The Three Sisters
When people in South America began to farm corn
and beans and squash, they worked out a system for growing all three plants
in the same field that was good for all of the plants and made them grow
better than they would have on their own.
Corn, beans, and squash growing together
Women planted the corn first, in the center of a garden
circle.
Two or three weeks later, women planted the beans, all
around the little corn plants in a larger circle. As the beans grew, they
could wind their stems around the strong corn plants, and be lifted off
the ground so their beans wouldn't rot. At the same time, the beans added
nitrogen to the soil, which helped the corn to grow.
In and around the corn, women planted squash like summer
squash, or pumpkins, and the low leaves of these squash plants spread out
and covered the ground, keeping the water from evaporating, so that the
corn could drink it, and keeping weeds from growing up and choking the corn
and the beans.
And to make this Three Sisters arrangement even better,
when you eat corn, beans, and squash together (which North
American people called succotash),
they give you all the different kinds of vitamins and proteins that you
need to be healthy.
People told a lot of stories about how the Three Sisters
got together. You can read one of those stories here.
Click on these books to buy them at Amazon.com and learn more:
North American food
North American economy before 1500 AD
Back to main North America page
Main economy page
Kidipede - History for Kids home page
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