[Sca-cooks] Sweet corn (OOP)

[Decker, Terry D.]

Shoepeg is a field corn rather than a sweet corn.  More accurately, it is a
varietal of Zea mays indentata (dent corn).  The subspecies was identified
in the late 19th Century and taxonomically organized in the early 20th
Century (IIRC), so it is difficult to tell just how long it has been around.


You may be able to tie shoepeg directly to a white variety of Indian corn.
The canned shoepeg corn, however, may represent a modern hybrid of the
original.

If you can find them, you might find the following references of use:

Anderson, Edgar and William L. Brown. "The history of the common maize
varieties of the United States Corn Belt." Agricultural History 26(1): 2-8
(Jan. 1952). NAL 30.98 Ag8

Brown, William L. and Edgar Anderson. "The southern dent corns." Annals of
the Missouri Botanical Garden 35(3): 255-268 [plus 6 plates, no. 18-23]
(Sept. 1948). NAL 451 M69

Bear

> Does anyone know offhand how old shoepeg corn is?  I'm
> organizing info for a
> future class, and I'm trying to verify some dates.  I've got
> the info from
> the July cornbread discussions, but I'd like to pin down the
> origins of the
> sweet corn varieties like shoepeg.  I'm pretty sure it's not
> prior to 1850,
> but there's no telling.
>
> In Service,
>
> Vicente