Plant to Plate: Native Plant Foods from the Americas
“Plant to Plate: Native Plant Foods from the Americas” is a series that introduces you to different plants from the Americas through a brief history, tips for cooking, eating and growing, along with a recipe.
This Week’s Feature: Corn (Zea mays)
Recipe: Three Sisters Succotash
Come visit Sacred Earth at the Gardens to get a glimpse of these plants as they grow!
Zuni "waffle garden" demonstration at Sacred Earth. Photo by Kat Young
Horticulturists John Murgel and Angie Andrade have planted corn, beans, and squash utilizing the Three Sisters technique. John has demonstrated the Three Sisters through the Zuni “waffle garden” style (see picture above ), which is used to trap precipitation in the waffle wells. Waffle gardens are most useful in regions with very little water like the American Southwest. Angie, on the other hand, has developed her own style of gardening to feature the plants. She presents the Three Sisters in a circular pattern alongside other native plant species like sunflowers and amaranth; this demonstration may be seen in the beds by the large fountain and pool.
As a cook who loves to make stews with corn and beans, I found the Three Sisters Succotash to be a delight to prepare and eat. This dish is great because it makes for a well-rounded meal but is easy enough for those days when you feel like just throwing everything into a pot. It also is light enough to enjoy through the summer months and into the fall season.
A short history
Corn, or maize (Zea mays), is an ancient crop with extensive and far-reaching modern uses – not only as food, but as fuel, plastic, sweetener and animal feed. In recent news, corn has been noted for its high rate of genetic modification (at 85% of corn grown in US). However, this is not entirely a new development in corn’s long history, as it has been subjected to deliberate breeding and genetic selection for thousands of years.
Many agree that today’s corn is the descendant of a wild grass called teosinte. A head of teosinte produces only six to twelve small kernels, while domesticated corn yields hundreds of kernels. This large, calorie-rich form of maize is a result of careful breeding over long periods of time.
Native peoples in the Southwestern U.S. probably began cultivating corn between 1500 BC and 1000 BC. Breads, cakes, and dumplings made from ground corn played a very important role in the diets of Ancestral Puebloan people, and many traditional recipes continue today. For many of these recipes, the corn was soaked with lime or ash in water before grinding, a process that improves the grain’s vitamin content. Then, over a period of many hours, corn would be hand ground on specialized grinding stones, mixed with other ingredients, and then boiled, baked, or fried.
People eventually began growing corn in conjunction with beans and squash, a combination that became known as the “Three Sisters.” Within this system, beans were planted at the base of a cornstalk, which eventually vined up the stalk while continuing to add nitrogen to the soil. Large squash leaves, planted at the base of the corn, provide shade and protects precious moisture. When eaten together, the Three Sisters make up a wonderfully nutritious meal with complete proteins and many vitamins. Read below to find out how to make a deliciously simple Three Sisters dish.
Cooking and eating
Three Sisters Succotash is a simple and nutritious recipe that is easily open to substitutions (i.e., different types of corn, beans, squash and spices). I added sage to the recipe because I thought it fit in well with the regional foods and plants in the recipe. I also really like spices, so sage provides a light but satisfying compliment to the leeks, salt and pepper. Three of my roommates tried this dish and the resounding response was it “is not too heavy” and it “is great for a light meal or lunch.”
The Three Sisters Succotash cooks in a large stock pot. Photo by Meghan Fox.
The Three Sisters Succotash
Yield: Serves 8
Time: 45 minutes
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Ingredients:
1 can sweet corn
2 cups Anasazi beans soaked overnight and parboiled
1 acorn squash, diced
¼ cup butter
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ½ cup minced leeks
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 teaspoon of rubbed sage
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Directions: Place corn, beans, and squash in a large kettle and cover with water. Add the butter, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the leeks, peppers, and sage and cook for 10 more minutes (maybe 20 minutes, depending) or until beans, corn and squash are tender. Remove the lid, and cook over high heat for 4 more minutes, until the liquid is reduced to a thick gravy consistency.
Three Sisters Succotash. Photo by Meghan Fox.
[Note: This recipe is much different from the original recipe by Gary Nabhan (2008). A number of the ingredients like the Mandan Clay red corn kernels, Arikara Yellow beans, and Arikara Hubbard Squash are foods that I did not have access to, so I replaced them with canned corn, Anasazi beans, and acorn squash, respectively. If you do, in fact, have access to these rare, heirloom varieties, please give those a try instead.]
Sources:
Bonvillain, Nancy. The Zuni. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Pub, 2006
“Genetics of Maize Domestication.” Buckler Lab for Maize Genetics and Diversity. <http://www.maizegenetics.net/domestication-genetics>
“GMO Compass.” 29 March 2010. <http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/agri_biotechnology/gmo_planting/341.genetically_modified_maize_global_area_under_cultivation.html>
Kantner, John. Ancient Puebloan Southwest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Nabhan, Gary Paul (Ed.). Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods. White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2008.
Nenes, Michael F. American Regional Cuisine. Hoboken, N.J: J. Wiley, 2007
June 29, 2011 at 11:49 am
I think it’s really interesting how many of our staple foods were indigenous to the Americas.
I remember studying the Aztecs in school in fifth grade, and again in seventh grade. Kids would observe (and teachers would happily reinforce) that the reason the Aztecs “lost” the battle with Spanish colonists is that Europeans were more technologically advanced.
They were also happy to conclude that, while Cortez and future waves of white settlers wiped out large populations with war and diseases like smallpox, they decided it was “worth it in the long run” for native people because all “we gave them” in terms of modern society.
Well nowadays I disagree with that observation – you have to if you know anything about plants. While the Spanish where quite innovative when it came to ships, weapons and warfare, I think the technology that indigenous Americans had developed in terms of food crops, horticulture and nutrition easily surpassed the total technological advancement of Europe… it’s just that since our culture has European roots, we think something has to be made of metal to be considered technology.
When you put it together: corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, peppers, chocolate, vanilla, avocados, papayas, (lots of other tropical fruit) and most types of beans, you realize that you hardly ever have a meal that doesn’t contain some item that indigenous Americans cultivated and bred, from wild form, to an amazing specificity when it comes to how well-adapted they were to microclimates.
In addition, corn and potatoes – which produced abundant food for temperate areas – brought Europe out of the middle ages, and I would venture to say they made the Industrial Revolution in Europe a possibility after centuries of stagnancy. Tomatoes and peppers became a staple in nearly every Old World society.
So in that sense I’d venture to say that Europe might still be in the Middle Ages if it hand’t been for the technological contribution of indigenous people in the Americas. Europeans (and eventually, U.S. Americans) benefited hugely from the contribution.