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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Dead Planet, 3 Sisters

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@dotnet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Dead Planet, 3 Sisters
  • Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:11:53 -0600

You make some good points, and I feel your cynical Pain.

However, we often become enamored with heritage, romantic notions of evolved
indigenous systems, etc. Unfortunately, we may find that the best, most
nutritious foods are not politically correct at this time. For example, the
best, most efficient way to raise nutrition and be friendly to the soil in
most of Wisconsin is to raise pasture-fed animals and butcher them and
harvest their milk through the winter, as well as eating wild game which
lives on deep-rooted plants and tree fruits.
But that would require a lot more land than the population can be supported
by, and it requires acceptance from civilization and 'civilized' polite
society which has become accustomed to fresh fruits all winter and
entrail-free consumption.

The three sisters is a combination that works as a general rule, but not
everywhere. You may want to give up one of the sisters for adoption and hire
a maid, such as alfalfa or clover for a broader ground cover of nitrogen
fixing than beans would have provided. Corn depends on how you can use and
store it in quantity. If you are raising animals, you might prefer barley, in
a rotation with field peas. Native Americans didn't have cows which were
docile, they had buffalo which don't tame. Otherwise, America may have turned
out more like India or Africa.
The mound -growing system of cucurbits also comes from needs to keep the
seeds high during heavy rainy seasons and for earlier warming in cold clay
soils. If you transplant, you can skip this and plant in rows.
If you have nitrogen available (Humanure, anyone?), then the corn might be
better fed outside of the 3 sisters, so that the nitrogen fixing bacteria can
be more effective someplace else. Beans may be better used as an early crop
and tilled in to lead into fall Brassicas.
Squash varieties are better selected based upon modern disease pressure (look
in the catalogs) than on old historical data. There are different diseases
that have been imported from Asia, AFrica, and Europe than what early
settlers had to deal with.
Paul is right in that variety selection is more of a matter of taste, and
your particular place. Do you have honeybees for pollination or bumblebees?
Flea beetle pressure? TMV (tobacco mosaic virus - do you or any of your help
smoke cigarettes?)?
What type of storage do you plan on using? Do you plan to sell anything at
markets, or only feed your own family (some varieties look better and sell
better, but don't store well or dry well or make sauces or paste or pie or
whatever you might desire.)?
Specific variety selections are best found when talking to farmers near you,
and with your local university ag research people that are sucking up tax
dollars anyway. Many are now doing extensive research into heirloom varieties.

Keep asking...

Dan


These are just examples of how you can modify a plan from original customs.
On 3/9/2007 at 5:37 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:


> >Ok, there are already enough books (at least 30 years worth) detailing
> >the failings of our agricultural system. I don't expect this one to have
> >any more impact than the others.
> >
> >At another level, although there are plenty of books about how to garden
> >(or farm), there still isn't much to bridge the gap between gardening and
> >eating. In other words, if you're already convinced, what, precisely,
> >should you grow to feed, first your family, then others?
> >
> >For any given area, there must be crops that give the most nutrition.





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