Check out our Gardening & Foraging courses here: homegrownhandg... This week we're showing y'all how we grow a Three Sisters garden from planting to harvest. More info on the Legend of the Three Sisters: www.oneidaindi...
Your videos, especially in collaboration with Ethan, are such works of art that I get emotional watching them. You’re doing amazing work and I wish you a very fruitful season!
Thank you for sharing that beautiful story. I remember one year planting cucumbers too close to the corn. The cucumber vines climbed to the top of the corn stalks. It was a bumper crop of cucumbers that year. How nice to see your little nephews enjoying the garden. Kids always like to harvest. Jordan, you seem to have strength in your voice. I hope you are feeling well. Sunshine and happiness to you and miss Sylvan.
Your garden is beautiful!! It’s always amazing how new things grow and develops in Gods creation. Always good to try something new. Keep growing. It’s a lost art. Thanks for sharing your beautiful life and family.
Over here in Tasmania we are much less exposed to the many varieties of corn apart from sweetcorn, and we don't eat a lot of cornmeal products. But last season I grew Glass Gem corn for the first time, which struggled with my early frosts, but I have just harvested an exciting load of magically coloured cobs! I'm thrilled at the prospect of nixtamalising them, building my own wooden tortilla press, and learning some new recipes to cheer me on the bleak winter days. Fortunately I have a jersey cow, so sour cream will definitely be an ingredient! The purple king beans I grew were eaten fresh, but I grew Kilham Goose dried beans elsewhere for the first time. Not enough to eat, but to provide seed for a bumper crop next year. The squash I grew in the 3 sisters bed was pepitas, which didn't manage to turn gold before the frost, so I don't know how successful they will be. But like all gardeners, I keep hoping for better results next season! Meanwhile I will enjoy watching your progress through your summer. Your videos are some of the most enjoyable, educational and encouraging to anyone gardening to feed themselves through the year.
If you have a short summer, I'd recommend Painted Mountain Milling Corn. It's bred for short summers and can tolerate cold better than others. I've grown it and it does great.
love your videos, our national dish in Argentina is called locro (there are different versions on all andean countries) and its a hearty stew based on these three foods, dried white corn, white or butter beans and winter squash, and lots of pork and beef cuts with lots of bones, fat and connective tissue, like pigs ears, trottlers and skin, ox tail, etc i always wanted to grow a locro patch, but my garden is to small to make it worth it, until recently i had no idea that growing this combination of vegetables was a thing, in basically all the continent
i recommend when baking squash, adding a bit of Olive Oil. don't need a ton. but a little goes a long way. (or whatever kinda oil you want. peanut, olive, soya, canola, cottonseed, etc)
Yea, we usually use olive oil and slice it thin. We were baking that one whole to store in the fridge and put in our dog's food every night. It's her favorite food other than deer meat :)
As I always say I love your videos. I was thinking about how my mom always likes to say that I'm a gatherer more so than a planter and it's true. Few things feel more satisfying than gathering tomatoes, cucumbers,okra ,corn and potatoes to me. My family grows a small summer garden every year and some of my fondest memories are canning green beans or tomatoes with my family members many that have passed on now.The imagery that you all manage to get looks the way those memories feel and I think that's one of the reasons I am so fond of your channel. Thank you for sharing all the information that you do.I can't wait for the next one.
Have you ever tried a fresh produce version to eat during summer? Sweetcorn, Summer Squash and 'Green' Beans? I do a frozen veggies from the grocery store stir fry version. Then I add some beef or chicken bone broth (going to try for turkey if I can find the time to make it more authentic), onions, garlic, seasoning, some powdered goat milk to thicken and a bit of honey. Sometimes I add salmon or my turkey bacon too, maybe even cubed potatoesand tomatoes. Ends up as more of a stew so I call it my 3 Sister's Stew Fry!
@LaineyBug2020 The kind of comments we see and tolerate only because the algorithm overlord like interration. Braindead, thoughtless, absolutely annoying to look at. You're the kind of who cant shut up for one moment, are you?
I believe part of the reason, other than what others have said, that this doesn’t work as well, is because what you describe needs more frequent harvesting. The risk of ripping bean vines, or stepping on squash plants is higher if you have to go in there all the time. The traditional three sisters garden is harvested from, at most, three times (I believe the intention is that everything dries up so you can harvest everything at the same time) It’s all so squished together that it also would just be more of a pain, especially if you do it in a larger plot :) you meal sounds delicious!
Thank you! I've always loved reading Indian legends. The music titled "Cotyledon" by Ethan Lennox is beautiful and partners appropriately with the topic.
I also work my garden barefoot sometimes! I know its probably not the best idea, so most of the time i wear sandals, but when I'm barefoot, i feel closer to the earth that i am working. Its spiritual!
Not a dumb question at all! It’s definitely less necessary to rotate when you’re growing companion plants. We don’t really rotate these at all, we just make sure to replenish the soil with compost and organic fertilizer each year
I’m inspired to plant a fall 3-sisters garden this year and I’d better get started! Luckily I have a long growing season here and we may not get a frost until possibly early December. I had a blast growing a small crop of sweet corn and popcorn last fall successfully so now I’m inspired to really get something out of my garden space this year! I want to grow dent corn, glass gem (2 very different maturity times), good mother stallard and Cherokee black beans along with butternut squash and cushaw pumpkins. Wish me luck!
A very nice job. I once tried to grow a small margin garden. That summer set record highs above 110f. 😠 The birds pecked holes in every thing. I planted some odd on-sale carrots that stayed in the ground for 1.5 yrs b4 peaking! Turned out they were canning carrots & incredibly sweet but shaped like a turnip😅. I will live vicariously thru you two. Nice job!
The Three sisters is an awesome crop idea. I have many questions. 1) how often do you have to rotate your crops to another field? 2) what type of soil remediation do you use? 3) what do you do about squash Vine bores? 4) do you ears get fully pollinated? 5) what is the area in feet 25x10ft? 6) do you use any organic pesticides? I live in south Texas and we deal with heat, insects and drought
In the book " 1491 " , there is a picture from the 1930s in western Massachusetts that still had the mounds from the old native corn fields . All the names in the Boston , Mass, area with field in them were former native corn fields , Springfield , Wakefield , Mansfield , Marshfield ..............
Thank you so much for sharing this video! I learned a lot. My grandpa always grew sweet corn, green beans, and zucchini, but did the traditional rows (from what you say it sounds like sweet corn stalks aren’t strong enough for Three Sisters planting). I have very fond memories of harvesting and preparing these foods. You are right that they taste so much better fresh! I saw on one of your short videos that you use the corn detritus to grow oyster mushrooms. Are you going to make a video about that process? I would love to find out how to do that! My only success with mushrooms have been finding edible ones in our yard or growing them from a kit. Do you buy the spores? I really appreciate your videos. You have brought so much joy to so many people, and have inspired us to slow down and connect with our food. Even those of us who grew up in farming families are learning about healthier ways to grow food, in ways that don’t deplete the earth and make use of natural methods like companion planting. Question: do you use your chickens for pest control in your Three Sisters space? I was wondering if the root systems could handle it. It seems like a great way to get rid of squash bugs. We let our chickens in the herb garden, they don’t do much damage to our tall herbs like parsley, dill, and cilantro!
We don’t currently use chickens in the patch since we grow in community gardens and some people wouldn’t be cool with that, but that would be a great idea to bring them in at the end of the season so they can eat the pest bugs, pick through any leftover kernels and fertilize the ground. We plan to start doing that with turkeys and sheep in the future when we have some land of our own
It was opposite for me... My first garden had the most beautiful and tasty tomatoes and my zucchini was amazing! When i started watching all the videos i got busy in the garden and had hardly no vegetables for two years. Im gonna try again next year, so im spending this year getting back to what i did in the beginning -composting and fertilizing with natural things!
I haven't watched YT in a while, the last time was when Jordan said he'd be undergoing a procedure. Glad to see it went well, and it's good to see you both again! Now it's time for me to binge what I've missed on, thank you for sharing your much-needed calming presence 🌿
Such a beautiful video! Glad to see you back on video! Speedy recovery and God bless you guys. Much love to Ethans musicianship. You guys seem like you have a beautiful group of friends
I'm currently in China, and I see the bean and corn combination everywhere. Not with the pumpkin though, it seems to be grown separately most of the time.
I enjoyed this video so much I watched it four times in a row. So glad to see you making videos again Jordan. I want you to know that you both have inspired me to rent a community garden plot this year. I had already decided I would try a Three Sisters Garden so this video was perfect timing bc I had so many questions. I’m growing in Northern Colorado so I’ve got a shorter season to work with but my hopes are high. Wishing you both well and looking forward to seeing your gardens grow! PS -loved the short & sweet song at the beginning 🩵
First of all, I’m glad you enjoyed this video so much, but most importantly congrats on your new garden space! In Northern Colorado make sure you’re growing a shorter season corn variety so it has time to ripen before the frost. I think Painted Mountain flour, Wapsie Valley dent, Hopi Blue flour and any flint corn should work well there
Interesting video. I'm wondering how you protect the squash from squash bugs and potential fungus? I struggle with that early on in my planting season.
@HomegrownHandgathered This looks great! Would love to use this for the next season. What varieties of corn/bean/squash did you have most success with?
This is such a relaxing video to watch, thanks so much for putting it together and sharing it! My wife and I are leaning hard into the Dry Corn, Dry Beans and Squash, testing different varieties out. What Corn, Bean, and Squash varieties do you guys grow?
We usually let the corn and beans dry on the stalk and the winter squash is ready to store once the stem gets hard. After that we don’t really do anything and they store all Winter
We do nixtamalize our corn. Really the only thing it unlocks is more vitamin B which we already get plenty of from nuts, beans and meat, but nixtamalization improves the flavor and texture in our opinion
Loved your video! I've tried growing 3 sister crops an few times now - From Newfoundland, Canada - beans/peas grow easily, squash is more difficult but manageable, corn - corn never comes out right, the stalk grows big and tall but the corn itself always comes out too small or deformed. Our growing season is from mid June to mid October at the latest. Anyone have any good advise? I always start crops indoors, but twice now I've had trouble with tainted "starting soil" (bought from an store) resulting in an bug outbreak in the indoor garden destroying half the crops. Anyone have any good advise on that?
Question: I have learnt that you need a sturdy flint corn for this to work well, does that mean that sweet corn and beans are less of a good idea or does one simply need to plant bush beans or have something of an additional trellis to distribute the load?
Yea, flint corn, dent corn, flour corn or popcorn all work well, but sweet corn stalks tend to be a little too flimsy. Adding a trellis or stakes to the mix would definitely help if that’s what you like to grow though
Thank you for the link tò the original legend 💚 Do you have other companion planting suggestions? P.S. you can plant any plant from the cucurbitacea family with the corn and beans 😉
We do a lot of companion planting. Some of our other favorites are tomatoes and basil, tomatoes and scallions, carrots and radishes, pole beans and sunflowers/okra/amaranth.
If you have pressure from raccoons you might want to pick it a little early. We usually let it dry on the stalk, but it’s fully mature when the ears feel hard and sturdy so you might try picking it as soon as it gets mature and then hanging it to dry inside
Yes, the Three Sisters have been grown in that area for a long time. We recommend planting after the average last frost in Spring, but in Florida that might not even be a consideration so you can probably plant them now and they’ll have time to ripen
@@HomegrownHandgathered thanks so much!!! I have been struggling with figuring out the timing for my garden as most of the time we hardly get winter. Lots of love from Florida 🍊🍊
Sorry if someone already asked this.. what do you recommend for grinding your own corn? I found a kitchenaid mixer attachment for grinding flour but read the corn is too greasy and will break it.
Any flour mill should work well if the corn is fully dry. We use a Wondermill Junior and it works great, but if you already have a kitchenaid one it’ll probably work
You can let them all dry in the plot, but we prefer to harvest them as soon as they’re mature and let them dry inside so there’s less chance of them getting eaten by critters. This is also how the story goes in the old legend
love your stuff, been watching your shorts for a long time, but I have a small piece of constructive criticism! you might want to turn the music down when adding in the clips of you talking. it can be a little harder to make out what youre saying for people who dont have the hest hearing, and it still sounds better for the people who do. still a really awesome, informative video though!
Thanks for the feedback, I did start turning down a little bit during the talking, but I’ll try lowering it even more next time. Also, there should be subtitles available if you’d like to use those for any of the videos where the music is too loud
These are flour corns which are starchier and grown for things like tortillas, tamales, cornmeal, etc. You can eat them off the cob when they're fresh, but they're not as sweet as sweet corn.
