A Seed Saver's Garden

[Branching Out]

Our son loved I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore as well. Each summer a new book in the series would come out, and he would request a trip to the book store to purchase it. Then we wouldn't see him for a few hours, while he finished it. He describes it as follows: 'Its about an alien race that has superpowers, and they are being hunted by another alien race. That was a fun series.'

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Nobody along the Silk Road knew about the Americas.

That's no longer as definite as they thought. Certainly, there was no REGULAR contact between Asia and the New World. But there ARE the odd fragment or two indicating that the occasional exploratory expedition may have landed there. In particular Kublai Khan sent out a MASSIVE expedition fleet they think may have seen both Australia and Chile. One of the best proofs of this are the araucaria chickens, which were in South America BEFORE the Europeans arrived. There is also a Chinese document from around 1300 that seems to show maize (and many Chinese claim they had maize for centuries before the Europeans could have introduced it). There are also Olmec statues of heads with both Mediterranean and African features, a Roman statue they dug up in Mexico, a whole sunken Roman ship filled with amphorae off the coast of Brazil (the so called Bay of Jars) and Egyptian mummies that have tested positive for both tobacco and cocaine (though those are in some doubt, they can't agree on whether they were contaminated or not.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Corn! Still can't believe I haven't decided which one yet. There's still time. Definitely going to be a popcorn...but which color...

'Blue Popcorn'

'Cherokee Longear'

'Floriani Flint' - just because

This one is not a popcorn, but a super rare Canadian corn rescued from Quebec. The story - a renowned seed saver named Mr. D'Avignon reached out on a Quebec radio show to listeners, asking if anyone knew/remembered/had a white corn variety from when they were a child. He was looking for a particular corn that was ubiquitous in Quebec households long ago, that had been grown and ground up for flour. He felt it was possible this corn had disappeared as flour corns had not been grown for so many years in Quebec. Well, one elderly lady called the radio station and told them she still had this corn, her family had never stopped growing it. Several generations of her family had kept it going. She shared seed with Mr. D'Avignon. A friend of Mr. D'Avignon, knowing he had this rare seed, asked to have some of it. He reluctantly gave her 6 seeds. She grew out the corn, and unfortunately Mr. Avignon passed away, leaving her the last seeds to have a chance to be disseminated. This lady eventually contacted someone at Seeds of Diversity, and shared the corn with the SoDC volunteer. Eventually this volunteer started up an online seed company and sold this corn that she had been multiplying over the years - which is where I got it.

'Canadian White'

 

[Jack Holloway]

@heirloomgal not to add to your which corn to grow conundrum, but I sent you a pack of corn seed (Double Red, if I remember correctly) as well. I hope you get the package soon! I mailed it a week ago today.

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal not to add to your which corn to grow conundrum, but I sent you a pack of corn seed (Double Red, if I remember correctly) as well. I hope you get the package soon! I mailed it a week ago today.

Me--->

 

[flowerbug]

Corn! Still can't believe I haven't decided which one yet. There's still time. Definitely going to be a popcorn...but which color...

'Blue Popcorn'
View attachment 54872


'Cherokee Longear'
View attachment 54871

'Floriani Flint' - just because
View attachment 54874

This one is not a popcorn, but a super rare Canadian corn rescued from Quebec. The story - a renowned seed saver named Mr. D'Avignon reached out on a Quebec radio show to listeners, asking if anyone knew/remembered/had a white corn variety from when they were a child. He was looking for a particular corn that was ubiquitous in Quebec households long ago, that had been grown and ground up for flour. He felt it was possible this corn had disappeared as flour corns had not been grown for so many years in Quebec. Well, one elderly lady called the radio station and told them she still had this corn, her family had never stopped growing it. Several generations of her family had kept it going. She shared seed with Mr. D'Avignon. A friend of Mr. D'Avignon, knowing he had this rare seed, asked to have some of it. He reluctantly gave her 6 seeds. She grew out the corn, and unfortunately Mr. Avignon passed away, leaving her the last seeds to have a chance to be disseminated. This lady eventually contacted someone at Seeds of Diversity, and shared the corn with the SoDC volunteer. Eventually this volunteer started up an online seed company and sold this corn that she had been multiplying over the years - which is where I got it.

'Canadian White'
View attachment 54873

yay! beautiful and also back on topic. haha! it makes me sad to see such beautiful things i can't really grow here without them likely being shredded by raccoons. even with fences it's just never been a good thing when we've grown corn. i'd need a much better fence and electric shock troops/wire. we need that already as it is with the deer and not enough fence up.

 

[ducks4you]

Glad we are back on topic.
BUT, no Europeans, who wanted cheap peppercorns, knew about the Americas. We know about the Polynesians travelling across the southern Pacific and Asians who shared cultures.
@heirloomgal , how can you tell by the seeds that these are popcorn?

 

[heirloomgal]

yay! beautiful and also back on topic. haha! it makes me sad to see such beautiful things i can't really grow here without them likely being shredded by raccoons. even with fences it's just never been a good thing when we've grown corn. i'd need a much better fence and electric shock troops/wire. we need that already as it is with the deer and not enough fence up.

I'm sad for you too but the good news @flowerbug is that while corn is an extremely productive plant, and it packs a wallop of calories if you need them, it's nutritional profile is very, very poor compared to other garden crops. Starch calories, basically. Pretty to look at, tasty too, but not that good for you.

 

[heirloomgal]

Glad we are back on topic.
BUT, no Europeans, who wanted cheap peppercorns, knew about the Americas. We know about the Polynesians travelling across the southern Pacific and Asians who shared cultures.
@heirloomgal , how can you tell by the seeds that these are popcorn?

Popcorn seeds tend to be small, and usually very, very pretty - smooth without imperfections or wrinkles like sweet corn or dent corn. Flour corns are smooth too, but usually they are bigger.

Sweet corn seeds look terrible! lol

Here is a pic of 'Rose Potpourri' sweet corn, it's a good fit name wise, but not nice looking like popcorn.

 

[Jack Holloway]

Here is a pic of 'Rose Potpourri' sweet corn, it's a good fit name wise, but not nice looking like popcorn.

And when I googled 'Rose Potpourri' sweet corn I discover this:

Developed by breeder Alan Kapular of Peace Seeds. We changed the name from Red Sweet Corn to Rose Potpourri since there are many hues of red.

Another company changing the name to confuse us all.