First Glass Gem Corn Harvest

[applestar]

Received seeds for Glass Gem corn in trade over the winter -- either the person who gave me the seeds was preferentially saving purples or I was enamored by the pinkish seedlings and preferentially planted those in this first batch. Most of these were gorgeous hues of purple.



Some of the last Golden Bantam corn caught some Glass Gem pollen that were shedding plentifully and enthusiastically nearby -- it'll be interesting to see what happens if I grow those next year -- and I think the inadequately pollinated skinny ones on the left maybe Kandy Korn which were the earliest to tassle and silk and finish up. MI have a couple more fully pollinated Kandy Korn cobs maturing outside, too -- can't wait to see what they look like.

More cobs are maturing in the garden, and they should be less likely to be cross/contami-pollinated by the sweet corn (yellow Golden Bantam and white Kandy Korn) that started tassling and silking 1-2 weeks earlier than Glass Gem -- a little too close despite what I thought was adequately staggered planting. I'm hoping for more blues and greens with translucent kernels.

[ElizabethB]

Beautiful! How are they for eating?

[applestar]

I didn't even try as "green"/sweet corn -- I heard they are no good for that, and I was afraid of prematurely picking potentially "the best looking" ones. I did hear they can be popped, so I will try that later on after they are truly dried, and will also see how they rate grounded up into cornmeal.

[BU54]

WOW I have't seen corn like that since I was a kid. I think we used to call it Indian Corn?

[applestar]

I think "Indian corn" is pretty much a generic term for all multi-colored kernel corn harvested as mature cobs. They actually probably fall into different categories like flint/dent/flour/pop corn.

Some of them are also eaten as immature "green" corn (white or yellow milk-stage before the colors develop) that may not be as sugary sweet as the modern hybrid varieties of sweet corn but have satisfying somewhat sweet "corn" flavor without being starchy.


Here are some of the first cobs that got crossed due to the overlap in pollen shedding period:

In the HBR (Haybale Row) Red stalk variety was Kandy Korn hybrid and green stalk variety was Golden Bantam.

In the Glass Gem patch, the cob from farthest end from the HBR looks pure Glass Gem but the cob on a plant closest to HBR looks more like the others from HBR. -- yes I'm excited about this.

[applestar]

Kandy Korn x Glass Gem -- I had these kernels all jumbled up in a bag, and started sorting them by color then got caught up in the task and how to differentiate the colors with my DD.

-- none of these were that pure lavender or amethyst purple color -- I'm seeing some of those in the Golden Bantam cross though. I also seem to have a lot more of those. I guess Kandy Korn was the earliest variety and I only harvested a couple of crossed cobs.


Golden Bantam x Glass Gem

Golden Bantam x Glass Gem (nominally) -- here they are. I'm wondering if someone can explain the difference in the kernels.... Some are skinny and flat -- I'm thinking like flint corn?, and some are more rounded -- more like pop corn? You can see a couple of the cobs have tiny kernels that reminds me of Cherokee Longear -- is it possible my Golden Bantam had at some point crossed with Cherokee Longear popcorn I had grown in the same season?

For purpose of comparison, here are the first cobs of Glass Gem I harvested that I'm reasonably sure are not crossed:



Some of these might have been crossed by Golden Bantam and/or Kandy Korn, but I can't tell the difference.



And just for your reference, here are some cobs of Cherokee Longear that I still have. You can see some of them had th3 translucent quality similar to Glass Gem

[AnnaIkona]

The corn looks beautiful! have you ever dried the whole corn cob and used it for decoration? Does that work? I would definately do that if that is possible (that is if I ever had corn )

[Mr green]

Thats beautiful corn! How does it taste cooked straight off the comb?

[applestar]

(Golden Bantam x Glass Gem) F1 -- I sorted the kernels from the cob at top right of the group photo in the previous post

[HoneyBerry]

You are quite the fantastical gardener, Applestar. You corn is so beautiful. If only you were my next door neighbor. Most of my neighbors are not of the garden variety. They seem to prefer lawn and weedkillers and football parties over gardening.

Somehow, your corn pictures reminded me of some corn smut that I got for free from a farmer at the local farmer's market. It looked weird, gross actually. It scared me when he pulled back the husk and I saw the black-gray moldy looking growth for the first time. He said that he eats it, that it is a delicacy. In fact, he loves it when he finds it in his corn harvest, like finding treasure. I looked it up and found that it is eaten a delicacy in Mexico. It has a higher protein content than corn, and the amino acid lysine. It was interesting to learn about corn smut.

[applestar]

OK, so looking back at queries about how they taste... I actually haven't eaten any yet. haha. They are soooo beautiful that I didn't want to eat the as "green corn" even though some people have said it's possible thought not like the modern sugary sweet corn. I was going to try popping and grinding, but having been reminded how gorgeous they are, I will have to shell and sort them all, pick out the best ones to save for planting, THEN I can think about --- gasp! -- grinding them into flour, etc.

I have had some of them bunched up by the husks and hanging as decorations.

Since I want to pursue these crosses, I'm learning about how best to organize and label the seed corn, then grow them again and this time maintain purity this season. Apparently, I need to get tools called shoot bags and tassel bags for isolating the silks and collecting the pollen, though if it doesn't rain, I could probably just use a brown paper lunch bag. The specialized bags are treated to be rain resistant -- not sure if they are plasticized or waxed.

Thank you BirdLover for the kind words. I really like growing for the fun of it, and what is more fun than translucent corn in all the colors of the rainbow?

As for smut, I have had some of my corn develop smut before. First time, I was grossed out and tossed it out, but l have been slowly tending towards being adventurous about this, and last year, tried eating one in an omelet. Smut tastes like best kind of mushrooms.

[applestar]

This was in 2014
Subject: 2014 Spiral Garden Garlic Onion Pea Corn Squash Cuke Beet

The squash was harvested by my parents. […]
(Update -- just now talked to them and they said it was slightly immature with many seeds that hadn't plumped up yet, but steamed and served with slaw dressing, it is/was delicious )

I found a smutty corn! It's so WEIRD looking. I recognized it for what it was right away though I never had one like it before. Not sure what to do with it.... (I cut the affected area off and froze it while deciding )

We ate the Sugar Baby watermelon

Haha I guess I DIDN'T throw it away.

[HoneyBerry]

I wonder if it's still in the freezer.

[applestar]

-- the way I DON'T clean my freezers, it would not be surprising if it were. But, no... I think I looked for it and found it last year when I ate the newly found/harvested smut, and I considered supplementing the harvest with it, but there was too much 'snow' in the bag with it to think its freshness was even remotely preserved.