I didn’t want to step on Fruitnut’s comment about sweet corn (what’s happening today thread), as I can’t wait to see the tassles waving in the breeze of his greenhouse! My question is about Popcorn. I purchased quite a few packages of seeds from Baker Creek this year and included are ‘black-hulled’ popcorn. Before I can plant it has anyone grown popcorn and eaten it? Is it good and worth while? I thought it would be fun. Is there a better variety? Thanks!
Mrsg I used to grow popcorn all the time when I was a kid. My dad gave me a small section of garden to plant whatever I wanted. I chose popcorn. If you can grow sweetcorn you can grow popcorn. It is delicious. We used to have a whirl pop stoves top popper and it made fantastic popcorn. It is easy to shuck and the other added benefit is that it’s extremely decorative. You can peal back the husks to expose the popcorn. My mom used it in her crafts all the time. Was great around halloween.
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Excellent, thanks so much speedster, I’ll have to learn how to dry it. How great! This will be great fun!
You might have too much humidity with all that water near you, but I’ve dried corn by leaving it on the cob, pealing back the shucks, and just hanging it.
Thanks Muddy, I’ll look into just hanging it in the attic.
I tried to grow it 3 times, though none too recently 3+ years ago. The first year (“Dutch White popcorn”), something ate it all (Raccoon?), the 2nd I had almost no germination of the year old seed. Then, the 3rd year, I got a few ears of “Japanese hull-less white” popcorn. I think it was half a dozen or so. It turned into maybe 2 batches of popcorn and while good, it wasn’t earth-shattering.
So since I haven’t had a great track record of growing it, I’ve taken to buying it on Amazon. Recently, I finished the 18lbs I bought a few years ago and ordered another 4 varieties.
From a few years ago:
Wabash Valley Farms Amish Country, Sweet Baby Blue (18 lbs)- Very good, possibly my favorite. Interesting flavor, almost nutty. Smaller kernels and even the partially popped ones are good to crunch on.
Snappy White Popcorn (4 lbs)- OK, but a bit blander to my taste. My mom really liked this one and said that the kernels didn’t get caught in her teeth.
From the last week (in order of my preference):
Hoosier Hill Farm, Persian Blue (1.5 lbs)- I need to do a side by side comparison of this and Sweet Baby Blue. Both are really good and similar in terms of size.
Hoosier Hill Farm, Ruby Red (1.5 lbs)- Not far off the Persian Blue. I’ll definitely do a side by side soon.
Amish Country, Baby White (2 lbs)- Similar or better texture to the Ruby Red (I compared both with Mushroom, earlier tonight). But not as much flavor. A very light, almost crisp/crunchy texture.
Hoosier Hill Farm, Mushroom (1.5 lbs)- Absolutely huge kernels. This is most distinct from all the others. A yellow color. Interesting almost chewier texture. I’m not that fond of the taste, but this was both the kid’s favorite.
Here’s a pic, with Ruby Red on the left and Mushroom on the right. This was the un-buttered bowl for my wife, who tried both and went “eh, they’re both fine”, even though I thought that they were among the most distinct.
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mrsg, when the popcorn is ready for harvest it is very hard. You can shuck it and it only needs to hang a few weeks if at all. I remember the first time I ever picked mine I think my dad popped it later that night. I remember we all loved it. I had so much popcorn that first summer I gave a bunch to my aunts and uncles.
We grew a small patch of Dutch Butter Flavored popcorn this year. We let it mostly dry on the stalks, then for varying amounts of time off the plant inside. Didn’t really pop all that well, even after my attempts at adjusting the moisture content. But we got a surprising amount of popcorn from a small area in a not particularly good growing spot. And even the unpopped kernels are pretty good; not like the rock hard unpopped kernels of commercial popcorn (which I’ve read is usually Japanese Hull-less). Given the propensity to not exactly pop, but instead to open up and expand a little, I’ve been happy thinking of it as “corn snack” rather than popcorn.
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Oh, I did a more detailed write up on our popcorn experience with more pics here:
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I’m going to go ahead and throw out that due to harder shells and less sugar, popcorn seems a little more resistant to pest pressure to me. I have FAILED to grow sweet corn, and successfully grown enough popcorn for Halloween and harvest decorations and made a delicious corn bread from it in the same year.
Holly, first of all, what beautiful children! I am so glad you also see the humor in growing your own popcorn. Bet the children loved it!
Bob, good looking popcorn! I’ll be a fairly biased judge and I think everything I grow is due to a miracle! The ‘mushroom’ corn is particularly beautiful and what large bits. Really great, thanks for the enouragement to try this.
Sometimes you just don’t know! You have made a lot with corn. I am a total newbie at this. I’ll take pics! Thanks for your comments.
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Make sure it has enough time to completely dry before putting the corn into an airtight container. My daughters and now my grands have planted popcorn for many years. Not only is it great tasting but the Grands have a great time planting and picking . Most of all they like sharing the popcorn with their mothers of which they did the same thing when they were children.
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What a great comment! Thank you Auburn.
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Thanks mrsg! The kids did like it. There was actually a little competition over how many ears each kid would have the chance to pick the kernels from. And they thought it was awesome to put some frozen herrings were were getting rid of under each group of seed when we planted it (don’t think it did much good, since this spot is probably more limited by sun than nutrients).
The herrings worked their magic though! What fun.
