My Flint Corn Patch - Growing Starches for Winter
This year I am growing flint and dent corns for fall/winter sustenance. I am very much looking forward to grinding the corn and enjoying cornbread, tortillas, chips, empanadas and more :) The first rule of Permaculture is to obtain a yield!
I am trialing 14 varieties of corn in these beds for comparison and possible breeding. Here is some of my corn. In front are potatoes and Dalhias.
Side view. The taller corn stalks are already over 8 feet!!
Turns out that Tomatillos LOVE growing with the corn. The stalks provide shade and support.
Black beans are starting to vine up the corn and look super happy! Say hello to one of our garden companions.
Winter storage squash is starting to spread out under the corn.
This is what the beds looked like when they were first prepped. The grass is mulching newly planted potatoes.
I used a rake to scratch some line into the soil for planting the corn. Dropped in the kernels and patted it down. My spacing was rather tight and came back and thinned the corn.
Once planted the beds were lightly mulched with grass clippings. The planting was about 2 months and 10 days ago.
Here was the very beginning of prepping the beds: Loosening the soil and grass with broadfork.
Last week tassles appeared and now corn ears are forming :)
It's incredible to see the strong adventitious roots jump down into the soil and grab more hold!
Peppers are also enjoying some shade below the corn.
I'm happy to see purslane thriving down there!
Gardening is so fun and rewarding... Thanks for checking out my corn patch!
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Wow what a nice surprise tonight. I am honored! Thank you so much @pennsif!
It's a very interesting post - I didn't know about the different types of corn.
I also did not know until fairly recently. I will gladly report my findings when the crop is in!
I will look forward to hearing more about progress.
I really enjoyed this post! I've been doing the "3 sisters" method of growing hard corn, vine hard beans and winter squash for several years now, and it usually works out pretty well.
I used to grow "Bloody Butcher" heirloom red field corn, but I found that it's more difficult to process for hominy than some other types of corn. I'm trying a hard corn called "Painted Mountain" this year to see how it does for hominy.
This is my first year trying 3 sisters and so far it is going well :) One of the varieties I am growing is Bloody Butcher.. I am looking forward to trying it! How did you process your corn? I have a nice grain mill but haven't tried it on corn yet.
We mostly process our hard corn for hominy. We have ground some of it up, but we just have one of those manual crank grinders with the steel plate, and you can't grind it really fine with that. It's more coarse like cornmeal. You can make grits or cornbread with it that way.
I have a steel plate grain mill too. I am thinking about finding a motor for bulk processing. If I only get course cornmeal for cornbread I am happy!
If you sift it after you grind it, you will get some fine ground corn out of the batch, but not as much as the more coarse ground.
hey! happy to see a post from you! i had to laugh because purslane showed up beneath our corn this year too! (we have a variety that we can grind and pop called "glass gem corn")... your corn is looking stellar, hope you two are well <3
THat is too funny! There must be something about purselane and corn :) I definitely didn't weed it, so that's part of the reason its growing. We are doing great! Thanks for the kind vibes :)
What a tour! The corn is coming along nicely. I can taste that cornbread now!
I find it very empowering to grow food.
Mmm I can't wait to have some home grown cornbread!
Do you like Pinto beans?
Yummy with that cornbread
Who doesn't like pinto beans! Yeah great idea! :)
Here in Holland farmers also are 'testing' multiple corn types. They do it often in large fields, it's great to see the diversity in corns in a big field... Almost a painting :)
Very cool! I am imagining it.. it does sound beautiful. Thanks for sharing that :)
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I love how you integrated several species into your corn and took advantage of it's shade! Especially the edible weeds!
Thank you for recognizing that :) Its too tempting to fill bare dirt with more plants or let nature fill it!