How the “Three Sisters” Fed a New World

This Week In Ag #143

Feast Week is a time to give thanks for our many blessings, as we celebrate the Pilgrims’ voyage to the New World. Now, when it comes to farming, let’s just say the Pilgrims weren’t exactly going to win any yield contests. And the rocky Massachusetts terrain isn’t exactly Illinois Drummer soil.

These early settlers were aided by the Native Americans, who utilized a highly innovative farming technique. Centuries before Dr. George Washington Carver saved Southern agriculture from economic despair by introducing crop rotation, native tribes utilized the “Three Sisters” farming technique.

This involved the symbiotic effect of growing corn, beans and squash together. Corn was grown on mounds (corn seeds were placed in holes, covered, emerged, then the caretakers mounded dirt around the growing crop). Beans were then seeded next to the growing corn, and the corn stalks served as natural stakes. Being a legume, the beans provided nitrogen in the soil for the corn to utilize as a natural fertilizer source. Squash (or in some cases, pumpkins, which are a type of squash) were planted between the mounded rows, providing a cover to suppress weeds and retain soil moisture.

This interplanting system was incredibly effective at producing multiple food sources. The true farmers among the natives were commonly the women, who planted and nurtured the crops. They were the mothers of sustainable farming and regenerative agriculture.