"the domesticated frijol gordo...of the sierra norte de puebla has been traditionally grown as a vine on maize plants in multiple cropping milpas of the nahua, who gather the late-ripening pods after the maize harvestat the end of the growing season. with an increased demand for for beans in the early growing season, precocious forms have been selected to provide green pods before the maize harvest."
mexican ethnobotany diversity. biodiversity and native america. paul e. minis and wayne j. elisens, eds. p.53
"the indians of this region practiced a series of gardening techniques, including staggered planting times, planting in evenly spaced holes, and interplanting different kinds of crops."
ethnohistory in the southeaster united states. biodiversity amnd native america.p.287
i have been doing some more reading about intercropping in milpas ( thanks for the book coach...you always seem to pick a winner ) and stagger plantings... i have received all the seeds i have ordered for next season and will receive seed potatoes from suppliers as their planting times arrive...i will be planting from the middle of next month through july ( outside the garlic, winter wheat, asparagus,chinese yams, and jerusalem artichokes i already have in the ground ) and i will be harvesting from june through november ( and beyond if you count digging tubers in the winter )...i will be intercropping maize, squash, sunflowers, potatoes, and beans ( along with an herb garden, some leeks, and onions ) the photo is of the scarlet runner bean i planted around the beginning of the year just so i would know one when i saw it...it is a "precocious form" that starts in cool weather, stops producing in the heat of summer, and may begin producing again in the autumn...it has thrown out a vine more than three feet long and i am running out of dowel rod in its current pot...i am pondering how to provide more vining room that i can move into the back yard when the weather breaks...should be an impressive vine by then...it may even give the chinese yams and the cowpeas ( forgot to mention cowpeas...an indispensable part of the nitrogen retention scheme and mainline nitrogen fixer) some competition for the longest vine ( it will not defeat the chinese yams for number of vines produced however...and the cowpeas are no slouches in vine length...more interesting data to collect )...we got about six inches of snow last night but it won't last long...i can smell the soil now.
glad its been an informative read!
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