23/07/2025
This is such a sweet analogy of three sisters from the book BRAIDING SWEETGRASS
The plants Kimmerer refers to are Corn on the Cob, Runner Beans and Squash – the three sisters ✨✨✨
“ Acre for acre, a three sisters garden yields more food than if you grow each of the sisters alone. Three Sisters for North American Indians.
You can tell they are sisters: one twines easily around the other in relaxed embrace while the sweet baby sister lolls at their feet, close, but not too close -cooperating, not competing. Seems to me I’ve seen this before in human families, in the interplay of sisters. After all, there are three girls in my family. The first born girl knows that she is clearly in charge; Tall and direct, upright and efficient, she creates a template for everyone else to follow. That’s the corn sister. There’s not room for more than one corn woman in the same house, so the middle sister is likely to adapt in different ways. This bean girl learns to be flexible, adaptable, to find a way around the dominant structure to get the light she needs. The sweet baby sister is free to choose a different path, as expectations have already been fulfilled. Well grounded, she has nothing to prove and finds her own way, a way that contributes to the good of the whole.”
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