indian Corn

Well after looking at the fallen indian flour corn a little more... I quickly came to the conclusion that trying to stand it back up would be like playing jinga. So I'm just going to leave it and see what happens.

The indian corn left standing is a good 9 foot tall. Bottom right is sweet corn for comparison. My garden has gone plum crazy with the rain we've had over the past week or so. It's a growth explosion gone nutty.

Corn looks good! congrats.

Yep, we've had more rain than we need. It's like every day. Sometimes rains morning, clears, then back at rain in evening. Things just can't dry. May get a little surface stability but, overall the ground is saturated. Can't mow, plow, dig, enjoy much.....limits what you get done. Farmers here are pretty desperate. Crops are in, some damage & production loss from water--root crops may not sustain (peanuts are big business here) , pollination poor, sunshine time down, fields a muddy mess -- the corn will probably mold get fungus, Cotton & soybean should be flowering - not.

It's dismal.

So you are currently in a fairly low population area and you want to become a hermit? What would make you feel that would be a fun thing? I like being self-sufficient but, still feel it is nice to have a human that can be contacted reasonably soon if needed. There are 3 or 4 houses I can see from my porch -- they could not hear me yell but, a car horn, etc. they could hear. We wave in passing, have a 5 min chit-chat every 3-4 months with at least one. I'm good with that. We do watch for "oddities" in neighborhood.

Now I have lived off grid and know it can be done well and with planning isn't a huge effort. There is some work involved. Just not thinking I want to hibernate.

So - any ideas to share as to your "dream life"? I mean, you all raise produce, some meats, can foods, etc. -- if you want to go without electric, etc. -- can't you do it there? Just cut the power. OR plant tress and you will soon be in the woods.

Some of the Indian flour corn is a good 12 tall. It's way to tall to remain standing during Southern Illionis thunderstorms. It develops 2 and 3 ears per stalk. Now I know how tall this corn gets I'll stake the rows with 8 foot tee-posts and run bailing twine to help it remain standing. It's been a very wet garden year do that may have something to do with it also. I'm really curious what indian flour corn will taste like once ground.

By comparison that black plastic electric fence pole is 4' tall.

Daaaaaaang - that's some big corn!

CrealCritter said:

I'm really curious what indian flour corn will taste like once ground.
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that is going to make the best cornbread that you ever tasted.

I am late to the party here, so I know this is late to say but be VERY careful because planting at the same time doesn't mean the corns won't cross. We've had Bloody Butcher (a red dent Native American corn) cross with sweet corn before, and we wouldn't save seed from it. The sweet corn pollinated first, but as it was finishing the Bloody Butcher had started and I knew once the ears began to develop that they had crossed. It made for pretty, multicolored table decorations for Fall and obviously good animal feed too. We ended up with purple, orange/red, red, white, and yellow in the mix. For reasons like this, if we ever have something we want to save seed from, I usually plant one variety.

AS FOR GRAIN MILLS, let me say I do not recommend the aluminum Weston ones. We purchased this: https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/weston-corn-and-grain-mill
We put a few test rounds through it even after having to buy the food grade silicone spray to coat it separately. We continuously had flakes of metal in that corn meal, and it also had a very hard time crushing the corn. If it's something you're really interested in, make the investment for a better mill, or see if there is a local grain mill around that will do it for you.

With corns like this, make sure your husks are dry before picking (most are usually that tan/brown color). If you try to hang or store them up too green, they'll sometimes mold. The risk of leaving them on the stalk is deer, but, from experience we just like to leave them on til dry. (The benefit of TALL corn varieties is height advantage on the deer, though they're prone to blowing over in a storm if not blocked from wind).

Finally, there are ALOT of varieties out there of Indian corns. It's extremely fun to try a new variety each year! There's cornmeal, feed, and decorations/crafts that can be done. Some corns are good for roasting when they're young and in the milk stage. Best of luck with your growing, and keep us updated. Hopefully this helps a bit!

P.S. Here are some corn kernel necklaces we made with the crossed Bloody Butcher/sweet corn. It makes for fun family crafting during the Fall!

Mini Horses said:

Corn looks good! congrats.

Yep, we've had more rain than we need. It's like every day. Sometimes rains morning, clears, then back at rain in evening. Things just can't dry. May get a little surface stability but, overall the ground is saturated. Can't mow, plow, dig, enjoy much.....limits what you get done. Farmers here are pretty desperate. Crops are in, some damage & production loss from water--root crops may not sustain (peanuts are big business here) , pollination poor, sunshine time down, fields a muddy mess -- the corn will probably mold get fungus, Cotton & soybean should be flowering - not.

It's dismal.

So you are currently in a fairly low population area and you want to become a hermit? What would make you feel that would be a fun thing? I like being self-sufficient but, still feel it is nice to have a human that can be contacted reasonably soon if needed. There are 3 or 4 houses I can see from my porch -- they could not hear me yell but, a car horn, etc. they could hear. We wave in passing, have a 5 min chit-chat every 3-4 months with at least one. I'm good with that. We do watch for "oddities" in neighborhood.

Now I have lived off grid and know it can be done well and with planning isn't a huge effort. There is some work involved. Just not thinking I want to hibernate.

So - any ideas to share as to your "dream life"? I mean, you all raise produce, some meats, can foods, etc. -- if you want to go without electric, etc. -- can't you do it there? Just cut the power. OR plant tress and you will soon be in the woods.

Click to expand...

What's your thoughts on this one?

https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Com...ocphy=9022741&hvtargid=pla-273628271256&psc=1

Love the necklaces!

CrealCritter said:

What's your thoughts on this one?

https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Com...ocphy=9022741&hvtargid=pla-273628271256&psc=1

Click to expand...

Looking at the comments, it looks like it would do very well with corn. Some complaints that it will not grind wheat into a fine flour for baking though. Some said they had to grind wheat berries twice to get a fine enough flour.
For the price, it looks good. I have a big Country Living Grains mill with a motor, absolutely love it but it is pricy ($400+). I would hate it if I had to use it without the motor though. A friend has almost the same mill that I have, but they don't have a motor for it, just 4 boys to help out. Takes them about an hour of grinding to get enough flour for a batch of bread - but that is with child labor.

Last year I planted a handful of blue corn kernels that were given to me by a friend from Wyoming. His family has grown that variety of corn for over 100 years. He told me they would grow about 5 feet tall. I planted them in the garden area here in Wisconsin and those 2-15 foot rows of corn produced 2-1 gallon freezer bags of hand-shucked corn kernels. The plants were over 8 feet tall. This year, DH took one of the gallon bags of kernels and planted them in his "deer plot" out in the old pasture area. WE planted late, the soil out there is really poor, and it was dryer this year than last so the plants are only about 4-5 feet tall. But they are averaging 2 cobs per plant.

I finally bought the auger for my mill so I can grind corn in it. I bought a corn shucker and a tortilla press at the same time, lol. Can't wait to give them all a try. I found one cob of blue corn that I didn't shuck last fall so I will get to try the shucker on that one right away.

Pulled a ear to see what it looked like. It's still pretty soft (moist) and has a nutty flavor.