Corn and beans are a must; the rest is up to you.
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How to Make Classic Succotash | MyRecipes
Serious Mealtimes / Vicky Wasik
When the Pilgrims first landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 they had no idea how to survive in their new environment. Disease and illness quickly wiped out many of them; the rest faced significant obstacles starting with the fact that they didn’t know how to grow food in the challenging local soil. At the time farming in Europe generally worked like this: take a handful of seeds throw them on a field and wait to see what grows weeds and all. It wasn’t a sophisticated system.
Compare that to how Native Americans farmed in the northeastern United States. They hand-formed mounds of soil in carefully laid out fields. They often planted corn in each mound along with a fish carcass or some other type of fertilizer. As the corn stalks began to shoot up they also planted beans and squash seeds in each mound. The beans which were climbing wound their way up the corn stalks acting as a natural trellis. The beans were also nitrogen fixers helping to keep the soil balanced and fertile even as the other vegetables took what they needed from it. The squash meanwhile spread out over and down the mound shading it and acting as a built-in weed killer.
