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Eastern Agricultural Complex (EAC)

Ryan M Miller

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I set up this thread for people to share their experiences growing or foraging plants that were originally cultivated in the Eastern Agricultural Complex in North America. I am aware that the indigenous people of North America domesticated crops before the arrival of corn, beans, and squash from Mesoamerica around 1000 years ago. I have even read a magazine article and several websites explaining the indepentantly domesticated crops of North America:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318227950_Growing_the_lost_crops_of_eastern_North_America's_original_agricultural_system

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/hunting-for-the-ancient-lost-farms-of-north-america/?amp=1

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Agricultural_Complex

I also know one forum member, Eric Toensmeier, also did a video documenting his experiences growing neglected crops from the Eastern Agricultural Complex:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tlNtuxBkR4M

I am aware of the following EAC (Eastern Agricultural Complex) crops:

Grass cereals:

Little barley (Hordeum pusillum)

Maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana)

Pseudocereals:

Lamb's quarters (Chenopodium berlandieri) Also grown for greens

Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.) Also grown for greens.

Marsh Elder (Iva annua)

Erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum)

Legumes:

Wooly bean (Strophostyles helvola)

Perennial thicket bean (Phaseolus polystachios)

Groundnut (Apios americana) Grown for the seeds amd tubers

Hog peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)

Sunflowers:

Common sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Jerusalem Arrichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)

Cucurbits:

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)

Squash (Cucurbita pepo ssp. ozarkana) Crookneck squash and ornamental gourds are derived from North American cultivars if Cucurbita pepo.

Other fruits:

American black nightshade (Solanum ptychanthum)

Groundcherries (Physalis sp.)

Passion flower (Passiflora incarnata)

Out of the previously listed crops, I have grown ornamental gourds, sunflowers, wooly beans, black nightshade, and amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus). I have also successfully grown common lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album) from seed for its greens.

Some of the above listed plants are easier to find seeds for than others. Jerusalem Artichoke, Amaranth, Lamb's quarters, sunflowers, crookneck squash, bottle gourds, and groundnuts were at least domesticated until the arrival of Europeans so they are more readily available than other plants listed above. The cultivated variety of lamb's quarter grown by North American Indians went extinct from cultivation soon after the Europeans arrived, but a related Aztec cultivar of the same species, Chenopodium berlandieri called huauzontle is still easy to find seed for online. Groundnuts and hog peanuts are available only sporadically and may require a great deal of searching to find seeds or propagules from a reputable seller. It is also possible to find groundcherry seeds, especially Physalis pubescens, from multiple online stores. Wooly bean (strophostyles helvola) and thicket bean (Phaseolus polystachios) seeds are also available from Prairie Moon Nursery in small packets. Passion flower seeds are widely available online, but they require special preparation in order for the seeds to germinate.

I have not been able to find seeds for other plants from the above list. Little barley, maygrass, marsh elder, and erect knotweed may require a great deal of searching to find seeds for these neglected plants. None of them are common in my location in southwester Ohio, so I cannot wildcraft them for seeds. Solanum ptychanthum grows widely where I live in disturbed areas, but it may be difficult to find in western North America or outside of the continent.

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Ryan M Miller

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Here are some pictures of Eastern Agricultural Complex crops I've grown so far.

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The seeds of common lamb's quarters look like tiny, black quinoa seeds.

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Lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album) planted in my garden intentionally along with quinoa

Ryan M Miller

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Here is an article from jstor explaining archeological finds of pale-seeded amaranth and huauzontle (or independently domesticated lamb's quarters) found in North America in the ozarks. They identified one amaranth species as "definitely Amaranthus hypochondriacus." In addition to redroot amaranth, I am also growing a purple-leaved cultivar of Amaranthus hypochondriacus and a green cultivar of Amaranthus cruentus called Aurelia's verde.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/280360?read-now=1&seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

Travis Johnson

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I am not sure if this is sort of the same thing, but here in Maine there was a huge movement in the 1800's in growing apples. It was a hobby to take certain varieties of apples and graft them with other trees to see what would happen.

The guy that owns Fedco Trees was really into finding the original apple trees, but got cancer and was hampered in energy levels to do so. It was too bad because my farm had vast apple orchards on it, and many of the trees were, and still are, massive in size, and had/have unique color and texture. Clearing started on this farm in the year 1800, and I am sure apple orchards quickly followed, so it would be interesting to see if some of these trees were orginal varieties, or test varieties that really worked out well.

Unfortunately, nearby is an plant that produces woods for smoking meats, and they pay a premium for apple trees over a certain size, so many people are felling their apple trees to sell to the plant, so I have wondered just how many orginal apple trees have gone the way of the Doo-Doo Bird due to that plant being close by. The demand for apple wood is so high, that it is the only type of wood the plant will buy anytime. If you roll in with apple on a trailer over a certain size, they will buy it on the spot. So a lot of apple is being consumed here.

Ryan M Miller

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Although fruit trees are not usually considered part of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, the native American Indians still made use of and often cultivated many species of fruit trees. There are three species of crabapple native to eastern North America: Malus ioensis (prairie crabapple), Malus coronaria (sweet crabapple), and Malus angustifolia (southern crabapple). All of them tend to have astringent or very sour fruit when eaten raw, but they can either be cooked to break down the malic acid, exposed to frost, or made into hard cider or apple butter. The Native American Ethnobotany Database has information for the use of Malus ioensis, Malus coronaria, and Malus fusca for the indigenous people of North america:

http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Malus

The pfaf database also has information about the edibility of North American crabapple species:

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Malus+coronaria

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Malus+ioensis

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Malus+angustifolia

In addition to crabapples, the North American Indian people made use of and even cultivated pawpaws (Asimina triloba) and persimons (Diospyros virginiana). Pawpaws have a very poor shelf life when eaten fresh so they have to be preserved if they are to be eaten later. I've heard pawpaws have a flavor vaguely resembling bananas, but I've never had the chance to eat them. American persimons also have a poor shelf life so they are seldom available fresh at the supermarket. They have to be eaten when fully ripe otherwise they are too astringent to eat raw.

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Very ripe American persimon (Diospyros virginiana) Wikimedia commons

Ryan M Miller

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Anyway, I got the chance to photograph the other varieties of amaranth I'm growing in my garden this morning:

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Purple-leaved amaranth cultivar (Amaranthus hypochondriacus) The plants were stunted for a month growing under the shade of black nightshade plants so I moved them over to a new bed.

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Aurelia's Verde amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus). Cultivated amaranth species tend to have more compact seed heads than wild or weedy amaranth species.

Ryan M Miller

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I was surprised to find this small groundcherry plant sprouting in my yard. I don't know for sure what species it is, but based on my location in the United States, it is either Physalis heterophylla or Physalis longifolia

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William Bronson

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Planted some red amaranth starts in a bed prepared by chop/drop.
Month later, the bed is over run by healthy lambs quarters wilst the amaranth plants are stunted and insect damaged.
Why not just eat the lambs quarters in the first place?
The leaves are small and fiddly, to hard to harvest.
Maybe the variety you mentioned above would do well here and grow large leaves.

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Ryan M Miller

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It looks like I'm done harvesting my wooly beans (Strophostyles helvola) for the year. I got six ounces of beans from only two plants. Now I need to figure out what is the best way to soak them before cooking them. I haven't been able to contact Eric Toensmeier to find out yet.

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Ryan M Miller

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If anyone wants a guide to distinguish erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum) from other knotweeds and smartweeds, I found a website that has links to other websites with technical descriptions of the growth form of Polygonum erectum if you want to find it in the wild. Unfortunately, the descriptions are only helpful if you are familiar with the botanical terms used to describe plant morphology. I also found links to similar guides for identifying maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana) on the same site.

Erect knotweed:
http://wildflowersearch.org/search?oldstate=&buttonName=ShowFamilies&hab=&Elev=&PlantName=Polygonum+erectum

Maygrass:
http://wildflowersearch.org/search?&tsn=41343

Ellendra Nauriel

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Ryan M Miller wrote:New post:

I was surprised to find this small groundcherry plant sprouting in my yard. I don't know for sure what species it is, but based on my location in the United States, it is either Physalis heterophylla or Physalis longifolia

I hope yours turn out better than mine. I have them growing everywhere on my property, but the berries are hard as a rock and smaller than a BB, even when ripe. They have a bitter flavor that makes them not worth eating.

Mk Neal

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Lamb's quarters always comes up around the garden here without any encouragement and I use the greens. I have tried harvesting the seeds and add them into soups, however it is quite a chose winnowing them and they are very hard. I am not sure they are actually digestible. I would speculate that the varieties of goosefoot/amaranth that was cultivated during EAC epoch had better eating-quality seeds. I also plant a red amaranth, also for the greens. It is very tasty.

I planted ground cherry once (Aunt Molly's, which I think Burpee gives away with any seed purchase). It comes up all over, but berries mostly small and many of them either never ripen or shrivel. It may be that it does not get enough sun here, but it has never really been worth the space and the trouble of harvesting.

Subsistence farmers who spent all their time on food production probably had a different mindset as to what plants were "worth harvesting" than 21st century full-time office worker, though.

Weeds are just plants with enough surplus will to live to withstand normal levels of gardening!--Alexandra Petri

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Ryan M Miller

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I've discovered an unfortunate property of one of the crops in the Eastern Agricultural Complex: Marsh Elder (Iva annua) has pollen that can be a potent allergen. This may be one of the reasons the crop was abandoned in favor of corn (Zea mays).

http://www.pollenlibrary.com/Genus/Iva/

Ryan M Miller

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It looks like Eric Toensmeier has an update to his blog about permaculture on North American woody plants cultivated by native peoples. A lot of the plants I have already mentioned are included, but he goes on to mention hickory nuts (Carya sp.), blackberries and raspberries (Rubus sp.), North American bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea), red mulberries (Morus rubra), And grapes (Vitis sp.)

http://www.perennialsolutions.org/woody-plants-cultivated-by-native-people-of-the-eastern-forest-region-of-north-america-before-colonization?frame-nonce=9eb451d3c8&fbclid=IwAR3vCtWrGmYwpRMdnPCcUbzCl0CpXTAJ8rMZxl6zC99IgPJ_B8NQmgvPDYo

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chestnut expert, William Powell, claims that 25% of the Appalachian forest were chestnut trees prior to 1900.
It was a native american staple and promoted huge wildlife populations

Robert Trescott

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I planted some American Groundnut tubers last fall. I saw good growth from most, though some plantings did not grow. Today while doing some other work in my potential food forest, I found a string of about seven of the tubers (one inch or less) just lying on wood chips covering the ground. They were not near the planting locations. I couldn't see any signs of digging or any kind of disturbance. I separated them into three pieces and planted them. Any idea how these groundnuts could have been exposed?

Ryan M Miller

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This year I grew one lamb's quarters plant (Chenopodium album) to maturity and I got 3.8 ounces of seed from a single plant. I calculate that yields should approach half that of corn if planted at the same density as quinoa. I am also currently in the process of drying some huauzontle seeds (Chenopodium berlandieri) I harvested this fall, so I'll have an update on how much seed I got from it by next week. Here is the video where I harvest my lamb's quarter seeds:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/C8wvK9MkS9FU/

Ryan M Miller

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I have just finished harvesting some huauzontle (Chenopodium berlandieri nuttaliae) and common lamb's quarter seeds (Chenopodium album) that I grew this year. I took a few photographs of the process and uploaded videos to Bitchute. Here is the video for the lamb's quarter seed harvest:
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/Riyd6uFNAKXy/
I also have a separate video for harvesting huauzontle seed:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/EDuGABIpNkVa/

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Common Lamb's Quarters ready for winnowing

Joseph Lofthouse

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The stems/leaves of heterophylla feel fuzzy.

longifolia means long-leaved.

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Ryan M Miller

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Joseph Lofthouse wrote:The stems/leaves of heterophylla feel fuzzy.

longifolia means long-leaved.

I'm assuming that you're refering to the groundcherries I posted earlier. I also have seeds of Physalis pubescens that I should finally have a chance to sow next year.

Mark Reed

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Ryan M Miller wrote:
.... Little barley, maygrass, marsh elder, and erect knotweed may require a great deal of searching to find seeds for these neglected plants. None of them are common in my location in southwester Ohio, so I cannot wildcraft them for seeds. Solanum ptychanthum grows widely where I live in disturbed areas, but it may be difficult to find in western North America or outside of the continent.

I just discovered this interesting thread. I quoted that little snippet because of those plants look extremely familiar to me. I'm in SE IN about 50 miles west of Cincinnati and some of those plants or others that look very similar are common here. I'm just not good at identification. If we could stay in contact next year maybe I could take very high resolution photos of some of them and you could help identify them for sure? I could also maybe collect and send you some seeds.

Pawpaws are also fairly common here and they do taste a little like bananas. I could probably get you some seeds from them if reminded next year. The best persimmons IMO are those that fail to drop off the tree and end up kind of freeze dried in place. That seems to vary from tree to tree more than anything else and unfortunately they are hard to get unless you're a little kid with no fear of heights.

What about wild black cherries and mulberries? Maybe since they are very large trees they were not actually cultivated? I can't imagine the native people didn't enjoy them. The only wild crabapples I've ever found were quite good, maybe not the true wild ones but left over or crossed up with imported varieties?

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Ryan M Miller

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There seems to be very little information on growing many of the lost crops on North America. The following journal article is the first souce I've seen that documents the dormancy inhibiting factors in the crops of the Eastern Agricultural Complex. It appears that out of all the crops tested in the journal article, wild maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana) has the most finicky germination requirements, so it may take several generations of breeding to improve seed germination of maygrass seeds.
https://www.academia.edu/41432995/Experimental_Cultivation_of_Eastern_North_Americas_Lost_Crops_Insights_into_Agricultural_Practice_and_Yield_Potential

Mark Reed

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I found this information with good pictures of the Maygrass, it looks very familiar to me. McClung Museum

Would you happen to know if the seed heads on this plant are kind of soft unlike many other grasses. Does it have kind of a sweet smell and taste to it, especially if you chew on it green.

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Ryan M Miller

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The entry for the related canary grass (Phalaris canariensis) on PFAF says that the leaves are supposed to be edible. Unfortunately, the article gives no method of preparing the leaves. I'm assuming the leaves would either be dried and used as a filler in flour or juiced and strained like wheatgrass. Grass leaves are often high in silica so they are not pleasant to eat as a raw, green vegetable. Here is the article for the plant: https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Phalaris+canariensis

For those unfamiliar with wheatgrass, here is a video on how to make this food. Wheatgrass is more popular on the west coast of the United States than other parts of the US.

As for sources for learning about the Eastern Agricultural Complex, I found another source for information earlier this weekend. The following blogger grew out crops in the Eastern Agrictultural Complex at least during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons in Missouri. According to her credentials on her blog, she is an anthropologist and a professor at the University of St. Louis. She has also included a few journal articles she has authored on her blog. Many of these articles are related to the cultivation of crops in the Eastern Agricultural Complex in the prehistory of North America.
https://ngmueller.net/

Ryan M Miller

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I just did some reading on bonap.org and wildflowersearch.org and it appears that the Kansas City area might be one of the best places in the United States to find all of the lost annual seed crops of the Eastern Agricultural Complex together in one place. These include little barley (Hordeum pusillum), erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum), sumpweed (Iva annua), maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana), and pitseed goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri). Additionally, wild, annual sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) and woolly beans (Strophostyles helvola) should be present in the general area of Kansas City. Based on what information is available on wildflower search, these annual plants should be common growing as weeds in disturbed areas including open storm ditches, vacant lots, roadsides, railroads, and disturbed river plains. I shared this post on the thread for the Kansas City area to see if anyone from that area has ever seen these plants growing together.

Mark Reed

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Ryan M Miller wrote: Grass leaves are often high in silica so they are not pleasant to eat as a raw, green vegetable.

Nope I wouldn't think grass leaves are good at all, an awful lot of them aren't even all that pleasant to touch. I have always had a habit, learned it from my dad of plucking the seed stem out of grasses, pretty much any tall grass. Just grab it and hank straight up. The bottom end that had been inside away form the sun in most cases is sweet and juicy. Some more than others of course and only at the right stage of development. The bottom two or three inches of a corn tassel is sometimes better that the corn.

The plant I suspect and hope could be Maygrass has an extra delicious smell and taste.

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Ryan M Miller

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Mark Reed wrote:I have always had a habit, learned it from my dad of plucking the seed stem out of grasses, pretty much any tall grass. Just grab it and hank straight up. The bottom end that had been inside away form the sun in most cases is sweet and juicy. Some more than others of course and only at the right stage of development. The bottom two or three inches of a corn tassel is sometimes better that the corn.

The plant I suspect and hope could be Maygrass has an extra delicious smell and taste.

The plant you describe sounds like Timothy grass (Phleum pratense). Green Deane has an article on his experiences with this plant in a section of his page devoted to grass species with edible vegetative parts. http://www.eattheweeds.com/can-we-eat-grass/

From my personal experience handling timothy grass and from images available online of this plant, it appears that Timothy grass has thinner and longer flowering ears than either canary grass or maygrass. It also seems to have smaller and more numerous seed glumes than canary grass or maygrass.

I've definitely found timothy grass on Huffman Prairie last year and I even made a video recording. I have just now decided to post the video to Bitchute so I can share the video here. I just posted the video now so it may take a few hours for it to finish processing. https://www.bitchute.com/video/jVxGV4sQ8cW4/

Ryan M Miller

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I planted an experimental bed of eastern agricultural complex crops this week. Wild seeds usually need to stratify over Winter so I planted the seeds outside this week to give the seeds time to be exposed to cold weather. I recorded a video where I show my experimental garden bed on my bitchute page, but the link may take a few days to upload properly.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/8fo19d8yWUUP/

Ryan M Miller

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Update on experimental plot: Neither the erect knotweed nor the marsh elder seemed to have sprouted. Nevertheless, I still managed to get some seeds from maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana) and little barley (Hordeum pusillum). Oddly enough, I actually found a wild little barley plant at the parking lot at my work place this past week. I dug up the plant and brought it home.

I'm curious if anyone has managed to find wild marsh elder seeds or erect knotweed seeds. Neither plant seems to grow wild where I live.

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D Tucholske

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I don't have the space to do this, but this would be a good experiment to see if we can figure out how & why Native Americans in the east abandoned the farming of these plants for the Three Sisters-- almost exclusively, excepting Sunflowers in the Ohio River Valley & Potatoes in the south-- until European Contact.

My best theory is, maybe, disease & ergot? Or soil degredation from too much farming one or two plants in a single spot? I know a lot of these plants were grains & eating too many grains destroys human teeth pretty quickly. When Europeans arrived, Natives in the east only ate two kinds of grain-- corn & rice-- & they only had rice in the western Great Lakes/ Upper Mississippi River, so for at least half of them in the east, it was literally just the one. For the cultures to whom corn cultivation had not yet spread, not even that, unless there is something we don't know.

Ryan M Miller

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posted 3 years ago

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I have successfully collected most of the seed from this year's crop of maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana). The seeds appear to have a tight outer hull that must be removed before processing the seeds. I do not feel confident that I have enough seeds yet to share with other growers so I will likely have to wait until next year.

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Ryan M Miller

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For anyone looking for wild seeds of marsh elder (Iva annua) and erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum), it appears that the plants will begin reaching their
peak blooming period this month based on the entries for these plants on the wildflower search website:
https://www.wildflowersearch.org/search?oldstate=Genus%3AIva%3Bbloom%3AIgnore%3B&buttonName=none&hab=&Elev=&PlantName=&S__36031.x=68&S__36031.y=97

https://www.wildflowersearch.org/search?oldstate=Genus%3APolygonum%3Bbloom%3AIgnore%3B&buttonName=none&hab=&Elev=&PlantName=&S__20893.x=63&S__20893.y=83

Please note that some forms of erect knotweed can be mistaken for smartweed (Persicaria sp.).

Patrick Bott

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posted 2 years ago

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Curious if I can buy maygrass seeds from anyone? I have all the other seeds thanks to some ethnobotanists. Thanks.

Ryan M Miller

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Patrick Bott wrote:Curious if I can buy maygrass seeds from anyone? I have all the other seeds thanks to some ethnobotanists. Thanks.

Maygrass is hard to find comercially. I should have enough seed to send you by Fall of 2022. Be sure to contact me by September of this year.

Ryan M Miller

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posted 2 years ago

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I forgot to mention that I have planted a new crop of Eastern Agricultural Complex plants in November 2021. I should be able to take pictures of the plants once they begin sprouting later this Spring. Based on my experience growing little barley last year and some experience from another person growing these plants south of Columbus in Ohio, little barley is best sown in Spring (Late May). I will begin sowing little barley in a few weeks so I hope to have more pictures when the barley begins sprouting.

I suspect that little barley may have been fermented into a kind of beer in Ancestral Pueblo villages that grew this crop in the desert southwest US. If I get extra grain in future years, I will experiment brewing little barley beer using only native North American herbs and spices to make a gruit for preservation.

Ryan M Miller

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posted 2 years ago

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I have finished harvesting my little barley and maygrass this year. I am noticing that little barley seeds tend to shatter very quickly as soon as they are ripe so they need to be harvested immediately. I should have enough maygrass and little barley seed to share only with a very few people as long as they are able to plant the maygrass seed immediately early this Fall and the barley seed early in March of next year. Since the seeds of my little barley population are currently very small and nearly impossible to thresh free of their chaff, I am looking for wildcrafted seed from populations showing abnormally large seeds and/or seeds that easily separate from the chaff for processing. At this current seed size it will be very difficult for me to even get enough seed for a batch of beer.

Alex Delashmit

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posted 2 years ago

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I once found someone selling Sumpweed seeds on Etsy once but they seemed to have stopped perhaps ran out of seeds. I recently found 3 people selling Maygrass on Ebay. I also found someone on Instagram who has seeds for another hard-to-find cultivar of C. nuttalliae called Chía Roja "Red chia" in English.

Ryan M Miller

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posted 1 year ago

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My harvest of wooly bean seeds (Strophostyles helvola) was a huge success this year. Although on average I got fewer seeds per plant than in 2019 (5 grams of seed per plant compared with 80 grams of seed per plant in 2019), I got almost one pound of seed (435 grams) from 88 plants. I should have enough seed to experiment with them to see if I can make them edible with cold-leaching.

I have also wild-crafted some seeds from local ripe long leaf ground cherries that I intend to plant once a few days from now this month and again at the beginning of Summer along with my black nightshde seeds.

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