For a lot of Native American communities, three crops have performed a significant function in indigenous agricultural practices – corn, beans, and squash. Often called The Three Sisters, these crops exhibit how individuals can profit from working with nature moderately than towards it.
Who’re the Three Sisters?
Images by Robin Powell, Gerrit Davidse, and Tom Incrocci / Missouri Botanical Backyard.
The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash. Particularly, the corn varieties are normally flint corn meant for drying and grinding into cornmeal, the beans are normally pole beans which might be harvested when absolutely ripe and dry, and the squashes are pumpkins or different winter squashes that develop on an extended vine.
The overall concept is that the corn acts as a pole or trellis for beans to climb, the beans add vitamins to the soil as a result of nitrogen-fixing micro organism of their root nodules, and the massive leaves of the squash crops act as a pure mulch that shades out weeds and retains moisture from escaping.
Sunflowers on show within the Financial institution of America Household Vegetable Backyard on the William T. Kemper Middle for Dwelling Gardening. Picture by Tom Incrocci/ Missouri Botanical Backyard.
Different crops could also be grown alongside the Three Sisters and generally get known as a “fourth sister.”
In jap North America, the “fourth sister” could be amaranth or sunflower. Within the US Southwest, Mexico, and Central America the place corn-beans-squash is the cornerstone of the milpa agricultural system, different crops like chili pepper and tomato could be planted as companion crops.
Except for being tasty and/or nutritious in their very own proper, these different “sisters” might provide advantages to the backyard equivalent to attracting pollinators or repelling pests.
So why are they known as the Three Sisters? Native American tradition is under no circumstances singular, with over 500 federally acknowledged tribes within the U.S. alone. In reality, not each tribe makes use of Three Sisters planting, and the beliefs and customs surrounding these crops fluctuate.
Throughout the Iroquois and the Cherokee tradition, corn, beans, and squash had been known as the Three Sisters as a result of they nurture one another like household when planted collectively in keeping with Christina Gish Hill with the State College of Iowa Three Sisters Undertaking.
Equally, there’s a perception in lots of Native communities that our family usually are not simply the individuals to whom we’re associated by blood or DNA, but in addition embrace the non-human beings who we share our surroundings with. We depend on them and so they depend on us.
Two-way relationships of reciprocity and care between people and non-humans are completely important for everybody to thrive. Calling these crops “sisters” is a reminder that they don’t seem to be simply assets to take advantage of, however that they’re a part of our internet of relationships linked by accountability, care, and even love.
The Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer goes into larger element about this concept of relationships of reciprocity with our non-human kin in Braiding Sweetgrass.
How the Three Sisters educate us to work with nature
Three sisters gardening is a superb instance of the right way to work with nature moderately than towards it.
If you happen to plant corn, beans, and squash in separate rows in a conventional backyard, you’ve numerous work forward of you: it is advisable to add a bunch of fertilizer, spend numerous time weeding and presumably spraying pesticides, and it is advisable to determine a system for staking or trellising the beans.
In a Three Sisters backyard, numerous that work is taken care of for you by the interactions between the crops. The everyday technique is to assemble a mound of soil, add compost or different natural fertilizer if wanted, and plant a number of corn seeds within the center. As soon as the corn is just a few inches tall, the beans are planted surrounding the corn. Squash seeds could be planted after the bean seedlings emerge.
Variations on this technique are additionally potential. Corn could be grown in a row, with beans and squash planted to both aspect. The corn may additionally be grown in a grid, with beans and squash interspersed.
Three Sisters gardens are exhausting to implement on a industrial scale as a result of they’ll’t actually be planted or harvested with equipment. Nonetheless, some house gardeners and natural farmers have had success rising the Three Sisters.
One of many challenges with rising the Three Sisters is determining the correct varieties to make use of. For instance, the stalks of candy corn varieties are typically too brief for the beans, whereas popcorn stalks normally aren’t sturdy sufficient.
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Written by Jessika Eidson | Public Data Officer
Due to Kate Farley, Assistant Scientist with the William L. Brown Middle for her skilled perception.