Post by Blueflint on Apr 26, 2007 13:25:41 GMT -5
I have been asked for a preview to the presentation I will give this fall at the Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy's Conference about Native American crops. This presentation will mostly be about the Cherokee with some others thrown in.
The Cherokee grew a wide variety of Corn, Beans and Squash and covered a wide range of landscapes resulting in some variety of crops within their Nation. Since the Cherokee mostly lived in the rich river bottoms, most towns were fairly small, usually 20 to 50 buildings but as large as 200. Their late pre-history corn culture was mostly based on their white flour corn, which they are very well known for and this was grown through out the Cherokee lands. If you have never seen this corn grow, it will average 12' tall but in good soil can reach 18'. This is an 8 row white flour corn that grinds silky smooth. Also grown among the Cherokee were white and yellow flint corns. Some of these were for the early Green Corn Dance Ceremony while other flints were used for hominy and grits type foods. Grown to a much lesser extent were red flints and blue and white flints and they were not as wide spread as the other corns. The smallest villages would plant 200+ acres of corn per year. Once dried, some corn was shelled off into baskets for storage or even into large leather bags or woven bags. Among the Cherokee and the Choctaw, corn cribs were also used. These were elevated off the ground 6 to 8 feet to help keep snakes out and had slotted floors made from sapplings to allow fresh air in and also so bugs (various grubs and meal worms) would fall out the bottom. Did you ever wonder where corn cribs came from? Now you know. Yes corn cribs pre date European contact. When it comes to beans, there was a huge variety of bean shapes and colors. Today the most commonly known is the Trail of Tears. This is a prolific, drought tolerant, highly productive bean producing decent quality green beans (when small) and high quality slim shiny black dry beans. Another good but much, much lesser known bean is Price’s Cherokee. This bean has been traced back to the 1830’s, came over the Trail of Tears and later the family then moved to California (1920’s) where it was later collected by the U.C. Davis Seed Saving Project of the 1980’s. This is a nice cream colored dry bean of good production. A very good green bean is the Cherokee Greasy Bean, highly productive, has a white dry seed and is still grown in western North Carolina. A good dry bean of larger size is the October Bush Bean, a nice cream bean with purple flecking, great for shelly beans of dry beans. There are many good eastern Tennessee and eastern Kentucky Cherokee heirlooms too. Cherokee Cornfield is a good example, a beautiful mixture of seed types that has been traditionally grown together for hundreds of years. Then there is the Cherokee Butterbean, actually a true Runner bean (P. coccineus) still grown in Cherokee, N.C. today. Squash of the Cherokee is known to a lesser extent but they did grow Yellow Crooknecks (c. pepo) along with Cherokee Candy Roaster (c. maxima), forefather to the Georgia Candy Roaster. Cherokee also grew a hard shelled c. pepo used as a container along with gourds also used for containers and Purple Martin Houses over their corn fields (yes this pre dates European contact). The Choctaw grew a great winter squash known as the Choctaw Sweet Potato Squash (c. moschata), a favorite of mine. Most of these items are very rare today, mostly still grown by isolated families or being preserved by seed savers.
Blueflint
The Cherokee grew a wide variety of Corn, Beans and Squash and covered a wide range of landscapes resulting in some variety of crops within their Nation. Since the Cherokee mostly lived in the rich river bottoms, most towns were fairly small, usually 20 to 50 buildings but as large as 200. Their late pre-history corn culture was mostly based on their white flour corn, which they are very well known for and this was grown through out the Cherokee lands. If you have never seen this corn grow, it will average 12' tall but in good soil can reach 18'. This is an 8 row white flour corn that grinds silky smooth. Also grown among the Cherokee were white and yellow flint corns. Some of these were for the early Green Corn Dance Ceremony while other flints were used for hominy and grits type foods. Grown to a much lesser extent were red flints and blue and white flints and they were not as wide spread as the other corns. The smallest villages would plant 200+ acres of corn per year. Once dried, some corn was shelled off into baskets for storage or even into large leather bags or woven bags. Among the Cherokee and the Choctaw, corn cribs were also used. These were elevated off the ground 6 to 8 feet to help keep snakes out and had slotted floors made from sapplings to allow fresh air in and also so bugs (various grubs and meal worms) would fall out the bottom. Did you ever wonder where corn cribs came from? Now you know. Yes corn cribs pre date European contact. When it comes to beans, there was a huge variety of bean shapes and colors. Today the most commonly known is the Trail of Tears. This is a prolific, drought tolerant, highly productive bean producing decent quality green beans (when small) and high quality slim shiny black dry beans. Another good but much, much lesser known bean is Price’s Cherokee. This bean has been traced back to the 1830’s, came over the Trail of Tears and later the family then moved to California (1920’s) where it was later collected by the U.C. Davis Seed Saving Project of the 1980’s. This is a nice cream colored dry bean of good production. A very good green bean is the Cherokee Greasy Bean, highly productive, has a white dry seed and is still grown in western North Carolina. A good dry bean of larger size is the October Bush Bean, a nice cream bean with purple flecking, great for shelly beans of dry beans. There are many good eastern Tennessee and eastern Kentucky Cherokee heirlooms too. Cherokee Cornfield is a good example, a beautiful mixture of seed types that has been traditionally grown together for hundreds of years. Then there is the Cherokee Butterbean, actually a true Runner bean (P. coccineus) still grown in Cherokee, N.C. today. Squash of the Cherokee is known to a lesser extent but they did grow Yellow Crooknecks (c. pepo) along with Cherokee Candy Roaster (c. maxima), forefather to the Georgia Candy Roaster. Cherokee also grew a hard shelled c. pepo used as a container along with gourds also used for containers and Purple Martin Houses over their corn fields (yes this pre dates European contact). The Choctaw grew a great winter squash known as the Choctaw Sweet Potato Squash (c. moschata), a favorite of mine. Most of these items are very rare today, mostly still grown by isolated families or being preserved by seed savers.
Blueflint
