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peppers and other plants into the colder months.
Excess tomatoes are just starting to rot off the vines— if not plucked and eaten quickly— but now the preserving and seed saving begins. Corn varieties are drying straight off the stalks in beautiful golden yellows and crimsons( the Strawberry Popcorn variety of corn). Off in the distance along the forest tree line is a wetu, a traditional Native American dome house made of tree bark that provides shelter from the elements. A high fence borders the property to keep deer out.
Dawn Spears walks down the garden plot, past the tomatoes, eggplant and kale, to an area cultivating the“ three sisters.” The Indigenous term means that the three different varieties of plants support each other as they grow.
“ It’ s a companion planting. So three sisters, they grow together,” Dawn says.“ You plant the corn, which gets up high, and then you plant the beans, and you have to wait until the corn gets to a certain height
Ask us how you can make a sweet impression on your clients and customers this holiday season! before you plant the squash. The leaves of the squash will keep away pests, because they have prickers on them, and then the beans trail up the corn stalk.”
There’ s a lot of thought that goes into growing corn in the Indigenous community.“ When you grow this corn, we say one-third of it is for you to eat, one-third of it is for you to grow more, and one-third of it is for you to share. I try to make sure I tell everybody that, because I think we forget
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Beautiful blooms from Ashawaug Farm.
that in our culture today; we’ re not better than, we’ re not above, we are supposed to be the same.
“ And I tell my kids, when you look in the corn, and you see how they’ re growing, they’ re holding each other up,” she adds.
Near the high tunnels is Ashawaug Farm’ s outdoor classroom with picnic tables and a building where seed saving, flower and herb drying and art projects take place. The building was constructed thanks to a Local Agriculture and Seafood Act grant through the R. I. Department of Environmental Management’ s Division of Agriculture.
“ We like to come and learn and share. So I don’ t like to say,‘ teaching space.’ I like to say more of a sharing space,” Dawn says.“ Everything that I’ m doing, I feel like it’ s something that I want to be able to share. So, the seed saving, and when the flowers are growing, it’ s a perfect art opportunity.”
She also uses the land to teach her three children and eight grandchildren about their Native Narragansett ancestors.“ Watching the plants and seeing how they grow, I like to spark my grandchildren to pay attention to what the plants are telling you,” she says.
On a wooden table inside the building is a pile of dark purple Narragansett Succotash beans, which look almost the same purple as the underside of a quahog shell.“ I’ m excited about this, because I only was able to grow a few of them last year,” Dawn says.“ And this means that next year, I can grow even more, and I’ ll keep building up so I can get this back into our diet as a regular food.”
A garland of dried marigolds hangs from the ceiling, created by Dawn and
48 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026