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Rare Native Corn Varieties Making A Comeback
When you think of northern Minnesota, you don’t think of corn fields. After all, we’re lucky to get 100 frost-free days up here. But centuries before Europeans traveled to their “New World”, Chippewa bands of the north did, indeed, grow corn. This corn was eaten green as roasting ears, or ground for flour and cornmeal.
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Rare Native Corn Varieties Making A Comeback CROPS Miscellaneous When you think of northern Minnesota you don’t think of corn fields After all we’re lucky to get 100 frost-free days up here But centuries before Europeans traveled to their “New World” Chippewa bands of the north did indeed grow corn This corn was eaten green as roasting ears or ground for flour and cornmeal But as is often the case the old ways died out bit by bit and Bear Island Chippewa corn nearly disappeared
About 20 years ago I was lucky to have been given a package of this wonderful corn by a friend At the time I was living in northern New Mexico I planted the corn and was extremely happy to discover how sturdy and prolific it was
Bear Island Chippewa generally produces an ear about 8 in long with 12 to 14 rows of large kernels which have a softer flour center making them easy to grind The cob is strong allowing for easy shelling And the ears are contained tightly in sturdy leaves providing good protection against corn earworms We’ve never had to spray or treat our corn
Also those multi-colored flint ears have made a lot of corn flour and meal for us
The short maturity date astounded me as it will make dry corn in as little as 85 days! Add to that the natural sweet nutty flavor and I knew I had to help save this corn variety
We still grow Bear Island Chippewa and have sent some of the seed back to local Chippewa band members who are now encouraging their people to re-connect with their heritage
Just a few years ago I bought a couple seed packs of another native corn Seneca Round Nose This native corn is glistening white with sometimes a bit of red on the kernels like someone rubbed lipstick along them The ears are up to 11 in long and the kernels are large with a soft center for a flint-type corn It matures in only about 90 days And like Bear Island Chippewa Seneca Round Nose makes a great roasting ear when in the milk stage The roots are very strong and even high winds have failed to knock it over
I write a blog for a self-reliance magazine Backwoods Home Magazine and readers have been excited to discover these native corns After all if you can grow them in northern Minnesota with a maturity date of only 85 to 90 days they will sure grow nearly anywhere
We added Bear Island Chippewa and Seneca Round Nose flint corn to our small but growing homestead seed business called Seed Treasures and have been shipping seed packs to all parts of the U S
We’ve started growing isolated fields of this corn and have eaten it as sweet corn when immature in the milk stage and roasted as well Although it lacks the super-sweet flavor of modern hybrid sweet corns it has an old-time corn flavor that many of today’s corn varieties lack
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jackie and Will Atkinson Seed Treasures 8533 Hwy 25 Angora Minn 55703 www seedtreasures com
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