Three sisters


One is tall and willowy, with a tassel of blonde hair, one is round with green skin…hmm, this anthropomorphic conceit just won’t work…this Three Sisters is a traditional method of cultivation from South America. Tall sister maize holds up its climbing sister the bean and gives shade for trailing sister squash, which keeps down weeds. But there is more to it than that. Maize is an incredibly valuable food source, and is higher in fat but lower in protein than wheat or rice, and this protein can be supplied by beans – particularly two amino acids in which maize is deficient. Squashes are high in vitamins and further compliment this ready-made plateful. Maize is one of the oldest cultivated crops, being a staple crop of the Incas, Aztecs and Maya, and has been found in archaeological excavations about 3500 years old. The importance of these crops to peoples all over the Americas is reflected by the stories about them. The Black Environment Network is good on the cultural side of the Three Sisters, and Wikipedia has information on maize and its current role in food technology as well as its origins in 'the mists of time'.

It’s difficult to know what varieties of maize, squash and bean to grow together to replicate the ancient system. Even the oldest varieties are newcomers in the history of these crops. Practically speaking, the maize needs to be able to cope with the beans, but not to shade them and the squash too much. Together they put quite a strain on the soil, so it needs to be in good heart from the start. The variety of maize grown here is ‘Blue’, which the Heritage Seed Library are characterising at the moment. With it is the climbing French bean ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’, which has black seeds in a purple pod. The squashes are ‘Olive’ a vigorous and productive variety the shape and colour, if several hundred times the size, of an olive.

It’s obvious even from the small experimental area in the Heritage Seed Library garden at Ryton Gardens, shown above, that the Three Sisters didn’t look very much like modern mass cultivation, or even our traditional allotment gardens. You can see the maize starting to ripen (this picture was taken a few weeks ago), and you may be able to make out the leaves of squashes and beans. There appears to be a tomato too – perhaps a cousin.

With the growing interest in new ways of growing, and the anticipated need to grow crops which can cope with summer drought, perhaps the Three Sisters will embark on a comeback tour...