Heart to Hearth Cookery

Shwa na mek In chy

It is swha na’ mek gee’ shuch (shad fishing time) when the swha na’ mek in’ chy (shad bush) is in bloom.  While holding a buck swha na’ mek (shad), I am smelling the fragrant blossoms of the shad bush.  The words in italics are all phonetic spellings of Lenape words.  When the shad bush  bloomed, this indicated it was  time for the dug out canoes to be brought up from the mud of the waterways and many men and women to prepare for living at the rivers edge for several months fishing.