Kakai Squash. Trail Food.

The Kakai squash I am told originated in Austria & was grown all through Europe & parts of Asia. This squash or pumpkin has edible hull-less seeds which are very tasty as is, or roasted. Some types apparently have a tastier flesh than others. The one we are growing which you can see in the attached images tastes more like a marrow, but is still very nice. 

Roasted Kakai seeds or pepitas.

Our Three Sisters Garden.

I finally got our Three Sisters Garden finished & planted. The beans will go in when the corn is about 5 inches high.

SQUASHES and Native Culture. A Link.

http://thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/squashes-and-native-culture/#comment-101

The Last Of The Three Sisters To Be Brought In. Pumpkins/Squash.

The beans and the corn are finished and it is time to collect all the pumpkins as the first frosts have arrived. I collected two large wheel barrow loads, and now I have to preserve what I can. There will be a lot of pumpkin soup dinners coming up!

18th Century Gardens in the New World.

One of our garden beds ready for planting. The rock is heavy so we left it in place.

Our Jerusalem Artichoke patch.

This garden on the left has an outside clay oven.

This shows the beans growing up the corn stems.

Here the beans grow up a tripod of sticks on a mound. The pumpkins planted around the mound.

In these images you can see that we have used logs to contain our gardens. This enables us to add soil and mulch without it spreading.

The woodland Indians grew the three sister together. First the corn was planted. When the corn was up and still young the beans would be planted next to the corn plants. This served two purposes, the beans would climb the corn plants as both grew, and the beans would add nitrogen to the soil for the corn to feed on. The pumpkins/squash would be planted around the outside of the corn patch.