Edible Sacramento Summer 2022

A GENEROUS HELPING

More Than a Farm, It’s aMovement Three Sisters Gardens connects youths with the land, food, and agricultural practices of their ancestors. WRITTEN BY SHANNIN STEIN PHOTOS BY SAMUEL RAMOS

T he legend of the Three Sisters is ubiquitous through out Indigenous cultures. As one version of the story goes, when the Original Woman passed, fromher soil rose Three Sisters. Each sister was distinctive in her size, dress, and temperament, but they were inseparable. The first sister was corn — tall and slender with gold, flowing locks and a green shawl. The second sister was beans; she tended to frolic into everyone’s business. The third sister was squash, the grounded pragmatist, draped in green. By embracing each other’s uniqueness, the Three Sisters flour ished and grew. Not just a fable, these three crops were the center of Indigenous agriculture and have been proven to grow to their maximum yields when planted together. Corn provides a natural pole on which the beans can grow, and the beans help stabilize the corn against wind while reinvigorating the soil with nitrogen. The wide, low leaves of the squash keep the soil moist and cool, and its scratchy skin deters animals fromeating all three crops. While the legend refers to the successful symbiotic relation ship among corn, beans, and squash, it also serves as a parable for how to grow successful communities — a lesson not lost on Alfred

Melbourne, the founder of Three Sisters Gardens, a nonprofit or ganization inWest Sacramento. “Community is family,” Melbourne says. “Youths, adults, and elders getting back to nature and reconnecting with the earth is howour communities will heal and thrive.” My Background Does Not DefineMe Born and raised steps away from Three Sisters’ 5th Street farm, Melbourne is all too familiar with the challenges faced by youths in his neighborhood. Melbourne’s personal mission is to take the skills he learned as a youngster, doing what he calls “hustling,” and turn them into something good. “School-to-prison is a rite of passage in this community,” Mel bourne says. “I want youths to see that their energy can be used positively by giving back to the community. “They begin working with the land and learn how to respect andworkwith it, not against it,” he continues, explaining that once they embrace that, “not only do they change, but they can also be gin to create change.”

14 SUMMER 2022

edible Sacramento e i le