An Ode to Corn: Sacred, Elemental, Diverse
Thousands of years ago, indigenous farmers in what is now Mexico began domesticating corn from teosinte, a wild grass that produced hard-shelled kernels on short, sparse cobs.
They called teosinte ‘grain of the gods,’ so important was it to their very being. By 4,500 years ago, farmers had bred a plant resembling the corn we know today.
Corn (Zea mays) is a cornerstone of cultures and cuisines in the Americas, and its cultivation has spread far beyond the continent as well. Think of the intriguing Japanese Black Sticky corn, whose sweet, waxy texture has made it a favorite for mochi or fresh eating.
Three Main Types
There are three main types of corn: sweet corn, popcorn, and field corn, which includes flint, dent, and flour varieties.
Dazzlingly Diverse and Colorful Corn
Corn is dazzlingly diverse; there are thousands of varieties around the world, and talented open-pollinated breeders such as Ed Schultz continue to explore its genetic possibilities. We are so pleased to offer Ed’s stunningly beautiful Montana Sunburst, a flour corn variety, for the first time this year.
Another new offering is the versatile and extraplanetary Martian Jewels. Harvest it right away for a mellow sweet corn, or let it mature for use in soups. It can also be allowed to dry and ground into flour or used for decoration!
One of our best-selling varieties is the incomparable Glass Gem, a popping corn developed by the late Carl Barnes of Oklahoma from a selection of traditional Native varieties. An artful expression of heirloom corn history, the kernels and cobs of Glass Gem are worthy of museum display!
Looking for a colorful sweet corn with an awesome back story? Astronomy Domine is a short-season variety developed by breeder Alan Bishop and nurtured by other breeders and growers, including landrace gardener Joseph Lofthouse. Joseph says their goal was to “develop the most nutritious and diverse open-pollinated sweet corn ever.”
Why is Corn so Diverse?
Corn’s genetics are exceedingly diverse, which accounts for its phenomenal adaptability as a staple crop. Researchers at Iowa State University mapped the genomes of 26 lines of corn from across the world. Each corn plant has about 40,000 genes. But when compared across all 26 genomes, more than 100,000 unique genes were identified.
Matthew Hufford, the study’s primary author, said the research helps scientists and breeders put corn’s complex puzzle pieces together.
Why is Heirloom Corn so Special?
Heirloom and open-pollinated corn varieties are the antithesis of the monocultured GMO corn that constitutes more than 90 percent of corn raised in the U.S. each year.
The history of heirloom corn varieties cannot be separated from the history of the indigenous tribes that developed and adapted varieties for their own tastes and needs. In doing so, they created a phenomenal diversity of landrace corns, adapted to local growing conditions and climates.
In traditional cultures, corn was much more than a steady food source – it was used for ceremonial purposes and to pay debts. Where there was corn, societies flourished.
European colonization and the suppression of indigenous cultures disrupted seed keeping and preservation in Native communities, and many varieties simply went extinct, or their history was lost as European settlers grew and cross bred indigenous varieties for their own purposes. Most of what we think of as heirloom corn varieties today started with these crosses, and perhaps no European American had as much influence as seedsman Oscar Will.
Who was Oscar Will?
In the late 19th century, Will cultivated relationships with Native American agriculturists around Bismarck, North Dakota, and in 1882, he acquired corn varieties from the Fort Berthold Reservation, home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes. From it, the Oscar Will Seed Company developed two of its best-selling corn varieties: Pride of Dakota and Gehu Yellow Flint.
When Oscar Will died in 1917, his son George took over the company. That same year, the younger Will published Corn Among the Indians of the Upper Missouri, documenting about 50 indigenous varieties from the Missouri Valley. The Will seed company also donated nearly 100 accessions of Native corns to the North Central Plant Introduction Station (NCPIS) in Ames, Iowa. The collection remains an incredibly valuable resource for breeders and researchers interested in reconstructing the stories of these Native varieties and even reviving and returning them to tribal stewardship.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the USDA also sent agents in search of Native corn varieties in the hopes their genetics could be used to create ‘supercorns,’ says food historian David Shields. “But what the effort actually did was preserve in its pure form a lot of really old corn.”
We appreciate the work of open-pollinated breeders such as Ed Schultz, who has created many stunning ‘new heirlooms.’ Using seeds he acquired from the USDA’s Oscar Will collection, Schultz also revived a culturally and historically significant Navajo corn, resulting in Montana Cudu. After initial grow outs yielded stunted, short cobs with faded blue-eagle markings – nothing like the original – Schultz thought the donated seeds might have been accidentally crossed or inbred, so he set out to revive the Native variety’s signature shape and color by crossing the original Cudu sample with a small percentage of his Papa’s White corn. The eventual result? Long, slender ears and beautiful blue-spotted kernels (see video below). It is available from Baker Creek and several other seed companies.
Key takeaways:
The domestication of corn began in what is now Mexico about 10,000 years ago.
There are three main types of corn: sweet corn, popcorn, and field corn, which includes flint, dent, and flour varieties.
Corn is incredibly diverse; there are thousands of varieties around the world, and scientists have identified more than 100,000 unique genes from the genome mapping of 26 lines of corn from around the world.
Corn was foundational to Native communities and cultures and significant in ways far beyond being a stable food source.
Efforts to map the corn genome and explore its origins and cultural significance are ongoing, and Baker Creek is happy to make these heirloom seeds available to the public as we seek to help keep the genetic diversity alive.