open-pollinated popcorn

[Guest guest]

Popcorn has approximately zero appeal to me, as it's hopelessly

unremarkable plain and if the idea is to provide a delivery system

for salt and butter, then I can find plenty of far more appealing

ways to indulge in these substances, like a good rich curry. In any

case, this afternoon I was visiting one of my nearby farmer friends,

who does a bit of ad-hoc retailing as an adjunct to his grass-roots

milk/meat/eggs/veggies operation, and he was enthusing about some

open-pollinated popcorn kernels he had gotten a supply of. Being a

good sport and always looking to try new things, I got some to

sample. I've grown fond of sampling his occasional oddball non-self-

produced offerings, like authentic kombucha, kvass, etc. He said his

wife usually heats up some lard to pop them, but lacking lard I took

a chunk of cow kidney fat (which I had never tried cooked before,

always just tossed raw in salads) I had on hand, which seemed to fit

the bill. My first batch was fairly unsuccessful with a low

puffiness quotient and quite a few unpopped kernels, but I believe it

was due to using too low a temperature, and I tried another batch

with a bit more flame and was fully successful. I also tried a batch

with some of the unrefined sesame oil that I've had untouched in the

fridge for several years and was the sole survivor of my early-NT

cooking oil purge. I can't report much difference in flavor between

the two fats, but I slightly preferred the kidney fat flavor in this

case. Even though I'm rather fond of the sesame flavor, it was

hardly detectable in this diluted form. I'm not exactly gushing

with enthusiasm here, and I certainly am not a popcorn convert, but

it was pleasant enough--probably of noticeable quality to popcorn

aficionados--and now I've got this bag on hand I can use for guests

or for giving away. To be honest, I'd be perfectly happy if every

corn plant in the world was destroyed forever, but at least this is

an open-pollinated heirloom breed that must be far superior to

typical corn. Realizing that others find popcorn more appealing

than me, especially parents looking for acceptable snack foods for

their kids, which is an NT recommendation, I figured this matter is

at least worth mentioning. The farmer also mentioned to me he has

to buy it by the ton and would love mail-order customers, so I'd be

happy to make the connection for anyone who wants to email me off-

list. I have a piece of paper that says " Bontreger's Family Farms

Ladyfinger Popcorn (tender - very small - Hull-less) "

What interests me most is the general theoretical import of the short

photocopied and unreferenced article the farmer passed on to me as a

sort of justification for this new dalliance. (I pasted it below.)

Certainly relevant to the general issue of plant breeding. Of

course, I hasten to point out that regardless of how nutritious the

corn is, this article only begs the issue of feeding animals any corn

in the first place...

Feeling a little strange that I just ate one of the three most evil

foods in the world,

Mike

SE Pennsylvania

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OPEN POLLINATION

Some of the sucesses that have attended corn productin may have been

the reuslt of distorted accounting procedures. In terms of

nutrients, open pollinated still has an enviable record. Adolph

Steinbronn of Fairbanks, Iowa put the matter in perspective by having

two samples of corn tested for ingredients usually added to

commercial feeds. One was a sample of hybrids he had grown. The

other was OP corn. The OP corn contained 19% more crude protein, 35%

more digestible protein, 60% more copper, 27% more iron and 25% more

manganese.

Compared to some 4,000 samples of corn tested in ten midwest

states in a single year, Steinbronn's OP corn contained 75% more

crude protein, 875% more copper, 345% more iron, and 205% more

manganese. The same trend has also been seen in the content of

calcium, sodiium, magnesium and zinc. It can therefore be said that

OP corn could contain an average of over 400% more of these

nutrients.

Ernest M. Halbleib of McNabb, Illinois confirmed the failure

of hybrid corn to uptake certain mineral nutrients. In comparing

Krug OP corn and a hybrid in the laboratory of Armour's Institute of

Research, Chicago, spectrographic testing revealed the hybrid short

of nine minerals. The hybrid failed to pick up cobalt and any other

trace minerals. Both varieties had the same chance to pick up a

balanced ration.

" The reason I mentioned cobalt, " wrote Halbleib, " is that we

found (on the 16 fams in test) that no hybrid picked up cobalt, and

in all the tests the hybrid was short seven to nine minerals, always

ehibiting a failure to pick up cobalt. "

The core of vitamin B-12 is cobalt. Ira , .M.D., and

others have found that a lack of cobalt is implicated as a cause of

brucellosis and undulant fever, and cobalt is part of the cure.

In the opinion of many eco-farmers, hybrid corn merely masks

poor farming by producing bins and bushels without the nutrient

goodies that are really corn's reason for being.

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