These Farmers Grow Everything From White Strawberries to Furniture

We planted seeds, and these stories about farming and gardening sprouted right before our very eyes. We’re cultivating unusual strawberries in Japan, rescue plants in South Carolina and so much more. Come grow with us. This story is a part of our Planet Earth series. From mammals to insects and birds to reptiles, we share this great big world with all manner of creatures, large and small. Come with us to faraway places as we explore our great big planet and meet some of its wildest inhabitants.

Video Script:

you [Music] white corn is one of our relatives we feel as she is alive she wants to do the job that she told our Creator she would do is to feed our people to nourish them the work that we do if we didn't have this way we would lose everything [Music] for a few thousand years Potawatomi people have been incredible farmers and have grown lots and lots of varieties of crops the seed library is a place where we take crops which are disappearing rare and endangered Potawatomi vegetables and we grow them out and we restore them and put them back in the hands of native farmers [Music] George Martin carries the Potawatomi tradition of making Dom Nabu or corn soup in our seed library we have 76 unique varieties of corn each one has its own cultural identity its own unique flavor after a while when we stir it you'll see how tough it gets to stir it our corn is a lot different than other corns which are out there if we didn't have the seed library these traditional food might be gone forever within our seed library 80% of the varieties which we take care of our rare or nearly extinct some of the varieties we care for here we're the only place in the world which has them this one's gonna be a nice one four years ago when we first got another signal gar white flower corn we only had a half the canning jar a very small amount of seed we've grown it every year since and now we have enough that we may have a hundred bushels fall that's enough that next year we can plant six or seven acres of justice corn that's a huge increase it is important that we keep that's what we were sent down here for to take care of Mother Earth and all her creations here and that corn realizes that we're back using it again that we're going to use it in the feast make the corn feel good after being used by our people again it's done is ready to eat between tikka you know a meal today is Holi mercy vinegar ah mother midnight in their unit even risk at all you know ah look there you go this is my sister this geodes good team us [Music] silly ho stick to you London allow me to go there and buy steam us one pack food yeah could you don't say holiday hamburger still must surely host a cure he won't thingy my dog an issue it's about the attacks Island Discs at all so no get them all covered I need she looked a okay honey reunited with what I see guidance to our games other states could be my same Hibernia that the Kali Yuga siento neurotic knee to 90 total shock sumo Nikki nice e-series to our yoga school or purchase new Casa de she's timoni occurred to me that this - no they say he need another flip-flop Juvenal young hip this month's topic oh can I do enough is - you know karate sighs domani total balance day sweida serious ASIMO rip Anatomy was heretical 9100 Kafka wanna impact or nine decade or two dr. sakeena can see the whole city in kanji [Music] co-hosted a two Koreas meet a more Q&A series gossipy need a chance to go to see also candy Dakota giving us or soda can i as a cowardly touch the courtesy to neva not dicta clean or you could utter seducing critique and Achilles [Music] yeah modesta guru ah you see what a Pocono kudamon over a cigar smoker I might occur what she took up okay sandy did I come at you by mass again I - you are a mother some skylights name in the fertile Hills of Derbyshire England one man is cultivating something unique I'm Kevin Munroe I grow furniture this is our furniture orchard we've got chairs this side lamps over here tables little further on that way and they're all manner of things in between the original idea came from realizing that the way that we make furniture now we have to grow the trees for at least 50 years and then cut them down and we make them into smaller and smaller and smaller bits before sticking them back together again why bother with that at all why indeed Gavin trains the branches of young trees by attaching them to specially made forms he then grasp them together to form one solid piece slowly they grow into fully formed pieces of furniture but exactly how slow are we talking for a chair to grow that takes five to ten years depending on the species the thing is if you thinking about this in the bigger picture then by the time you've grown your tree for 50 years we'll have at least 10 generations of tears rolled out while it seems slow in real terms of making things out of wood it's actually pretty quick when we harvest the trees we're not killing them the varieties that we use all grow back again the next year on the environmental front it's not just efficient it's uber efficient we've got this lovely curve coming up here when we sand this down this little triangles gonna look gorgeous we can get them into the workshop and the fun begins on the production side and we can start to kind of bring together geometry and nature the finishing is where we can really let that shine and no one can deny that Gavin's furniture is beautiful but is it functional not only do we think that they'll be stronger they'll be way stronger because they're one solid piece there's no joints to come loose what we're doing here is collaborating with the trees it's kind of a beautiful way of working really [Music] [Music] there's a world-renowned topiary garden in the tiny town of Bishopville South Carolina and that garden was created by this man a man named pearl [Music] I'm pearl Fryar and this is my gardener [Music] pearl started the garden in 1981 with the goal of winning yard of the month from the local garden club I went to our neighborhood about house and the reason they didn't want to say I mean I have they said yeah there was a stereotype at the time the African Americans didn't keep up their yards so I figure when you're a mom and the person that made that statement could understand you can't get by one person [Music] once I got yard and my people couldn't believe it Pro now has over 300 plants most of which were throw aways that came from the recycling bin at a local nursery I don't water Islands free and free life I use no chemicals it's all natural it's all pretty we have done organically some of my tallest plant that was recycled is around 30 feet so many people drove by Pearl's house to see his garden that he opened it up to the public I would say about ten thousand people visit my god maybe people come from all over the world to see it I had people from Australia Japan Korea I want to share because so many people came out in from one receive the very settle and see something god I was so simple and making them mad at this guy the garden is about love and the last thing you see before you leave my father love peace [Music] if the spinergy found a COSM as though it is in Cornish locust a loose camera come on ref lahar mice trading food Anastasios impreza yell okay no steady comma nosotros those campesinos me if I mean yellow si por el desfile de pollo as a poor person is algo muy de spin be also easy New Year's Apache oh no sorry Hamasaki mean hombres Ariana Patricia you run as a mother 8th annual my familiars venomous participant oh no ok say conquers all this village Potter and the Philosopher's Stone a manifestation cultural Dundas Ellison reconocimiento cheese case lkj Valdez erogenous Navajo [Music] initial maintain like konami IE transport a gassy alimony moola porque no avian las carreteras por su estado and consist of Thomas eldest como nuestro departamentos de votación kappa terre mi familia fence ahmo's que bueno reflects our a new ng paulo que es la cultura el café entonces vikulova Engelen odd o con todo lo que c'est un policía en la finca cafe Terra para llegar a process our una Pepa de cafe say tambien de los dias organized ando yeah siento hermano hey lvq lo se Monta casita pour casita americ-aa de una cosa tan minutiae o cemente porque kako seat acquaintance historia el desfile de paz gaje member eos category --is y participa Mohsen Barrios categories esta la catégorie ah de carga Greek Ola tambien concur Samia janessa categoria art ACO fishes tambien Cosimo's que es me categoria el concurso ng paulo la première Sione's dinero y pano casi todos los angeles epremier puesto para el numero uno adriana a partisan a manifestation cultural es algo familia de trois Takagi para una familia y otra deca Emilia una historia con ser los campos antes que o Cassy siempre samba los mismos pero como va de nuevas Hamer a Sione's de trois nuestra tres Emma's porque es como Ella God okay a Hamas in cada uno en nuestros hijos corridos [Music] [Applause]