Schoolchildren often learn the familiar story of the Pilgrim settlers and the Wampanoag man Squanto (whose real name was likely Tisquantum), who taught them how to grow corn. Maize, better known as corn, was unknown to the Pilgrims. Around 9,000 years ago in Mexico, the wild teosinte plant was domesticated and developed into an ancestor of today’s corn. It spread northward through trade routes. By 208 BCE, people were growing it in the New York Finger Lakes region and possibly in the Catskills, where many cities, towns, and villages still reflect Native place names.
The Lenni Lenape and Munsee people who lived in the Catskills grew corn using the “three sisters” gardening technique, alongside beans and squash. Beans are a nitrogen-fixing crop, enriching the soil for heavy feeders like squash and corn. The large leaves of squash shade the ground and conserve moisture, while the sturdy stalks of corn provide support for pole beans to climb.
Seeds for vegetables traditionally grown by Native Americans are still available to gardeners today. Haudenosaunee Skunk beans are pole beans that produce striped, speckled black-and-white dry beans. The Lenape grew pattypan squash, as well as Sehsapsing corn, an almost black variety of flour corn. When the Lenape were forced from their homeland and resettled in Oklahoma, they carried this corn with them, leading to its other name, Oklahoma Delaware Blue.
Foraged vegetables were also highly valued. The Lenape ate groundnuts, starchy tubers whose flavor has been described as a cross between potatoes and beans. Although native to the eastern United States, groundnuts are now most widely cultivated as a commercial crop in Japan. Ramps, also known as wild leeks, are native throughout much of the Northeast and have become a specialty of high-end cuisine. Before European settlement, large colonies grew wild in forested areas. Now at risk of overharvesting, ramps are best purchased from responsible growers. Gardeners can cultivate them in moist, loamy soil in the shade, though they may take five or more years to reach harvestable size.
Several tree species native to the eastern United States bear fruit long enjoyed by Native Americans. Gardeners interested in planting these trees may want to pay close attention to their Latin names, since some species share common names or can be confused with non-native relatives.
Of the four species of serviceberry native to the region, many consider the Allegheny serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis) to be the most flavorful; a close second may be the Juneberry, or shadblow (Amelanchier canadensis). Serviceberries are often compared to blueberries, with a hint of almond that becomes more pronounced when the fruit is cooked. Native Americans pounded serviceberries together with dried meat and fat to make pemmican, a durable food sometimes described as a cross between meat jerky and fruit leather.
Native plum (Prunus americana) produces small fruits that turn red when fully ripe, with sweet flesh and tart skin. It grows wild across much of the United States, possibly because Native Americans valued it and planted it widely.
American persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) resemble Asian persimmons, but the fruits are smaller, with an even sweeter, more intense flavor. Like other astringent persimmons, they are best eaten fully ripe and very soft, when the mouth-puckering astringency disappears. European explorers remarked on the persimmon’s sweetness after Native Americans shared the fruit with them. A male tree is required to pollinate a female tree before it will bear fruit.
Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are the largest tree fruit native to North America. For the Shawnee of Appalachia, pawpaws were so important that they named a month after the fruit, “ha’siminikiisfwa.” Evidence suggests pawpaw seeds were originally dispersed by giant ground sloths that ate the fruit. After the sloths became extinct, the trees were propagated by Native Americans. Today, gardeners in New York State are extending the pawpaw’s range northward as the climate warms. With a sweet, tropical flavor all their own, ripe pawpaws spoil quickly, which is why grocery stores rarely sell them.
Grocery stores do sell the fruit of two native shrubs. Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) are a staple of the Thanksgiving season. Most blueberries consumed today are hybrids or cultivars of native highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum). Both fruits were staple foods for Native Americans before and after European settlement and share similar growing requirements, thriving in moist, acidic soil.
Margaret Tomlinson is a contributing writer. You can send her an email at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.
