Comments on: Searching for the lost crops of North America

Searching for the lost crops of North America

filthy light thief — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:09:49 -0800

Hunting for the ancient lost farms of North America (Annalee Newitz for Ars Technica) -- 2,000 years ago, people domesticated these plants. Now they're wild weeds. What happened? One notable archaeologist and ethnobotanist in this field (heh) is Natalie Mueller, researcher (The earliest occurrence of a newly described domesticate in Eastern North America: Adena/Hopewell communities and agricultural innovation; Growing the lost crops of eastern North America's original agricultural system - both abstracts) and blogger, who investigates the Eastern Agricultural Complex in the American South with the Midwest.

Over 2,000 years ago in North America, indigenous people domesticated plants that are now part of our everyday diets, such as squashes and sunflowers. But they also bred crops that have since returned to the wild. These include erect knotweed (not to be confused with its invasive cousin, Asian knotweed), goosefoot, little barley, marsh elder, and maygrass. We haven't simply lost a few plant strains: an entire cuisine with its own kinds of flavors and baked goods has simply disappeared. By studying lost crops, archaeologists learn about everyday life in the ancient Woodland culture of the Americas, including how people ate plants that we call weeds today. But these plants also give us a window on social networks in the ancient Americas. Scientists can track the spread of cultivated seeds from one tiny settlement to the next in the vast region that would one day be known as the United States. This reveals which groups were connected culturally and how they formed alliances through food and farming.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:15:43 -0800

More from Natalie Mueller and colleagues: Growing the lost crops of eastern North America's original agricultural system (full paper), and the Lost Crops Garden Network, "Cultivating the Forgotten Indigenous Crops of Eastern North America."

At least five species were domesticated in prehistoric eastern North America: sunflowers, squash, goosefoot, erect knotweed, and marshelder. The domesticated forms of goosefoot, erect knotweed, and marshelder have been extinct for hundreds of years. These lost domesticated crops can tell us much about the lifeways of prehistoric peoples. As we learn more about these lost crops, we learn how to build increasingly resilient and sustainable food systems for people today.

And more on the region: Eastern agricultural complex, covered at The Walden Effect, part of their Native American Paleoethnobotany lunchtime series, with more links at the end of that brief overview.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:40:44 -0800

Fascinating stuff, thanks for the post!

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:51:50 -0800

Goosefoot / lambs quarters / fat hen is still widely cultivated in Asia, and *delicious" as a cooked green (especially in any of the many varieties of saag). It grows everywhere near me and is impossible to keep out of raised beds or window boxes - figuring out it was not only edible, but good and nutritious felt like a minor gardening victory, and also a small window into some of what might have been going on here long before the neighborhood I live in occupied this land.

By: tavella

tavella — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:57:10 -0800

Huh, I knew that the NA goosefoot (which I know as lamb's quarters) was once a domesticated crop, but I did not know it was related to quinoa. They are both in the genus Chenopodium.

By: tavella

tavella — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 09:02:25 -0800

ryanshepard, apparently the goosefoot species cultivated in India is Chenopodium album, while the species that was formerly cultivated in North America is Chenopodium berlandieri.

By: maurice

maurice — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 09:33:24 -0800

This is fascinating! Thanks for posting it.

By: happyroach

happyroach — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 09:41:29 -0800

This is really useful and interesting to me, since we part of my WiP km researching crops that aren't part of the standard modern staples. I think I really want to write an article sometime for fantasy writers about foods to feed their characters that aren't potatoes and bread.

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 10:24:28 -0800

ryanshepard, apparently the goosefoot species cultivated in India is Chenopodium album, while the species that was formerly cultivated in North America is Chenopodium berlandieri. My botany is admittedly shaky, but I can say definitively that whatever one is common in Washington, DC is tasty, and works well in saag, curries, etc.

By: tavella

tavella — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 11:01:03 -0800

Oh, lamb's foot is a great green, works like spinach in just about anything. But the cultivated version in India doesn't mean that the NA cultivated species wasn't lost, it was.

By: vibratory manner of working

vibratory manner of working — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 11:14:57 -0800

I didn't know this was a thing but it makes perfect sense and now I want to eat them

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 11:35:59 -0800

This is just terrific - mindblowing, difficult reconstructive project. Wow! Some other resources on indigenous food history that might be of interest: RAFT - Renewing America's Food Traditions Native Food Systems Resource Center Slow Food Turtle Island

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 12:13:11 -0800

foods to feed their characters that aren't potatoes and bread. But they're so versatile! You can boil them, mash them, stick them in a stew...

By: gudrun

gudrun — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 15:27:24 -0800

The post talks about the research of Logan Kistler of the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History. However it is worth noting that his retired colleague, Dr. Bruce D. Smith, was one of the pioneers in this research for North America. You can find some information about this in this profile on him. See the sections called "A Cigar Box Of Seeds" and "Layers In A Mexican Cave".

By: Dip Flash

Dip Flash — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 18:38:36 -0800

I think I really want to write an article sometime for fantasy writers about foods to feed their characters that aren't potatoes and bread. Or mutton stew. So much mutton stew. This is a neat thing to read about, thanks for the post.

By: Mister Cheese

Mister Cheese — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 21:40:31 -0800

This is super cool! I've been reading Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources by M. Kat Anderson. Lots of discussion of Native American harvesting and intentional propagation of wildflower seeds, greens, and root vegetables for food. No full domestication, but there's evidence of genetic changes due to indigenous activity. More discussion in Edible Seeds and Grains of California Tribes and the Klamath Tribe (pdf).

By: aspersioncast

aspersioncast — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 17:33:42 -0800

Anyone interested in this might also be interested in Alfred Crosby's seminal Ecological Imperialism, which explores the spread of European plants in the Americas.

By: aspersioncast

aspersioncast — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 17:35:50 -0800

I'm always fascinated by the grinding stones you'll find all over the West in the middle of what's now desert - people were grinding acorns, goosefoot variants, and squash seeds in places where none of those things will currently grow.