three sisters

By 2008, I'd made up my mind to plant the area around Ed and "Mintania" with corn. There was enough space, and the general gardening rule of thumb I've learned is you either choose between crops or weeds. There is no such thing as a dead zone. You simply make a decision on what you prefer. In the first two years, I chose weeds because I didn't have the time to keep plowing them up.

Corn is probably one of America's most prolific and subsidized crops, hence the rise of the ethanol industry. But it's damn good and it's more versatile than wheat since you don't have to mill it in order to consume it. It's useful fresh or dried.

Some time ago, I got interested in Native American culture and history. This intensified after I discovered "the family secret" on my maternal grandmother's side. I think we're part Cherokee. Now I have an answer whenever people ask me if I'm part Asian. Seriously, they do sometimes. But back in 1920's Virginia, when you could only classify yourself as either "white" or "colored," and that determined where you lived, went to school, jobs, etc., if you could pass for white, then that's what you said you were. My great-grandmother Lelia (pictured) was a remarkable woman with many gifts. If I ever have a daughter, I hope to pass her name along.

Anyway, Native American agriculture was based upon the "three sisters" system of planting corn, beans and squash together. In summary, the corn stalk provides a pole for the beans to climb. The beans add nitrogen to the soil. And the squash spreads out in between and crowds out the weeds. Nice and harmonious. So this is what I set out to do.

My first attempt faltered. I planted the corn in rows, you know, like every good farmer does. That crowded out too much sun for the squash and often left one corn stalk shouldering all the weight of the bean plant. Then, after seeing how it's supposed to be done at the National Museum of the American Indian, I wised up and did circular clumps of 3-4 corn plants spread out in mounds, with a bean plant in the middle, and squash (I like zucchini) in the wide patches between the mounds. Much better.