Talk to describe Native American-style gardening

A backyard gardener with a keen interest in Pennsylvania archaeology will discuss pre-Columbian Native American-style farming at the Nov. 3 meeting of the Forks of the Delaware Chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. The meeting, which will start at 7 p.m., will be held at the Palmer Township Memorial Library, Palmer Township. The meeting is free and is open to the public.

John L. Moore of Northumberland, Pa., will tell about his experiences with the Three Sisters Gardening technique used by Eastern Woodland people for a thousand years prior to the arrival of Europeans in what is now Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In his garden, he uses heirloom seeds to grow the type of vegetables that would have been familiar to native farmers. His gardening implements are based on descriptions recorded by Europeans who visited native villages and observed the agricultural practices of the inhabitants. He will display vegetables and gardening tools.

Moore has participated in several archaeological excavations of Native American sites. These include the Village of Nain in Bethlehem, Pa.; the City Island project in Harrisburg, Pa. conducted by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; and a Bloomsburg University dig in 1999 at a Native American site near Nescopeck, Pa.

A veteran newspaperman, Moore has been editor of the Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal in Bethlehem, Pa. since 2001.

He has written and self-published five books about the Pennsylvania Frontier. These include “Soldiers, Settlers & Scalps,” which came out in 2008.