Corn gets a regretful rap these mean solar day . It ’s in everything from breakfast cereal to chase after food to skin maintenance products , so how can it behealthy ?
Well , my champion , it is .
Especially cherubic corn , which is dilute with character , vitamin hundred , folate , thiamine , atomic number 12 , and atomic number 19 , all of which are all-important to human wellness .
Photo by Fanny Slater.
It ’s the processed products you have to follow out for , not garden - grown deliciousness . corn whiskey is , in fact , a whole grain !
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So , say you embed some nutritious maize .
Photo by Fanny Slater.
You ’ve sown the seeds and watched them grow from cute green seedlings all the way into massive , four- to six - foot - grandiloquent stalks , depending on the smorgasbord you planted .
The tassels cross-pollinate the silk with ease . capitulum have explicate into gorgeous cobs .
If it’ssweet Zea mays varietyyou’re growing , you stargaze of peeling back the husk and taking a huge bite of impertinent , utterly delectable kernels .
Yes , you could eat on sweet corn – consider a vegetable in most cases – raw . Yes , I literally just see that .
Or maybe you ’re growing dent corn , which is sort as a texture , to make homegrown tortilla . Or popcorn for your own delicious poppable cobs .
Whatever variety you chose , you ’re quick to harvest … you think .
But you ’re not certain . How can you tell when the maize is ready ? Are there any star sign to look out for ? And if itisready , how do you get the pinna off the shuck ?
In this guide , I ’ll respond all these enquiry .
quick to glean ? Let ’s go !
What You’ll Learn
The Five Types of Corn
Before we get started , you should know that there are five main type of maize that gardeners grow :
The proficient news is that even with five different types of maize available , there are only two main ways to harvest it . And the difference is actually temporal : it ’s all aboutwhenyou harvest .
When to Harvest
For simplicity , I ’ve part the two harvest sentence , or methods , into two sections : Milk River stage and dry .
Milk Stage Harvesting
If you require that sweet , slightly crunchy , godlike - for - jest at corn on the cob , you ’ll require to harvest pinna at the milk stage .
Of the five independent type , preponderantly fresh and occasionally dent sort are harvested at this stage .
The Milk River stage is when the nitty-gritty are filled with milky - sugared sap , and it occur about 18 to 20 Clarence Day after the distaff silk appear …
… and are nothingness - pollinated by the male tassels .
Silking commonly happens around 50 to 65 days after sowing cum , reckon on the variety and develop conditions .
To harvest lemon in the Milk River level , you ’ll need to depart watching it for sign of readiness at around 70 to 80 days after sowing .
Here ’s how to tell : ears will be green and experience full and steadfast when you wrap your hand around them , and the silk will have a dried - out chocolate-brown color .
To be totally sure the kernel are ready , gently launch the leaves and stick your fingernail inside a kernel . You should see sweet , milky sap – not a clear , watery liquid state .
If you see the former , you ’re good to reap . But if it ’s watery , just cover the meat back up and give the spike a few more days to maturate .
To reap the ear , spellbind them with your paw and gently twist or flex them downward until they break off from the stalk .
Like summertime - lovers everywhere , you’re able to then blackguard the black-backed gull on the grill and slather them with butter and saltiness .
Or , you experience , just eat them in the altogether straight from the garden . I absolutely plan to taste this when my angelical corn reaches the milk stage this twelvemonth .
You ’ll desire to consume or preserve gratifying corn within six time of day after picking for the best tone .
In the day after you harvest the Indian corn , the pelf graduallyturn to starch , cause them to become less sweet and more tough .
If you do settle to hive away it for a few days before eating it brisk , leave it in the husk , enclose it in damp paper towels to preserve the wet , and refrigerate for up to four days .
To preserve the fresh essence for ulterior use , you may either :
Blanch auricle in simmering piss for three minutes , have them cool , and then cut the gist off the cob at a depth of 3/4 of the kernel .
Then , freeze them in a pliant zip - top bag or airtight container , or imperativeness can the kernels .
For skim off clavus , reduplicate the above process but cut the kernel off at half of their depth so you do n’t get the sturdy nucleotide of the kernels .
Then scrape the rest of the corn off the cob and immix it in with the cut kernels .
To freeze Indian corn on the cob , boiling point ears for seven to 11 minutes , depending on their size of it ( seven moment for smaller ears , nine for average cobs , and 11 for the biggest ones ) and then cool down them in an ice bath .
Cut into four- to six - inch small-arm and store in the deep-freeze in airtight containers .
flash-frozen corn will keep in the freezer for about 12 months .
Dry Harvesting
For Zea mays everta , flint , flour , and dent varieties , most growers wait until the kernels are completely dry before harvest .
That ’s because popcorn needs a moisture degree of 13 to 14 percentage to give it that pure pop .
Flint , flour , and dent cobs are either used for palm , feed to livestock , or ground into cornmeal or flour .
This maturing and drying process ordinarily takes about 110 to 120 days .
But it ’s deserving the wait ! Plus , it ’s pretty easy .
All you have to do is look for the maize to dry completely . The chaff , silks , and tassels will all be brown .
The sum should palpate rock’n’roll - firmly , but too much or too little moisture can result in poor popping .
To essay this , scrape off a twosome of substance and try popping them in the microwave or in a pot on the stove . If the popped pith are too rubbery when you sting into them , or they have jag edges , they ’re not ready .
If you ’re really serious about your popcorn , you could test the wet levels with this method :
grate up some heart and soul into a harsh flour , and weigh it . Then dry out it in the oven at 250 ° F for three hours , and weigh it again .
Then subtract the dry out weight from the original exercising weight and part it by the original weightiness to find the portion of moisture in the popcorn .
Then you ’ll cognize whether it needs to be lead to dry out for a minuscule longer .
When the popped kernels taste light and find crisp on your natural language , take out the hazelnut off the cash in one’s chips stalks and use a butter knife to scrape the kernels into a roll .
you could put in the popcorn in an airtight container for up to two year , in a cool , dry place .
For popping command , see this scrumptious formula for salt honey butter Zea mays everta onour sister site , Foodal .
To grind flour or dent corn into cornmeal , stick it in your mellow - speed liquidizer or food processor and grind to your trust body , or get out the cereal manufactory . Do n’t have one ? Pick your favorite from thisreview of the right countertop grain mills on Foodal .
( I ’ve done this several times with dried dent corn in my Blendtec because I screw Indian meal mush , which is similar to polenta or hominy grits . )
Keep Indian meal in an airtight container in the freezer for up to two years , in the electric refrigerator for up to 18 month , or in the pantry for up to a year .
Then bake these delicious lemon cornmeal cookies , also from Foodal , with whole caryopsis Zea mays flour you grew in your own garden .
How nerveless is that ?
A Corny Imagination
When you ’ve grown and harvested your maize , there are about a bazillion different way to prepare it . I screw thiscilantro calcined lime grilled edible corn from Foodal , especially atop avocado pledge .
permit your creativity lead you . Grown fresh in your garden , this cereal / vegetable add a solid layer of nutrition and delight to your diet .
And remember to check out these article for more selective information aboutgrowing maize in your gardennext :
Photos by Fanny Slater and Meghan Yager © Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more details . primitively published on June 28th , 2020 . Last updated July 29th , 2023 . Uncredited photos : Shutterstock .
About
Laura Ojeda Melchor
