Collaborative Community Garden
Photography by Sarah Dyer
“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
Photography by Sarah Dyer
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
Image provided by the US Forest Service.
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
Maxi’diwiac’s story is a mix of the traditional knowledge of the Hidatsa people and her own interpretation of how life had changed for the Hidatsa after colonization.
Image from Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, by Gilbert L. Wilson.