This year I am growing blue corn also called Hopi maize! What I have is called 'Six Nations Blue, Long Eared Variant'. It's not really a new thing. Blue corn is a very old heirloom, grown by the Hopi and Aztec natives for hundreds of years. Isn't it amazing how the old things are coming back and they're better than the new generation foods!
Heirloom organic blue corn has 20% more protein, less sugar with a lower glycemic index. The blue colouring is due to the presence of anthocyanins in the corn. These are the same health promoting compounds found purple berries and red wine. It is ground into flour and used as feed for animals. It doesn't have the sweet, tender taste that we are used to in the new corn hybrids. Is that a good thing? The new hybrids are all sugar.
20% more protein is amazing! So much better for egg production in chickens, meat building in pigs and cows, milk production in dairy! It's also better for us! With less sugar and more protein it can be part of the diet of someone with blood sugar problems.
Here are some more facts that I have discovered when researching blue corn:
Blue corn has 20% more protein and 8% less starch. It has more lysine, zinc and iron than today's yellow hybrids.
Cooking with blue corn:
Blue corn meal is milled dry blue corn. Blue corn masa harina has been roasted before milling.
Blue Corn Pancakes
Yield : Makes about 25 small pancakes
Ingredients
1½ cups blue cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1½ cups milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
Unsalted butter, for the griddle
Directions
Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add the eggs, milk, and butter and mix thoroughly. Cook the pancakes on a hot, buttered grill or skillet, using 2 tablespoons of batter for each pancake. Keep the pancakes warm in a low oven until ready to serve.
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Blue Corn Cornbread
Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9x9 inch pan of cornbread
Ingredients
1 cup blue cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
Directions
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Sift 3 times.
Stir the eggs and milk into the cornmeal mixture. Place the butter in the prepared baking dish, and melt in the preheated oven. Mix hot, melted butter into the cornmeal mixture. Transfer cornmeal mixture to the prepared baking dish.
Bake on center rack in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the edges of the cornbread pull away from the sides of the dish, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before cutting.
If all goes well, I will have these heirloom, organic blue corn seeds for sale this fall!
Most of the planting has been done for this year! I still have some tiny seedlings too small for the garden yet, but on the whole, most things are out there. The seedlings that I still have potted are mostly herbs and baby grapevines for the upcoming vineyard and a
few perennials.
We have cut back on the vegetables we are growing, wanting to use that time and space for other, more interesting things. We've added a lot more berries this spring and more herbs too and will soon be installing a vineyard for our new 'Valiant' grape vines.
Here is a comprehensive list of what we have planted this year. I am sure there are a few things that I have forgotten. I will be writing future posts throughout the summer to introduce you to a few rare and new things on this list.
Squash:
Hopi black (our favourite)I planted 14 of these plants!
Hopi pale gray
Turk's cap
Sweet dumpling
Upper ground sweet potato squash (Grows in the poorest soil and conditions!)
Tomatoes:
Our Portugal beefhearts
San Marzano
Ailsa Craig
Manitoba
Rev Morrow long keeper
Gordon Graham original world's largest tomato seeds (Only 1 plant growing)
Beans:
Yellow wax beans bush
Kentucky Wonder yellow pole beans
Scarlet runners
Stringless blue lake green pole
Gold of Bacau yellow pole
French Duet pole
Dow Gauk yard long green
Gradma's Mushroom beans pole
Peppers:
Bells red, orange, dark purple
Mixed mini bells
Giant green bell
White Habanero hot
Red cheese sweeet
Feherozon
Lipstick Sweet
Jimmy Nardello
Corbaci sweet
Only the bells are big enough for the garden yet. Hopefully I will get peppers from the others this year. We need some heat! I want them for seed sales!
Others: (Up and growing)
Sweet peas
Blue native organic corn (For ginding and fodder. Has 28% more protein!)
Tobacco Virginia Gold
Cantaloupe (14 of these plants. Wine!)
Giant watermelon (Only 3 came up :-(
Large globe onions
Ground cherries
Spinach
Lettuce
Basil
Parsley
Catnip
Thyme
Lemon balm
Cilantro
Oregano
Celery
Rosemary
Flax
Quinoa
Chia
Lavender Muntead
Stevia (Only one came up)
Impatiens glandulifera
Planted but not up yet:
Haskap honeyberries
Cranberries
Blueberries
Hostas mixed
Lupins
Sea Buckthorn
Black currant
Jacob's ladder
Rugosa roses
Stevia
Purple leaf sand cherry
Amaranth intense purple
Amaranth red
Chichiquelites (Garden huckleberry)
Perennials and herbs still growing in our gardens: (not ornamentals)
Rhubarb
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
Gooseberries
Haskap honeyberries
Black mulberry
Black elderberry
Saskatoon berry
Black Currant
Green onions, scallions
Thyme
Oregano
Chives
Garlic Chives
Mint
Lemon Mint
Hibiscus
Comfrey
Red Bee Balm
Echinecea
St.Johns wort
Wild Evening primrose
Red clover
Motherwort
Feverfew
Chicory
Lappa Burdock (Close relative of the artichoke. Taste like them too!)
Heal all
Boneset
Yarrow white and red
Many of the medicinal herbs at the end of the list are not grown in the kitchen herb garden, but are planted in a space to themselves, where I leave them to do their own thing most of the time. The grass and weeds don't seem to bother them. They actually do better if left alone to grow wild, so I don't coddle them.
This is a fairly comprehensive list. As you can see, we have little room for much in the way of plain old ordinary vegetables! No zucchini this year. We just don't eat it often enough to grow it. No garlic either. It is always on my list of things I want to grow, but in the fall when it needs to be planted, I am busy and tired of gardening. Maybe this year, in October, I will plant some. No potatoes or carrots. Both of these grow on local farms nearby so are cheap and plentiful in the fall. No sweet potatoes this year. I grew them last year but decided that they weren't worth the time and effort.
Spinach and asparagus! I know it's not much but it's still spring here.
I have been cutting the rhubarb and freezing it. I'm hoping to get enough this year to make five gallons of rhubarb wine!
We do have many flowers in bloom now too!
Things are growing!
