An opportunity to teach community members how to grow their own food was one that Jamie Betters and Kyle Wisneski couldn’t pass on.
Betters, who works in the Cannery, wants the focus to be on traditional foods, such as the Three Sisters, grown in traditional ways. The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash.
“The purpose for the initiative is to strengthen our relationship with our Three Sisters, focusing on our heirloom white corn. Our community consumes thousands of pounds of white corn each year due to the amazing work of community members who fought and worked hard with their hands in the soil to revitalize our traditional foods,” said Betters.
With assistance, families plan, plant, care, and harvest their gardens.
“We have community members concentrating on traditional Three Sister mounds and we have families that are doing traditional rows of heirloom white corn. The amazing thing about these family plots is they are all different. Each plot represents the family who is taking care of it,” added Betters.
For many of these families, this is there first attempt at growing their own food.
Alebra Cornelius and her family have little experience gardening but are growing white corn, tomatoes, and peppers. The experience has been so positive her son begs to visit the garden to check on the growth.
“It’s been amazing so far. To watch the process of the corn growing from day one until now has been exciting. It’s also been a lot of hard, hard work. We have gone out to the garden quite a few times to water and till the weeds; which can take a couple hours to get done each time,” said Cornelius.
The rewards the garden is providing Cornelius and her family far outweigh the work.
“The beauty of how fresh and clean the garden looks is so refreshing. More than that, the entire experience has definitely helped me to grow. Being in the garden with the corn is helping me to learn who I am culturally and spiritually, helping me to connect deeper with my family and helping to strengthen the relationships with everyone involved with the initiative. It has been a very healing and uplifting experience,” Cornelius said.
For Apache Danforth and her family, cultural traditions drew her family to the garden program.
“I am doing it as a way to keep one of our traditions alive, provide sustenance for my family, to learn how to do it, food sovereignty,” she said.
Danforth and her family are growing corn but her beans disappeared at the hands of wildlife.
“I absolutely love driving into the community garden area and seeing all of the family’s plots. I can’t help but think that this is how it’s supposed to be, everyone working together,” Danforth said.
Betters beams when she talks about the community commodore she sees at the gardens.
“Any given day you will see families working in their corn garden or three sisters garden. This is the time we share stories, learn from one another, and talk about how strong our corn is,” said Betters. “We find our beautiful corn growing just strong and all around it are thistles trying to bring it down. So it’s amazing when you talk about all creation and the relationships.
There is a powerful connection families are feeling and understanding when working in their garden and that is what it’s all about.”
The community gardens are located just south of Green Bay off of Highway 54.
