Patriotic Popcorn Comes In Red, White And Blue

Patriotic Popcorn Comes In Red White And Blue CROPS New Crops Ryan and Tiffany Batalden grew patriotic popcorn on their Lamberton Minn certified organic farm last year The 1-acre field of red white and blue popcorn was located right in the middle of a large plot of field corn In spite of the drought their first harvest yielded a respectable 55 bushels of colorful corn “The hulls are colored but the popped corn is white ” explains Tiffany who handles the marketing for Patriot Pops Popcorn She packages the colorful kernels in 2-lb packages and sells them through her website and to a few local businesses They donate a portion of the proceeds to the Disabled American Veterans organization The popcorn pops well and the red variety adds a tasty nutty flavor she says She talked to other popcorn growers and did research to choose good varieties Diversifying with the value-added popcorn is a good fit for the Bataldens’ organic soybean and corn operation Because strong winds are common in their area – and popcorn stalks are weak – they planted the popcorn within a cornfield for protection Batalden notes that it’s OK to grow popcorn with other varieties as long as it won’t be used for seed The popcorn did affect some of the nearby field corn however which had a few red and blue kernels “We planted the popcorn the same as field corn and the first couple of months the popcorn kept up with the field corn which was good because we farm organically and we could cultivate it at the same time ” Batalden explains With rich black soil corn crops fared better in their area than many places during 2012’s dry weather The Bataldens harvested the field corn first and let the popcorn dry down a couple more weeks before harvest They harvested it with the combine with a few setting adjustments The red and blue varieties were 14 percent moisture and allowed to dry to about 12 percent for optimal popping The white variety was 18 percent so it was placed in a tote bag with a fan for faster drying After running the kernels through an old Clipper cleaner that Ryan’s father had the kernels were packaged for sale Patriot Pops Popcorn sells through the family’s website for $8 for 2-lb bags with free shipping for two bags or more Batalden plans to contact food co-ops and popcorn vendors to see if there is interest in the patriotic and organic-grown crop so they’ll know if they should plant more acres next year Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Patriot Pops LLC 39474 Co Rd 11 Lamberton Minn 56152 ph 507 227-5314; www patriotpopspopcorn com

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