Farmer's Market Flint Corn

by Rory Siegel

Title

Farmer's Market Flint Corn

Artist

Rory Siegel

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

A time of gathering...both of crops and people, celebrating all the long work of Spring and Summer, this beautiful Indian Corn (also known as "Flint" corn) is a wonderful symbol for the bounty of Fall Harvest. This was taken last Sunday at the Yelm Farmer's Market which moved for it's last month of the season further back on the farm property so that it was very close to the Corn Maze. It was a lot of fun watching all the families head into the maze!

Flint corn, (Zea mays indurata; also known in most countries as Indian corn or sometimes calico corn) is the same species as Indian corn, but a different variant of maize (var. Linnaeus). Because each kernel has a hard outer layer to protect the soft endosperm, it is likened to being hard as flint; hence the name.

With less soft starch than dent corn (Zea mays indentata), flint corn does not have the dents in each kernel from which dent corn gets its name. This is one of the three types of corn cultivated by Native Americans, both in New England and across the northern tier, including by tribes such as the Pawnee on the Great Plains. Archeologists have found evidence of such corn cultivation by the Pawnee and others since at least 1250 AD. Cultivation of corn occurred hundreds of years earlier among the Mississippian culture people, whose civilization arose based on population density and trade because of surplus corn crops.

TOP FINISHER in the Thanksgiving Contest, November 2013.

Uploaded

October 17th, 2013

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