below to get some tasty and traditional recipes using these indigenous foods!