Co-Curricular Community Garden Stewardship

Collaborative Community Garden

“What do I know of man’s destiny? I could tell you more about radishes.”

Samuel Beckett

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After checking in, we spent the fist small portion of our morning harvesting radishes. Several had split or were badly damaged by pests. We picked all the largest roots, leaving the rest to mature. Caleb explained that the radishes had split because they had been exposed to substantial rain. We tossed several, but each of us left the garden with a large bundle.

We spent about an hour weeding the whole plot as a group. The weed pressure is pretty intense, so we spent the extra time to beat them out of the beds entirely.

We filled our last two beds with red (3 rows) and golden (1 row) beets, as well as more lettuce. I’m so proud of the work we’ve done in this plot; when I walk through our garden gate and see the flags on our pea trellises waving in the sun, I am filled with so much joy! An even greater joy is the realization that this food is for feeding people. I entered into this project with the goal of both reclaiming community space and supplying people with nutritious and delicious vegetables. With the completion of this plot, I feel that we’ve reached a milestone.

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Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

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Ashley and I have been watching the weather and waiting for our soil to warm. We chose today to begin seeding our plot because it will probably rain the next 2 days, followed by a warm sunny weekend; the Three Sisters method is almost always seeded in stages, with corn going in first. When the corn is between 3″-4″ tall, we’ll come back through and plant our beans and squash.

We chose Hooker’s Blue Sweet corn for our plot for several reasons. Hooker’s Blue Sweet corn is an heirloom variety from our local area. It mature extremely fast, only 75-80 days. The 4′-4.5′ stalks produce 5-7 inch ears of corn, which are fine eaten fresh and can be ground into a delicious sweet cornmeal.

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In the Wampanoag/Zuni mounds, we planted 56 seeds, on the south side of the Hidatsa plot we planted 92 seeds, and on the North side of the same area we planted another 63 seeds, for a total of 203 possible stalks. Ashley soaked the dry kernels briefly in lukewarm water before we planted to give them a head start, and she took our remaining seeds home to plant in a tray, in case we need to replace seeds that don’t germinate.

“In the garden vegetable family are five; corn, beans, squashes, sunflowers, and tobacco. The seeds of all these plants were brought up from beneath the ground by the Mandan people.

Now the corn, as we believe, has an enemy–the sun who tries to burn the corn. But at night, when the sun has gone down, the corn has magic power. It is the corn that brings the night moistures–the early morning mist and fog, and the dew–as you can see yourself in the morning from the water dripping from the corn leaves. Thus the corn grows and keeps on until it is ripe.

The sun may scorch the corn and try hard to dry it up, but the corn takes care of itself, bringing the moistures that make the corn, and also the beans, sunflowers, squashes, and tobacco grow. The corn possesses all this magic power.

When you white people met our Mandan people we gave to the whites the name Maci’, or Waci’, meaning nice people, or pretty people. We called them by this name because they had white faces and wore fine clothes. We said also ‘We will call these people our friends!’ And from that time to this we have never made war on white men.

Our Mandan corn must now be all over the world, for we gave the white men our seeds. And so it seems we Mandans have helped every people. But the seed of our varieties of corn were originally ours. We know that white men must also have had corn seed, for their corn is different from ours. But all we older folk can tell our native corn from that of white men.”

–WOUNDED FACE (Mandan)

Gilbert L. Wilson: Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, Page 7

Collaborative Community Garden

Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

Collaborative Community Garden

This week we prepared another bed and planted-in yellow onions started from seed by Caleb. I’ve never planted onions before, so I was especially excited to try my hand with them. The planting process was a bit tedious, but many hands made light work and we were able to finish fairly quickly.

“Good intentions are not enough. They’ve never put an onion in the soup yet.”

Sonya Levien

Caleb spent some time this week explaining solarization, which is the next tool we are learning to use for reclaiming this community space. Soil solarization is an method of using the sun’s power to control pests such as bacteria, insects, and weeds in the soil. The process involves covering the ground with a transparent polyethylene cover, to trap solar energy. It’s like the inverse of occultation, and better for warmer weather. It is important that the tarp remains as close to the soil surface as possible, and that the edges are kept tight to the ground so that there is little air escaping/entering the area. Caleb plans to solarize several unused plots within the space, which will hopefully allow us the opportunity to continue planting. By caring for these “abandoned” beds, we are controlling overgrowth of weeds in the plots, which will make planting in them next year infinity easier.

Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

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After weeks of double digging and weeding, we are finally ready to begin prepping our bed layout. After researching about half a dozen methods of planting the Three Sisters and creating a theoretical plan, we arrived prepared to to dig in paths and build the necessary soil structures.

As we pulled off our occultation tarp, the ground writhed. Under the plastic sheet were over two dozen garter snakes. We spent about 15 minutes chasing them out of our plot. One of the tinier snakes actually tried to bit our garden tools several times. Eventually, our friends vacated the property, but they are hopefully hiding nearby to eat our pests.

“We Hidatsas began our tilling season with the rake. We used two kinds, both of native make; one was made of a black-tailed deer horn, the other was of wood.

Of the two, we thought the horn rake the better, because it did not grow worms, as we said. Worms often appear in a garden and do much damage. It is a tradition with us that worms are afraid of horn; and we believed if we used black-tailed deer horn rakes, not many worms would be found in our fields that season.

We believed wooden rakes caused worms in the corn. These worms, we thought, came out of the wood in the rakes; just how this was, we did not know. However, horn rakes were heavy and rather hard to make; and for this reason, the handier and more easily made wooden rakes were more commonly used.

All this that I tell you of our tools and fields is our own lore. White men taught us none of it. All that I have told you, we Indians knew since the world began.”

–MAXI’DIWIAC

Gilbert L. Wilson: Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, Page 107

We started on the east side of the bed, where we dug in deep paths and used the excess dirt to build-up mounds for planting, we combined Wampanoag and Zuni techniques. Alternating Large mounds for corn and beans with small mounds for squash, we left space for planting beneficial herbs and flowers. The deep paths will aid in care and harvesting on that side of the garden, as Hooker’s Sweet corn is fairly short; by lowering the path, it becomes easier to reach all the plants for care and harvest. We were able to put in eight corn/bean mounds and four smaller mounds for squash, and we moved the straw to mulch around the hills.

On the west side of the bed, we are modeling the Hidatsa field layout, in which rows of corn and beans are interplanted with squash between sets of rows. We created an incline up from our deep path, which makes walking to ground level a bit easier. On either side of the path will be parallel row of beans and corn. Four squash plants will be put in about 1.5′ off the western edge of the bed and trained to grow into the rows. Remaining space will be intercropped with pollinator friendly flowers.

Along the entire length of the north side of the plot, we will plant sunflowers. Ashley bought the our sunflower seeds from seedlinked, and they came as a collection of three heritage varieties, curated by the Organic Seed Alliance. Out of the three, we decide to plant a vearity called Tarahumara. Tarahumara sunflowers are a traditional variety developed by the Tarahumara people of Northern Mexico. They are tall (7′-11’) plants and produce a single, large (up to 24” across) golden flower with white seeds. The seeds of Tarahumara sunflowers are large, plump, and delicious.

Collaborative Community Garden

The water is finally back, eliminating the need to fill jugs at the farm office and carry them to the garden! I am so happy that as the weather warms we will have the ability to keep keep our seedling properly hydrated. On the farm we’ve been learning to install both drip and raised irrigation for different crops, so this week I’ve seen watering three ways. Installing drip irrigation may be one of my favorite chores, and repairing the lines is something with which I have some talent.

We spent the day weeding morning glory (bindweed), buttercup, comfrey, and kale. I’m amazed by the tenacity of these weeds; I could only hope to be so resilient. So much kale went to seed last year that it has become a noxious weed in the community garden. All the overwintered brassicas are flowering, creating a jungle of yellow and white flowers in almost every plot. Caleb is planning on holding a work party to clear the overwintered brassicas, and I hope I’ll be able to attend.

We transplanted frisee and collards in the next prepared beds, intercropping the two. I have a special spot in my heart fro collards,, and I can’t wait to harvest a big bunch for a pot of southern-style greens. I can’t wait to try the frisee, as I’ve spent two quarter learning about the wonderful world of chicories.

We discussed organic pest management with special emphasis on how to protect our tender greens from slugs and other pests. Caleb placed crushed oyster shell around our sprouts, which has a few benefits for our garden. The calcium content helps to balance soil pH levels, improves nitrate uptake, aids in enzyme formation, and strengthens plant cell walls. The course texture of crushed oyster shells can help reduce compaction in the soil. When applied at the openings of their tunnels, the sharp shards and gritty texture also works as a deterrent in the soil to keep moles and voles far away from your plants.

Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

Ashley and I have been hitting the drawing board! As planting time approaches we are eager to finally start cutting paths and building mounds. This plan is theoretical, but a close approximation of our end goal. A cross-path will be cut deep running through the middle from north to south, and halfway through the east side of the bed. The west path will incline up to ground level and extend rather farther than the east path. We decided to cut the paths deep in order to use the soil for our mounds.

Sunflowers will run along the entire northern border, as not to shade the plot and to protect other plants from the sunflowers allelopathic tendencies. The east side of the bed will blend Wampanoag mounds and Zuni waffle garden designs, with eight corn and bean hills and four squash mounds. In the west side of the plot we will be attempting to model the Hidatsa row method, in which alternating rows of corn and beans are planted with broad rows of squash running through the rows like the checks on plaid fabric. Beneficial herbs and pollinator flowers will be interplanted wherever space allows.

We are still determining the best layout for the west side of the bed for a few reasons. Primarily, we want to be sure the squash is planted in such a way that it fulfills its purpose as shade for the corn and beans. Another concern is is the shade from a nearby tree that covers the entire west side of the plot by 4:30 pm; the area on the far west of the bed only just gets full sun at 6.5 hours, so we are trying to think proactively in terms of planting.

Collaborative Community Garden

Water was down in the first half of the week, but was restored by Friday afternoon. Thankfully we had several cool, rainy days to offset our lack of regular irrigation. The peas and beans are in need of trellising, so we tried-out a few methods. Caleb cut bamboo poles, and we set to building two different styles of trellis. For the peas, we drove down bamboo poles in line with the peas perpendicularly to the ground about 1.5 feet apart.

We then wove nylon twine around and between the poles to create a sort of trellis fence. As the peas grow, we will add lines of twine to support their growth. The beans were trellised in a tee-pee style, which is perfect for our plot of scarlet runner beans and white clover. As the beans mature and start to climb, we’ve insure that they have plenty of space.

Our potatoes are growing so fast that they need to be covered every day. The lettuce mix is getting stronger and thicker, so we should have our first harvest soon. This week se spent some time discussing plant disease, focused on some of the problems facing both TESC’s community garden and farm. Garlic blight, tulip fire blight, and club root are all issues in our garden space, and Caleb took some time to show us the signs of club root in a neighboring plot.

“It may be too easy to underestimate the power of a garden. A garden is a solution that leads to other solutions. It is part of the limitless pattern of good health and good sense.”

Wendell Berry

After months in front of a computer, the physicality of the work was hard at first. After five weeks of physical activity, both in the garden and on the farm, my body has finally adjusted. I’ve also started to drop the weight I gained during quarantine, a major victory for me. I’m excited to watch myself change along with the garden.

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Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

More double digging! Ashley and I continued using the broadfork and spade shovel to turn the soil, removing buttercup, comfrey, and a fair number of potatoes. So much comfrey! Some of the comfrey roots were as thick as my wrist, and every time we pulled out one, three more seemed to appear from nowhere.

We continued squaring the bed as we went, cutting out several inches of extra bed space. I’m always struck by how the lessons I learn in Practice of Organic Farming help me in the community garden and visa versa. We squared a large field, which we call a management unit, just this week using some basic geometry, the 3:4:5 triangle. The 3:4:5 triangle is the best way to determine with absolute certainty that an angle is 90 degrees. This rule says that if one side of a triangle measures 3 and the adjacent side measures 4, then the diagonal between those two points must measure 5 in order for it to be a right triangle. In applying this math to our field, we ran lengths of cord from one corner of the field down each side. After measuring 3 feet down one line and 4 feet down the other line, we were able to determine when the lines represented a 90 degree angle by measuring 5 feet between the two marks. By squaring our field we ensured that we could achieve straight beds using the power harrow and that all of the beds we had planned would fit in the space. I am always in awe of the things math can do for us, but this simple geometry blew my mind. It was as if something shifted into focus concerning the true practicality of math that I hadn’t considered before. I wish that I had known this technique before we started working the soil; as it is, our plot is being carved-out by eye.

Every time that I visit our plot I am overwhelmed by the overgrowth and neglect of our small corner in the community garden space. I think it is fair to say that the green house isn’t usable at the moment. The benches are covered in detritus and a lack of organization abounds. The area behind our plot is littered with trash and random bits of garden infrastructure. The compost bins are full of non-compostable trash and growing plants; the bin lids are pinned by overgrown raspberries that are threatening to overtake the bins themselves. As the quarter continues, I want to develop a rehabilitation plan for the area that can open-up resources to fellow gardeners this year and hopefully many years to come.

Collaborative Community Garden

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I’ve noticed this week in particular how my community garden time and POF shifts have a certain synergy to them. Caleb mentioned, rightly so, that this is a natural consequence of working with the earth and the ebb and flow of growing food. This week, transplanting leaf lettuces was a huge priority on the farm; these fast-growing greens are essential to keeping our farm stand stocked until some of our other early veggies come in.

I was excited to try some intensive intercropping with head lettuce and cabbage in two full plots; we arranged the cabbages in well spaced rows and added lettuce transplants to the arrangement in a diamond pattern. We also built two deeply trenched rows for potatoes, which we willed with fingerlings that Caleb saved from last season; after placing the potatoes in the trenches, we lightly covered them in soil and will bury them as they begin to form leaves.

“On the fringes of modern intensive agriculture, intercropping is important in many subsistence or low-input/resource-limited agricultural systems. By allowing genuine yield gains without increased inputs, or greater stability of yield with decreased inputs, intercropping could be one route to delivering ‘sustainable intensification’.”

Rob W. Brooker et al.: Improving intercropping: a synthesis of research in agronomy, plant physiology and ecology

I’ve also enjoyed watching all of our seeds sprout: Dragon carrots, hakurei turnips, phacelia, scarlet runner beans, white clover, and flax. I don’t know much about flax, so I hope to spend some time in week five studying it’s cultivation and uses.

As our beans will require good support, I’m going to donate two large wooden trellises to our project. I reclaimed these trellises from discarded queen sized box springs, and have used them several times, but this year they are sitting against the fence waiting for a job.

My excitement last week for water was met with irrigation problems today; a section of the line had to be dug-up and replaced on the farm, causing us to lose water for a couple of days. Caleb came prepared with 5 gallons of water, which we used to try out the fermented plant juice we made last week. We’re expecting rain all weekend long; how lovely for our transplants to get a good drink.

I took a moment to stop by the herb garden during my POF farm shift. I’ve enjoyed watching the space transform, and have started enjoying my breaks on one of the benches there. It’s amazing haw cut-off from everything I feel behind that hedge.

It’s also a plus that I can stop by and say hello to Le’Allen and Alegra as I’m passing by. On days where I miss community garden time because of scheduling conflicts, I still feel very connected to the work.

Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

Ashley and I met at the garden on Monday afternoon and worked for about four hours prepping our garden plot. We started double digging from the west end of the bed, moving east and squaring off the edges as we went. Due to the squaring, we’ve added another foot to the width of the bed.

After removing the occultation tarp, we were greeted by several garter snakes. I’ve enjoyed seeing them so much; in POF, we were moving a tarp to a new field the other day and there were 7 of them under my corner of the tarp. My group spent and few moments picking them up by the tail and moving them to safety before dragging the tarp. As we were working, the biggest garter snake I have ever seen crawled right by me and into the sunny compost bin.

In taking a closer look at our surroundings, we discovered a lovely little apple tree being choked by weeds behind the greenhouse. The tree was nearly parallel to the ground, but in full bloom. Ashley and I took a bit of time to reclaim the tree; we found a metal frame to hold it upright, cleared the weeds, mulched over it with comfrey, and watered. Nearby, behind the compost bin, we took a closer look at an overgrown raspberry patch and made plans to reclaim it. We also discussed the possibility of adding another garden patch to our project, possibly to the direct east or south of our current plot.

Ashley brought two large bags full of dirty duck bedding: perfect to add a little nitrogen and retain moisture in the soil as mulch. As we choose a design, build mounds, and prepare to plant, we will rake back the straw as to not combine it with our soil, which could tie-up the nitrogen.

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Collaborative Community Garden

“In my tribe in old times, some men helped their wives in their gardens. Others didn’t. Those who did not help their wives talked against those who did, saying, ‘That man’s wife makes him a servant.’

And the others retorted, ‘Look, that man puts all the hard work on his wife!’ Men were not alike: some did not like to work in the garden at all, and cared for nothing but to go around visiting or to be off on a hunt.

My father, Small Ankle, liked to garden and often helped his wives. He told me that that was the best way to do. ‘Whatever you do,’ he said, ‘help your wife in all things!’ He taught me to clean the garden, to help gather the corn to hoe, and to rake.

My father said that that man lived best and had plenty to eat who helped his wife; he who did not help his wife was likely to have scanty stores of food.”–WOLF CHIEF (told in 1910).

Gilbert L. Wilson: Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, Page 115

“Real men carry a small fork.”

Dr. Steve Scheurell

After preparing our first beds, we are excited to start planting this week. Caleb arrived with pre-soaked legume seeds and explained that soaking seeds will swell and soften them, as well as prepare them by instigating the first roots. Big, wrinkled, and hard-coated seeds make excellent candidates for soaking; smaller seeds like carrot and lettuce are hard to handle after soaking and don’t need it anyway. Caleb recommend soaking seeds for 8-12 hours and no more than 24 hours. Too much soaking can cause decomposition, so it is important to plant the seeds as soon as possible.

Before planting, we inoculated our peas with Guard-N, an OMRI listed additive that contains several strains of rhizobia, symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria which help legumes capture more nitrogen.

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On either side of the peas we have planted spinach and turnips, and around the scarlet runner beans we’ve broadcast sown white clover as a cover crop. White clover is a top choice for “living mulch” systems planted between rows of vegetables, fruit bushes or trees. They are persistent, widely adapted perennial nitrogen producers with tough stems and a dense shallow root structures that protect soil from erosion and suppress weeds.

Caleb produced a compost tea from Rohini Reddy’s book, Cho’s Global Natural Farming, called fermented plant juice, or FPJ. FPJ is a fermented extract of a plant’s sap and chlorophyll. It is a rich, enzyme-filled solution full of microorganisms such as lactic acid, bacteria, and yeast that invigorates plants. I’m excited to see how it looks next week when we siphon-off the liquid from our jar and dilute it for fertilizer.

We will have water next week! Something that I’m learning from experience, both in the POF program and the community garden, is that efficiency is key to creating functional growing spaces for plants. Having a means to water our seedlings without having to carry it from a distance will create the opportunity to spend our time on other things and ensure everything stays hydrated as it warms-up.

Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

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This week Ashley and I focused on observing our space and thinking about possible planting patterns for our Four Sisters garden. We measured our plot to be 10′ x 28′ and used the week to study traditional planting patterns which we intend to adapt for our garden. Our plot is in the extreme Northwest corner of the community garden space, right next to the greenhouse, which is a wonderful arrangement: we won’t have to worry about our sunflowers, planted along the northern edge of the plot, shading anyone’s vegetables and their shade might help keep the greenhouse a bit cooler in the summer heat.

Wampanoag Circular Garden

The first shape I explored was the Wampanoag circular garden. Planted without plowing or tilling, this traditional Wampanoag garden includes corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. The corn and beans are planted in mounds, with squash planted between the mounds. The sunflowers are planted along the north edge of the garden, so that they do not throw shade on the other crops.

It was these Wampanoag gardens that enabled the early settlers of Jamestown to survive and thrive in the New World. Squanto was a Wampanoag who taught the colonizers to plant maize in little hills and fertilize each mound with an alewife, a species of fish. With this efficient and intensive gardening style, each family could sustain their needs on about one acre of land. Many of the tribes of the Northeast, including the Iroquois, used the Wampanoag garden design.

Hidatsa Garden

In the northern plains, the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara peoples gardened along the floodplain of the Missouri River in what is now called North Dakota. Most of the tribes in this region used the Hidatsa garden design. Hidatsa gardens are designed to have alternating, staggered rows of corn and beans, with sunflowers growing along the north edge of the garden. Squash is planted after every fourth row of corn and beans and around the east, south, and west edges of the garden.

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Zuni Waffle Garden

Wampanoag and Hidatsa garden designs use raised mounds to keep the root systems from being waterlogged. In contrast, the focus of the Zuni waffle garden is water conservation. The waffles are about 12 feet by 12 feet. Each individual square is indented and surrounded by a high rim. In each square, a single crop or combinations of crops may be planted. This garden design will work anywhere in the country where dry summer conditions are experienced.

Traditionally, the crops are planted intensively with five to eight corn seeds in each hole to create clumps of corn similar to those in the Hidatsa garden. Corn seeds are planted 4-8 inches deep in light sandy soils and about 4 inches deep or less in heavier clay soil. Beans and squash have the same planting depths and spacing requirements as corn. The same number of beans (4-8 seeds) are planted around each clump of corn, one seed per hole. Only one or two squash plantings (4-8 seeds in each hole) are added to each waffle. As with the other two designs, sunflowers may also be planted along the edges of the Zuni Waffle garden.

In exploring these garden designs the first thing I noticed was the observation of climate. Each three sisters garden offered something a little bit different in terms of climate mitigation: water retention, intercropping intensity, and fertilization. I look forward to next week when I can begin designing a functional layout for our bed.

Collaborative Community Garden

“The future is created one room at a time, one gathering at a time. Each gathering needs to become an example of the future we want to create. This means the small group is where transformation takes place. Large-scale transformation occurs when enough small group shifts lead to larger change.”

Peter Block: Community: The Structure of Belonging, Page 93

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Week one was devoted to Covid training and schedule management. Covid training was a breeze, and thankfully I only had to complete the online class once for both my programs. It’s been a learning experience completing the form each day and holding up my phone like a talisman until my professors nods approvingly.

Scheduling has been my main concern because I am taking so many credits this quarter. I spent a significant amount of time in weeks one and two attempting to maximize the efficiency and impact of my two programs. Professor Karen Kill, the head of Practice of Organic Farming (POF), has been willing to let me bend my schedule in addition to trading lab days; this means I will be able to attend Dr. Sarah William’s Wednesday morning class regularly. I will attend all POF practicums, and because of the rotating schedule on the farm I will only be able to tend to the community garden for one of the two meeting per week. Friday is lab day, followed by seminar. The weekend is for lab reports, discussion questions, asynchronous lectures, essays, readings, WordPress and gardening.

Our first day of in-person learning on campus was the breathe of life that I needed. After months in front of a screen, seeing all of my classmates and professors in person was surreal. Just the act of leaving the house lifted my spirits, and I imagine that developing a routine that allows me to be on campus 3 or 4 days a week will help jump start my post-lock down reemergence. I was especially excited to meet with my ILC partner Ashley Lewis, with whom I’ll be creating a model garden using the Three Sisters intercropping method.

Prior to the start of the quarter, Caleb Poppe and I covered our plot in black plastic, a practice called occultation. Covering the soil with an opaque tarp for a few weeks cleans the surface of the beds without having to work the soil as much. Placed after harvest, occultation can also reduce weed pressure for following crops.

Peeling-back the plastic for the first time was fun and surprising. Garter snakes slithered in every direction; they had been enjoying the heat under the tarp. I hadn’t thought of how occultation would attract snakes, and I began to understand why I may not have seen the practice use before in the deep south. After wrangling the snakes away, we were able to see the amazing difference a few weeks made. We drew the tarp back far enough to prep a few beds, but left the rest covered to keep back the weeds. Each week we will be able to fold the tarp farther back, like a magician’s trick.

We began by learning about our tools: use, care, and handling. The broadfork is one of my new favorite tools! I was limited in my knowledge of garden tools coming into the program, but thought that nothing could beat the efficiency of the shovel for hand digging. SO WRONG!

“The broadfork traces its origins back to the grelinette, a tool invented by in France by Andre Grelin in the 1960s. The tool we use on our farm is not the authentic French grelinette but rather a French Canadian on modeled after it. We named our business, Les Jardins de la Grelinette, after the tool because it is so emblematic of our philosophy of efficient, environmentally sound, manual organic gardening.”

Jean-Martin Fortier: The Market Gardener, Page 49

The added benefit for the back is reason enough to love the broadfork, as they are designed for the user to keep they’re back straight as opposed to bending or twisting. The amount of work that the tool does for you is so efficient. I can break twice as much ground in a fraction of the time of just using a shovel. I can’t believe I have lived without this tool for years! I have also developed a deep affection for the hori hori knife given to me by my POF program for weeding out deep-rooted or tough weeds like comfrey or buttercup.

We were able to completely double-dig two or three beds in our plot in week 2. Double digging capitalizes on the soil’s natural ecological processes, while making it loose enough to plant in immediately. The basic idea of double digging is to ma an extra deep bed of loose soil (16-18 inches), without inverting the soil’s layers. We added compost to the top of the bed and mixed it in. It is important to note that after the bed is finished, it is vital NOT TO WALK on the freshly turned soil, as it will cause compaction in the bed.

The true work came next: comfrey, buttercup, morning glory, kale. Repeat for eternity. The roots of the comfrey ran deep, often beyond the depth of our digging. Knotted clumps of buttercup were invading the beds from the sides, and morning glory was beginning to creep. Fist-sized rocks were buried throughout the beds, which we moved to the edge of the plot. We spent the bulk of our time weeding and desperately trying to stay six feet apart, eventually settling into our own sections.

I spent my down time in weeks one and two continuing my reading. I finally finished Wendell Berry’s Bringing it to the Table, just in time to start an organic farming program. I’m particularly drawn to Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, which has been invaluable in planning a significant part of my Three Sisters ILC work. Community:The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block was an awesome thrift store find that came to me at the perfect time. Block says in his introduction, “one goal in exploring the concepts and methods of community building in this book is to increase the amount of belonging or relatedness that exists in the world. Experiencing this kind of friendship, hospitality, conviviality is not easy or natural in the world we now live in.” After enduring the trauma of 2020, with its innumerable challenges, this statement alone added the book to my reading for the quarter. I also started reading The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier and The Lean Farm by Ben Hartman, as well as Growing Vegetables in the Pacific Northwest by Steve Solomon.

Do’patsa Makihi’kě: Four-Vegetables-Mixed

The Iroquois, Sky Woman, and the Three Sisters

“The term “Three Sisters” emerged from the Iroquois creation myth. It was said that the earth began when “Sky Woman” who lived in the upper world peered through a hole in the sky and fell through to an endless sea. The animals saw her coming, so they took the soil from the bottom of the sea and spread it onto the back of a giant turtle to provide a safe place for her to land. This “Turtle Island” is now what we call North America.

Sky woman had become pregnant before she fell. When she landed, she gave birth to a daughter. When the daughter grew into a young woman, she also became pregnant (by the West wind). She died while giving birth to twin boys. Sky Woman buried her daughter in the “new earth.” From her grave grew three sacred plants—corn, beans, and squash. These plants provided food for her sons, and later, for all of humanity. These special gifts ensured the survival of the Iroquois people.”

Diana Erney: Long live the Three Sisters, Pages 37-40

Who Are the Three Sisters.

For thousands of years, the Mesoamerican diet focused on three domesticated staple crops: maize (Zea mays ssp. mays), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucurbita pepo). Maize in particular figured prominently in mythology and ideology. For generations these three crops, know as the Three Sisters, were grown and carried northward, eventually becoming a staple of food and trade for a number of indigenous cultures across North America. In addition, these traditional agricultural communities have developed extremely resilient, efficient, and sustainable techniques. The process to develop this agricultural knowledge took place over 5,000–6,500 years.

The Three Sisters are planted using a technique modernly known as companion planting or polyculture. The crops are planted close together, sometimes in raised mounds or patterned fields, and benefit from each other in a number of synergistic ways. The corn provides a structure for the beans to climb, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil that the other plants use, and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight and helping prevent the establishment of weeds. The squash leaves act as a “living mulch”, acting as a living mulch to retain moisture in the soil. The prickly hairs of the squash vines also deter pests. By mimicking natural plant communities, polycultures like the Three Sisters can be more stable than monocultures; they may withstand climate crisis better than monocultures and because they use nutrients, light, and water more efficiently than monoculture systems, productivity may be higher than monocultures as well.

A Three Sisters Legend

“A time very long ago, there were three sisters who lived together in a field. These sisters were quite different from one another in their size and also in their way of dressing. One of the three was a little sister, so young that she could only crawl at first, and she was dressed in green. The second of the three wore a frock of bright yellow, and she had a way of running off by herself when the sun shone and the soft wind blew in her face. The third was the eldest sister, standing always very straight and tall above the other sisters and trying to guard them. She wore a pale green shawl, and she had long, yellow hair that tossed about her head in the breezes. There was only one way in which the three sisters were alike. They loved one another very dearly, and they were never separated. They were sure that they would not be able to live apart.

After awhile a stranger came to the field of the three sisters, a young boy. He was as straight as an arrow and as fearless as the eagle that circled the sky above his head. He knew the way of talking to the birds and the small brothers of the earth, the shrew, the chipmunk, and the young foxes. And the three sisters, the one who was just able to crawl, the one in the yellow frock, and the one with the flowing hair, were very much interested in him. They watched him fit his arrow in his bow, saw him carve a bowl with his stone knife, and wondered where he went at night.

Late in the summer of the first coming of the boy to their field, one of the three sisters disappeared. This was the youngest sister in green, the sister who could only creep. She was scarcely able to stand alone in the field unless she had a stick to which she clung. Her sisters mourned for her until the fall, but she did not return.

Once more the young man came to the field of the three sisters. He came to gather reeds at the edge of a stream nearby to make arrow shafts. The two sisters who were left watched him and gazed with wonder at the prints of his moccasins in the earth that marked his trail.

That night the second of the sisters left, the one who was dressed in yellow and who always wanted to run away. She left no mark of her going, but it may have been that she set her feet in the moccasin tracks of the young boy.

Now there was but one of the sisters left. Tall and straight she stood in the field not once bowing her head with sorrow, but it seemed to her that she could not live there alone. The days grew shorter and the nights were colder. Her green shawl faded and grew thin and old. Her hair, once long and golden, was tangled by the wind. Day and night she sighed for her sisters to return to her, but they did not hear her. Her voice when she tried to call to them was low and plaintive like the wind.

But one day when it was the season of the harvest, the boy heard the crying of the third sister who had been left to mourn there in the field. He felt sorry for her, and he took her in his arms and carried her to the lodge of his father and mother. Oh what a surprise awaited here there! Her two lost sisters were there in the lodge, safe and very glad to see her. They had been curious about the young man, and they had gone home with him to see how and where he lived. They had liked his warm cave so well that they had decided now that winter was coming on to stay with him. And they were doing all they could to be useful.

The little sister in green, now quite grown up, was helping to keep the dinner pot full. The sister in yellow sat on the shelf drying herself, for she planned to fill the dinner pot later. The third sister joined them, ready to grind meal. And the three were never separated again.”

Courtesy of the Native North American Traveling College.

Each of the crops also provides complementary value to diets. Corn is high in calories but relatively low in protein and is deficient in two critical amino acids. Beans, however, are a rich source of protein and feature an amino acid profile that complements corn. Eating the two crops together provides a complete array of amino acids. Squash is high in calories, vitamins, and minerals, and its seeds are a good source of protein and oil.

It is interesting to note that ancient Mesoamericans developed complex processes for preparing food as well. Perhaps the most well known (and valuable) is nixtamalization. From the Aztec word nixtamalli (a combination of the words for ashes and dough), nixtamalization is the process of increasing the alkalinity of the corn, traditionally with lime or wood ash. The resulting product is called hominy.

Nixtamalization benefits those who use and eat corn in many significant ways. Cooking and soaking corn in an alkaline solution partially dissolves the cell walls of the kernels, separating the pericarp from the kernel and making it easier to grind the corn. The alkalizing process also binds the corn’s proteins to one another, turns some of its oil into emulsifiers, and gelatinizes a portion of the starch, allowing it to be made into a soft dough (masa). The nixtamalization process releases the bound niacin in corn, allowing it top be absorbed through human digestion. The process adds dietary calcium, improves the accessibility of six amino acids, and reduces poisonous substances produced by fungi called mycotoxins. A final interesting product of nixtamalization is the flavor and aroma it yields.

Sister Sunflower and Sister Bee Balm

There are several plants which are included in Three Sisters planting as a fourth sister. The Tewa people of New Mexico interplanted Rocky Mountain bee plant (bee balm) in their three sisters plots. The Hidatsa garden feature sunflowers along the northern edge of the bed. There is very strong evidence sunflowers were the very first crop to be cultivated, making them the Eldest Sister! I was intrigued by this because sunflowers are allelopathic. Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon by which an organism produces one or more biochemicals that influence the germination, growth, survival, and reproduction of other organisms. The chemicals produced by the sunflower will hinder the growth of its neighboring plants. Allelopathic effects are species dependent. Some species are affected more and others not at all. More than 200 natural allelopathic compounds have been identified from different cultivars of sunflower, and it seems as if all parts of the plant contain them to some extent.

Four-Vegetables-Mixed

“Sunflower meal was used in making a dish that we called do’patsa-makihi’kĕ, or four-vegetables-mixed; from do’patsa, four things; and makihi’kĕ, mixed or put together. Four-vegetables-mixed we thought our very best dish. To make this dish, enough for a family of five, I did as follows:

I put a clay pot with water on the fire. Into the pot I threw one double-handful of beans. This was a fixed quantity; I put in just one double-handful whether the family to be served was large or small; for a larger quantity of beans in this dish was apt to make gas on one’s stomach.

When we dried squash in the fall we strung the slices upon strings of twisted grass, each seven Indian fathoms long; an Indian fathom is the distance between a woman’s two hands outstretched on either side. From one of these seven-fathom strings I cut a piece as long as from my elbow to the tip of my thumb; the two ends of the severed piece I tied together, making a ring; and this I dropped into the pot with the beans.

When the squash slices were well cooked I lifted them out of the pot by the grass string into a wooden bowl. With a horn spoon I chopped and mashed the cooked squash slices into a mass, which I now returned to the pot with the beans. The grass string I threw away.

To the mess I now added four or five double-handfuls of mixed meal, of pounded parched sunflower seed and pounded parched corn. The whole was boiled for a few minutes more, and was ready for serving.

I have already told how we parched sunflower seed; and that I used two or three double-handfuls of seed to a parching. I used two parchings of sunflower seed for one mess of four-vegetables-mixed. I also used two parchings of corn; but I put more corn into the pot at a parching than I did of sunflower seed. Pounding the parched corn and sunflower seed reduced their bulk so that the four parchings, two of sunflower seed and two of corn, made but four or five double-handfuls of the mixed meal.

Four-vegetables-mixed was eaten freshly cooked; and the mixed corn-and-sunflower meal was made fresh for it each time. A little alkali salt might be added for seasoning, but even this was not usual. No other seasoning was used. Meat was not boiled with the mess, as the sunflower seed gave sufficient oil to furnish fat. Four-vegetables-mixed was a winter food; and the squash used in its making was dried, sliced squash, never green, fresh squash.

The clay pot used for boiling this and other dishes was about the size of an iron dinner pot, or even larger. For a large family, the pot might be as much as thirteen or fourteen inches high. I have described that in use in my father’s family. When a mess of four-vegetables-mixed was cooked, I did not remove the pot from the coals, but dipped out the vegetables with a mountain-sheep horn spoon, into wooden bowls.”

Gilbert L. Wilson: Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, Page 20