THREE SISTERS

May of 2005 I attended my first Spring Planting Festival on a farm hidden in the hills outside of the small city of Mansfield, Missouri called Baker Creek Farm.

Mansfield might be better known by its association with Laura Ingals Wilder the author of Little House on the Prarie for most.

Baker Creek Farm and its family, the Gettles, are dedicated to the preservation of open pollinated heirloom seeds and livestock.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, which is run from right there on the farm, is  internationally known by it's Seed Catalogue and magazine The Heirloom Gardner.

It is important for one to know this, for this is where I first met my sisters of the soil, Kristi and Collette.

 We originally were dubbed "the noodle ladies". Born over a pot of homemade noodles I made, and shared with them at this first festival, which led to a whirlwind of recipie exchanging.

We, as fate might have it, became aquainted when our sale tents were plotted next to each other for the spring show.

 Kristi, a spectacular artist  uses many natural mediums  to create jewelery and decor.

 Collette, produces the absolute best honey in the world!

Both of these ladies, live in the areas surrounding  Baker creek Farm, and themselves met at a local farmer's market where they sell garden plants and produce, and quickly became the best of friends.

One year later, at the 2006 Spring Plant Festival at Baker Creek Farm, we met again. I had brought with me one of my favorite books "The Native American". Kristi and Collette poured over that book with such a furvor, during the festival, I sent it home with them to use untill our next meeting. From this simple gesture. From this common intrest. This bond with the earth and our ancestors, sisters were born.

 During the next year, we met up often, extending our common bonds far beyond Baker Creek Farm and it's festivals. Many books have been traded between us, as well as regular phone visits, camping trips, and family get togethers.

One of the books they shared with me, called "Two Old Women" a lore story about two old indian women abandoned by their tribe during a particularly bad winter season, was lovingly, what Kristi and Collette called themselves during the time they spent together.

This year, Kristi and Collette traveled to my neck of the woods to join up with me at camp at a local Mountian Man Rendezvous. It was the most wonderful day of visiting, eating food, sharing gifts and plans for future meetings...that during one particular conversation, Kristi said...."Well, I guess it's not really Two Old Women, we will have to come up with another name."

I felt truely honored, but replied, "It is a good name, if a new name presents itself to us, we will know it......"

Today, as I went out into my garden, still paled from a fading back injury, heavy garden losses from unfortunate weather and the inability to tend to my garden for over a week (big breath)and more set backs to our addition to the house,and I picked my first ever successfully grown edible ear of corn, grabbed up my only Delictica squash to survive the onslaught of squash bugs, and reached out here and there to pull from my truely, only high yield crop of beans....

I looked down into the bounty in my hands....

 Mother Earth tugged at my feet and brought me to a full stop

I stood with the rain slowly dampening my clothes

I turned and looked back at my garden

and back into my hands...

the thunder rumbled...

and I received my vision

DE-O-HA-KO

 "These crops were considered to be special gifts from Great Spirit and were believed to be protected by the THREE SISTERS-spirits collectively called the De-o-ha-ko, meaning "our sustainers" or "those who support us"