You know your garden has really gone to seed when...

[curly_kate]

You find SMUT in the garden!!!! I'm so embarrassed that my corn has such deplorable morals!!

I had never seen corn smut before, and frankly I was a bit scared of it at first. But thanks to Google, nothing is a mystery for long. AND I learned that it is a delicacy in Mexico! Really, who would have looked at that and said, "Hm, I wonder what that tastes like?" :/

 

[digitS']

About the only commercial ag fields within a couple miles of my larger veggie garden grow alfalfa, wheat, pumpkins & sweet corn. Oh, there's a guy down the road who has a couple acres of summer squash each year.

Anyway, the alfalfa may be the source of 99% of the leafhoppers/spittlebugs that show up each year but the sweetcorn acres can be a smut problem. Fortunately, the last few years, the field across the road has been planted to pumpkins and there hasn't been any smut trafficking in my corn patch.

:/

I think it is the infected corn kernels that are harvested for food use. Don't forget that corn originated in the central valley of Mexico, Kate. Folks there may know more about its usefulness than the rest of us . . . or, I may be hallucinating from inhaling the ergot in the winter rye I've grown as a cover crop

.

Steve

 

[journey11]

I've seen that in my corn before, but never thought to ask what it was.

 

[897tgigvib]

Eeeeyeeeeyuuu

yep, some things make me say that.

How would a person know they have that in their corn before harvest?

 

[Smart Red]

Yup! I've grown smut before, too. It may be delicious - I'll never know - but I would have preferred corn on the cob to smut.

I knew my garden had really gone to seed when DH posted a sign reading "NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR GARDEN BEYOND THIS SPOT". Lest you question my gardening abilities, it was Mom and Dad's side of the garden that needed either their attention or a mowing.

Love, Smart Red

 

[hoodat]

I've never tried it but corn smut is said to taste like truffles.

 

[lesa]

So funny! I was horrified when I found this in my corn field. A farmer told me it was "smut". I read the same thing about it being tasty. I can assure you, I wouldn't know!!

 

[897tgigvib]

There are some things that "they" can claim is tasty and delicious until the cows come home, but shall never pass my lips. They can give snails the fanciest french parisian name they like, but it's still a snail, and the same for frog's legs. No way am I eating an octopus. Call me as crude as you like. Not even possible for me to eat smut. I mean, they even call it smut. Bleeyuxcxch! And when I lived in Montana, "they" all told me of the of the male parts of sheep being deep fried. Sceeyuze me but not for me no thank you. My dad and uncle liked them. "They" even have a testicle festival in one town there. I never went. Some like their pizza with fish on it. One or the other, but not together.

I don't see much tv, but there used to be a show with some special agent kind of guy who let himself get dropped by parachute to the middle of nowhere kindsof places like the jungles of Borneo. I guess there was someone with a camera too, anyhow, this feller then proceeded to live off the land by hits wits and always managed to find his way to some friendly natives who lived in a simple hut. On the meantime during his treks he ate things like scorpions raw. That would always be my cue to volunteer to clean the dishes or something. I could hear his crunching and saying things like not bad, and be sure to pinch off the stinger first. I'm thinking the cameraman had some snickers. He wasn't the famous guy getting paid a fortune to do that. Ya know, haven't heard much about that show lately. Suppose he's doing some trek that'll take him 10 years to get out of? Maybe they dropped him of on Gilligan's island.

I'd guess that guy might like smut.

 

[digitS']

Marshall, I was trained academically as an anthropologist, altho' I only briefly worked at a job for which my training was any qualification. Someone once said that an anthropologist is a social scientist who does not believe in the germ theory of disease . . .

It isn't so much of not believing as sometimes behaving as tho' one doesn't. And, one soon finds that there are some very high standards of sanitation that may still apply in a kitchen where unusual foods are prepared. Unusual to western eyes, that is.

I probably became inoculated with all sorts of probiotics interacting with people of different cultures. That interaction was one of the joys of my life. The probiotics were just in the gravy . .

I have eaten most of the things you consider off-limits. NO scorpions, however!

One thing that has upset me, in a non-digestive sort of way, are ideas on "proper diet" that are just pulled out of the air. Still, everyone has their food likes & dislikes and avoidance. I don't feel that it would make sense to sample every mushroom that I come across, for example. I also get a little queasy when I see someone overdo a hot pepper experience :/. Not going over that cliff . . .

Some of this avoidance has been imparted by parents and the society around us. Some make good sense in a scientific way. Frog legs taste like chicken . . .

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Frog legs taste like chicken . . . Steve

I sure never tasted chicken when I chowed down on bullfrog legs as a child. They are a delicious memory of past years. The thought of bullfrog legs harvested from the creek with Uncle Doug's 22, the yearly smelt run, and the town's annual turtle chowder dinner bring me back to the days of my youth. Such is the food of the gods!

In an attempt to recapture my youth, I once ordered African frog legs. Yuck! Tasted like expensive chicken.

Love, Smart Red