On Sunday, after a day of planting squash and beans, the participants gather at the Grant Parish Courthouse, in downtown Colfax.
Among the rows and rows of tombstones, some towering, others more modest, Dr. Inguanti has found tomato plants, squash vines, a peach tree and a fig tree growing behind tombstones.
The how – preparing soil, planting squash, making hazel wigwams, building up soil collars round the edge of pots of fruit – is frequently laid out in sequences of black-and-white images.
On a recent afternoon, in a classroom that is also home to an army of compost bin worms and a bearded dragon named Daphne, two dozen first-grade students thrust their hands into bags of potting soil while taking turns planting squash seeds, beans and corn kernels in plastic containers.
Plant the squash about one squash plant to every corn plant.
Colonists traded with the surrounding Indian nation and learned to plant maize, squash and pumpkin and to rotate these crops from year to year.
Wait two to four weeks after the last frost to plant winter squash.
