[Sca-cooks] Corn, was Return of the Wanderer (partly OT)

[johnna holloway]

Actually, what you do on our farm in Illinois is
place the sweet corn about 6 rows in so the coons
(remember those creatures that we talked about in
August) find the field corn and hopefully don't find
the sweet corn. You can actually eat field corn off
the cob...you just have to get at the right time of
the summer. It's not Illini Extra Sweet, but some
of it is not bad. This country grows a number of
varieties of corn... think popcorn as well as food
grade corn for the Frito Lay corn chips. They were
divided up in the 1880's into pod corn, sweet corn,
flour corn, dent corn, flint corn, and popcorn. Plus
there's also broom corn which is grown for brooms. There's
a fairly good description of all the different kinds
in Popped Culture by Andrew Smith. Giano's corn on
the cob is probably not a very good variety of sweet
corn and maybe being harvested after its peak.

Johnna Holloway Johnnae llyn Lewis

A F Murphy wrote:
> Either you are getting field corn rather than sweet corn, or it is not
> as fresh as it should be (well, it should be picked about 5 minutes
> before you eat it, but most of us can't manage that... at least fresh
> that day) or quite possibly both. Field corn is starchy. That is how you
> make corn meal, and it also is used as animal feed. (Probably different
> strains, I don't know that much.) Up in the country, I'm used to seeing
> a field of corn grown for cattle feed, with 2 rows around it of sweet
> corn grown for personal use and sale at a farm stand. They're selected
> to pollinate at different times, so the sweet corn doesn't get mealy.
> Anne
>
> Volker Bach wrote:>
> >  It still has a bit of an
> >exotic cachet (especially corn on the cob, which
> >costs between 50 cents and a dollar an ear in
> >season and is unaffordable out of it) or the taint
> >of swinefood, depending on whoi you ask, but it's
> >available. My real problem is that most kinds of
> >corn grown over here seem to be on the mealy side.
> >> >Giano