Abalone is in the meat group and tuna is in the fruit group.

Karana also ate many seeds and roots.

SEEDS

Hidden beneath this pretty flower are many seeds that Karana ate!

The red maid flower, a native plant of San Nicholas Island, was pulled out of the dirt so the seeds could be collected. Here is a picture of what the seeds look like.

Most flowers only grow in the spring and summer, so all the seeds have to be gathered during this time to last all of autumn and winter.

"For cooking seeds and roots I wove a tight basket of fine reeds, which was easy because I had learned how to do it from my sister Ulape. After the basket had dried in the sun, I gathered lumps of pitch on the shore, softened them over the fire, and rubbed them on the inside of the basket so that it would hold water. By heating small stones and dropping them into a mixture of water and seeds I could make gruel."

The seeds were mixed with water and mashed to make gruel, similar to oatmeal. Karana cooked the gruel in a rock that was in a bowl shape.
This gruel would be like us making a hot cereal from pumpkin or sunflower seeds!

It is difficult to know what food group seeds belong to in the food guide pyramid. Seeds are in the meat group because they are full of protein, just like meat.