The real first Thanksgiving is the story of the Pilgrims’ survival in the New World, the Native American Squanto who helped them and how it all had a lot to do with the dirt underneath their feet.
Surviving through their first winter, the Pilgrims’ fate was still up in the air and dependent on learning to cultivate the poor soil of the area in which they had made landfall. Squanto, a Native American who spoke English because he had been kidnapped by early English explorers and taken to England, was sent as an interpreter. He taught them the now famous technique of burying a dead fish in each mound of corn to fertilize it.
Squanto and the Pilgrims had no understanding the science behind fish fertilization and other techniques that were borrowed from the Native Americans. That is exactly what Bill Heid, the president of “Solutions From Science” set out to explore in “Squanto’s Secret Garden,” a free Thanksgiving eBook available at FirstThanksgivingGarden.com Heid has developed a new product called ProtoGrow that brings about the success conditions engineered by Squanto. ProtoGrow, is an organic “super-food” for plants that acts as an alternative to traditional, chemical-based fertilizers. It was created to mimic Squanto’s fish fertilization technique.
“What a lot of people don’t know,” says Heid, “is the food the Pilgrims grew probably tasted better than the food we eat today and was also better for them.” Fish and all marine life are suited to giving soil the nutrients that make it produce the best food. In addition to providing soil with vital nutrients like calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur, marine life is the best source of trace elements. Trace elements are near microscopic amounts of different elements that are necessary for the human body to survive and that poor soil often lacks. “Food can only be as good as the soil you grow it in,” Heid explains.
In “Squanto’s Garden,” Heid looks at what happened as the Pilgrims learned to cultivate the land properly. By learning about rocky, poor soil conditions and how the Native American’s had adapted their lifestyle to it, he is able to show why the Pilgrims came so close to failing. It wasn’t just the fish fertilization that saved them. The Pilgrims changed from a large collective farm to the Native American smaller “family” gardens that made optimal use of better soil. They also copied the Native American “companion planting” gardens that helped to nourish the soil. Companion planting is growing specific varieties of plants in the same space to benefit the plants and soil.
Many of the soil problems that the Pilgrims had to overcome are problems today because of over farming and soil depletion. Scientific studies show how the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables has diminished dramatically over the past 40 years. Other studies show organic fruits and vegetables are nutritionally superior to those produced using traditional farming methods. The answer, is the same now as it was in Squanto’s day: using marine-based fertilization.
The second half of Heid’s book explains how to grow an organic garden using Native American planting techniques and marine-based fertilizer to enrich and improve the soil. A variety of companion planting possibilities are suggested along with layouts for three traditional Native American gardens. It culminates with a selection of English and Native American recipes making use of garden produce based on what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving.
Heid hopes to revitalize interest in the forgotten gardening methods that gave birth to the very first Thanksgiving. “I really want to show all Americans why Squanto’s Secrets worked for our Pilgrim Fathers and how his life-giving secrets are even more valuable today.
Solutions From Science is a small Illinois company helping backyard gardeners grow healthier and better tasting fruits and vegetables with alternative, marine based fertilizers.
