The Three Sisters
(Page 4 of 6)
February/March 2001
By John Vivian
The three sisters were planted in hills, in yardwide pits or in raised mounds that were fertilized, tilled and retained for several years. Surrounding land was untilled, but cleared of potentially competing large weeds.
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Fish carcasses were often buried beneath corn hills, but no manure - human or from horses or wild animals - was used as fertilizer. It often contained still-viable weed seeds and was considered unclean in both a temporal and spiritual sense. This is one area where we can part company with Indians, who did not compost. Properly composted "humanure" or a winter's collection of livestock dung, mixed with straw or sawdust bedding and allowed to rot during the summer, makes a matchless soil enhancement.
Straw scarecrows, as well as long grass leaves bound into twisted-grass cord and arrayed over the garden, were used to deter crows and other birds. From our experience, they work as well today as long as locations are changed at least one a day - crows are still pretty smart. Look here for more critter control advice.
Post-planting crop lands were thoroughly hand-cultivated, but only twice in the season. The first shallow hoeing took place on a hot, sunny day a few weeks after planting. By that point, most of the inevitable crop of windblown weed seeds had germinated and grown to six inches or so - not yet shading crop plants or vying with them for water or soil nutrients. Soil was shallowly shaved by the hoe, cutting stems just below ground level, which allowed roots to decay in the soil and above-ground growth to dry into mulch. A second hoeing followed several weeks later. After that, the few weeds that were not shaded out by the crops were pulled by hand.
Varieties and Planting
The earliest wild-corn varieties probably produced kernels that dried rock-hard on one- to two-inch long cobs. The corn was roasted in the husk and enjoyed in the immature "green" stage as it is today. The earliest types were probably popcorn, which retains a bit of water inside mature, dried kernels. By all archaeological indications, kernels were eaten off the cob.
Over the millennia, thousands of varieties were bred, both accidentally and on purpose, from the originals. Some modern crossbreeding/hybridizing is being done by agribusiness that breeds candy-sweetness into sweet corn and pesticide genes into field corn. More to MOTHER'S liking are the plant-breeding programs being undertaken by seedsavers - small private and corporate business growers and some universities - to breed back to original Indian strains and to breed natural drought, pest and pollution resistance into native varieties. Most notable - and most accessible to home gardeners - are the efforts of the certified all - organic growers at Seeds Of Change, PO Box 15700, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87506.
Most original Indian varieties have been lost for generations, so anyone making a half-serious attempt to establish a seedbank appropriate to their own area will have to start with a sample of open-pollinated seed, selecting and reselecting the best for their climate. I am trying to dehybridize early developing corn by planting out and reselecting the wildly variable plants that grow from the seed of early hybrid corn (from Vesey's Seeds of Prince Edward Island. Call 800-363-7333.)
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