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Three Sisters, One Food Factory

  • Aug 28, 2025
  • 1 min read


A Garden of Delicious


This recipe takes approximately three months.
This recipe takes approximately three months.

To the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people of the American northeast, corn, beans, and squash are the Three Sisters, the physical and spiritual sustainers of life. These life-supporting plants were said to be given to the people when all three miraculously sprouted from the body of Sky Woman's daughter, granting the gift of agriculture to the Haudensosaunee nations.


Ingredients


  • Soil and compost

  • 4 corn seeds

  • 3 bean seeds

  • 2 squash seeds

  • Mulch

  • Water

  • Sunshine

  • Iced tea (optional)


Directions


  1. Put a piece of cardboard down on your lawn, in a sunny spot

  2. Heap a large mound of garden soil mixed with compost on top

  3. Plant corn seeds in the middle, spaced about 12 inches apart

  4. Mulch well, and water if soil isn't moist

  5. Wait until the corn is about 6 inches high

  6. Plant beans and squash

  7. Mulch and water as needed

  8. Grab your iced tea and a wide-brim hat, sit back and watch deliciousness grow


As the corn and beans grow, the beans will start curling around the cornstalks, using them as a scaffold to grow towards the sun. The wide leaves of the squash shade the roots, preventing moisture loss.


Do some stuff in the kitchen, then yumminess ensues:



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(c) 2025 Lynnette Ellen Hafken

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