Simply Corn

      More Letters From Paradise
            Simply Corn
Everything can, and does grow here in Hawaii. And very few species are native. Corn is one of those plants that was brought here.

I recently went up to the North Shore at the top of our island of Oahu, with my friend Ray in  his jeep. We stopped, and I bought some sweet corn. This is called Kuhuku corn and the ears are small,six to eight inches long, and a cob no bigger than your thumb.   Six trimmed ears in a gallon bag for $10.00. Very expensive, and these were tough. I was very upset. I remember back in the 1970's when I was farming for market. I received $2.00 wholesale for a burlap bag (gunny sack) of five dozen. I soon got wise and went retail and was paid $2.00 a dozen. That was more like it. Here in Honolulu a single ear of corn can cost 89cents an ear! I should also note that the orientals and Hawaiians trim the top of each ear and it  dries out. Oh well.

I once grew acres of sweet corn. If you could bring sweet corn to market by the 4th of July you could really make some money. This did not happen often due to the changing Michigan weather. Also, bags of sweet corn in a loaded truck can heat. So you pick it late and leave early for market.

Just for the hell of it I grew some Incan corn which is colored red,blue and yellow. It is often used for fall decorations. I also planted some Indian popcorn, small blue colored ears. I also planted some Zulu maize from South Africa. Ears half the length of your arm, with each kernel the size of a thumb nail, and as round as a hand grenade. This was not sweet corn, but was meant to be ground for meal.

In the 19th century farmers would select some of their best ears of field corn to be used for planting in the spring. The ears would be stuck of spikes of an iron rod, made by a blacksmith, and hung up high away from rats. When spring came, the corn would be  put through a hand-cranked sheller which tore the corn from the cob, and the kernels would fall in a basket or box. The clean cob would come out the other end. This was all open pollinated corn. You can't do this with today's hybrid corn.

Corn meal is often ground on a stone slab with another stone, or the kernels are pounded. This is still done in some parts of the world. I bought a Molina hand mill, which is used throughout South America. It looks just like a hand cranked food mill except it has burrs that come together and grind the kernels as they are fed into the top of the mill. It produces fine corn meal and when used with wheat, fine flour too. The mill was taken to an elementary class and the kids ground some corn, and then made muffins. A big hit!

I could go on and write about corn planters and how they work, hunger signs in corn plants etc. But I doubt that city people are much interested this stuff. Anyway, this is enough for now.

      Aloha
      Grant