My family has lived nearly three hundred years in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and I grew up planting with the Three Sisters method. But I never heard the term Three Sisters, it was just the way we planted our gardens. In each hill, we planted three corn seed, two White Half Runner bean seeds (my mom鈥檚 favorite) and two cushaw seeds (saved from the previous year) and a favorite regional crop. Cushaw is a winter squash with a very hard skin and could grow 20-36鈥 long and was a staple on our tables. We sometimes had to use a hatchet and hammer to cut it open! Sometimes the beans out paced the corn and we鈥檇 have to gently pull the corn tops out so they could grow upright. I can only think that our family learned to plant this way from the Native Americans and now can properly thank them for teaching this method. I鈥檝e lived in Central Georgia for over 50 years. I can鈥檛 grow much anymore but love hearing the wisdom of the Ancients being passed along to new, younger gardeners.
My family has lived nearly three hundred years in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and I grew up planting with the Three Sisters method. But I never heard the term Three Sisters, it was just the way we planted our gardens. In each hill, we planted three corn seed, two White Half Runner bean seeds (my mom鈥檚 favorite) and two cushaw seeds (saved from the previous year) and a favorite regional crop. Cushaw is a winter squash with a very hard skin and could grow 20-36鈥 long and was a staple on our tables. We sometimes had to use a hatchet and hammer to cut it open! Sometimes the beans out paced the corn and we鈥檇 have to gently pull the corn tops out so they could grow upright. I can only think that our family learned to plant this way from the Native Americans and now can properly thank them for teaching this method. I鈥檝e lived in Central Georgia for over 50 years. I can鈥檛 grow much anymore but love hearing the wisdom of the Ancients being passed along to new, younger gardeners.