How I Started to Produce Fresh&Clean Food in my Garden.

I love nature and its ecology.

But during my undergraduate studies, I realize that to protect the ecosystems it will be necessary to start protecting our food.

I don't know if you know, but the modern agriculture that we have today produces about 4 billion metric tons of food per year and this industry uses 500 million kg of pesticides annually on that food.

Looking for some alternative for this excess of poison on our food. I started to search for alternative ways to produce food in a more sustainable format. And I discover that small farmers, scientists, and universities are already responsible for diverse Agro-eco-systems.

What are Agro-eco-systems?

They are agricultural systems that are based on ecological features to produced food and plant-based products; like vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

These systems are named as Agroforestry, Agroecology, No-till farming, Sustainable food systems, and much more around the world are being tested every day.

Why do they have a lot of names?

Because which one has a specific ecological approach and management. Each region will need to adapt to its climate and available species.

Local farmers are the protagonist here. It's very hard to see a large-farm producing without pesticides and with agroecological approachs. But for the small and medium-farmers using this approachs could reduce the inputs costs. When the farmer select to rotate the crops, intercrop it and input more organic matter in the soil, the whole system improve their yield.

And that's how I became very interested in know more about these environment-friendly systems.

So, I'm writing my scientific article about a specific area in ecology: Plant interactions. The study was an experiment where my team and I planted Basil and Rosemary plants around Olive trees on a farm.

To reinforce my study I'm selecting some references, and that's when I observed two, or three mentions about; "three sisters".

Strange, I have never read about it.

Curious I search about it and find that is a Native Pre Colombian crop system, which some Andeans and North American Natives have used in the past.

Ok, that caught my attention, and now I’m even more curious about this… three sisters? Why that name? Which species are? How it is usually planted?

I start to investigate and discover some articles that explain the origin of this name. The name is three sisters because these species, corn, beans, and squash was the principal resource of food for the native Americans. They domesticated these species and they are the base of their nutrition for hundreds of years.

And the surprises don’t stop here. A lot of these native Americans lived on the drylands, where the soil has fewer nutrients, so… it's much more difficult to develop agriculture. But, this system could create a microclimate that benefits all plants.

The corn is adapted for dry land but uses a lot of soil nutrients, not a problem! Beans have a microbial association in the roots, improving the Nitrogen fixation in the soil. Nitrogen is essential to the plant's growth.

As the beans became grow, they used the corn structure to climb and found a better sunlight spot. But the sun in dryland causes extreme temperatures at the soil level. That here where squash beginning the action, they sprout their leaves all over the ground, creating a ground cover and maintaining the temperature lower at the soil level.

The articles said that these species combined are as much healthier to humans as to the soil.

So, Imagine producing food that has all the necessary components to your body and… at the same time, is nutritional to the soil health.

Is it not amazing? Was what I founded, an amazing crop system, which was capable to do in my garden.

Yeah! the Three Sisters are incredible!

BUUT, I have never planted corn, beans, or squash. I even know anything about these crops. But I was really attracted to plant this system to see how it works.

That was exactly 11 am on a Saturday. I have no doubt, I went to a garden store and bought some seeds of beans, maize and squash. But bring to me one more species, just for fun, because I have never planted it before.

The sunflower! What a grateful surprise it would be in the future.

After I planted. As always the beginning is slow, you go out every day. As a Garden lover, I check the seedlings something like…. Five or six-time at a day. Yeah, a little too much, but in the initial days every new leaf, for a nature lover, is delightful to see.

Some seeds don’t grow up, as normal. And I try to plant again. I have to confess, in the initial moment, the three sisters are not too funny. But we need to let nature take her time.

This story continue soon...