Native Garden & Hops Garden

Native Garden and Hops Garden. . The garden around the Beaubien Tavern is comprised of native plants; they require less water, their blooms provide food for birds, bees and butterflies. In the 1830s, the Potawatomi hunted and harvested in what is today, Lisle. One of their main villages, Round Meadow Village, was along the East Branch of the DuPage River. This is now within The Morton Arboretum. Many of these plants would have been harvested by Native Americans: the Purple Coneflower (ashosikwimia' kuk) collected for medicinal purposes or the Wild Onion (shegagosh) was harvested for food. , , The garden around the Beaubien Tavern is comprised of native plants; they require The Potawatomi, decimated by warfare, disease, and loss of territory, ceded their remaining lands to the American government by signing the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. Allowing the Government to forcibly remove tribes to the west of the Mississippi River. Though, there are accounts of Native Americans remaining at the Round Meadow Village and visiting the Beaubiens' into the 1840s. , , Hops are an herb that grows on a vine. The plant produces small cones, which contain yellow, powdery oil called lupulin. This oil smells citrusy, piney and bitter depending on the type of hops. The plant needs lots of sun to grow and is native to both America and Europe. Hops grow especially well vertically. This is why we used poles in our hops garden, but the poles were also useful to harvesters, who climbed them to collect the cones. , , Hops are commonly used in beers and ales to add flavor and enhance the ability of yeast to grow and ferment the wort (liquid extracted from grains) to beer. During the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, hops became more popular as it acted as a preservative to prevent spoilage and allowed for better storage. Other uses are medicinal people stuffed their pillowcases with hops, which was a common sleep remedy.