All the Dirt on Gardening

Mark Dunham, Natural Resources Specialist, and Pat Gwin, Director of the Cherokee Nation Natural Resources Department, began a seed exchange five years ago, with the thought of preserving the seeds that Cherokees historically grew in their gardens. Jewel Gourds “You grew a garden to stay alive in the winter,” Gwin said. “Spring, summer and fall there was plenty to eat in the wild but crops had to sustain families throughout the cold months. The primary crops they needed were flour corn for cornmeal (not sweet corn), long-storing winter squash and beans to dry.” Pat Gwin The potatoes they grew for winter food were actually wild potatoes, Apios Americana or Ground Nuts. Ground nuts are a vine in the pea family, related to soybeans. The tiny tubers that grow along the roots are the ground nuts (they are not peanuts). The tubers are peeled and often boiled or roasted. Collecting seeds to grow, in order to create the seed bank, was a matter of contacting fellow Cherokee gardener...