A Crop That Could SAVE Your LIFE If Times Get Tough!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 жов 2020
- If you have a smaller area to grow food or even if you have a large area this is one of the top producers of calories in temperate regions of the world. But be careful not to only eat it and get the associated disease.
Patreon / healthandhomestead
Have you heard about the three sisters? Corn, pumpkin and beans. If you have good soil/enough compost you could plant them together and they won't compete between each other because they grow roots at different depths.
Great class, thanks! 👏
And you plant the sisters at different times so the corn provides a stalk for the CLIMBING BEANS then the SQUASH OR PUMPKIN SEEDS A FEW DAYS LATER SO THEY DON'T OVER SHADE THE BEAN PLANTS
As I understand Native Indians grew squash, corn & beans together. Reasoning is squash leaves are large & prevented weeds from growing. Beans grew up the corn stalk. Don't know about the root system theory.
Corn, squash and beans.
@@Mooseman327 we call squash pumpkin where I live.
sometimes they would plant Sunflowers with the Three Sisters for a Fourth Sister
It's PellAgra and you missed out the most interesting bit, the bit that Europeans didn't pick up on when they were shown corn by native Americans. If you add lime or wood ash to the boiling water it breaks down the corn more thoroughly and releases the vitamin B3. At this point it is called Hominy. Every Mexican supermarket sells bottles of "Cal" which is basically calcium hydroxide which they add to the water when cooking. Also interesting, to me anyway, is that only if you put corn through this process can you make a dough out of the meal. You can make corn bread with unprocessed meal but you'll struggle with tortillas. The process is called nixtamalisation.
And it also makes other nutrients more bioavailable!
Fascinating. 👍
Very interesting information.
Excellent above reply , I have copied it
Even modern doctors don’t k JW about this method of cooking and using corn
I will adhere to it from now on
I wonder if the channel owner reads the comments. This one is fundamental, now I understand why he is not talking about tortillas, our staple food (or tamales, rosquillas, bizcocho, etc). Thanks for the explanation.
According to Frederick Douglass in My Bondage and My Freedom the Slaves on the plantation he came from ate their corn in the form of cakes cooked in the ashes. The inclusion of ashes in their corn cakes unlocked the niacin in corn and protected them from pellegra. In Mexico where maize was domesticated maize is processed with cal (agricultural lime) this is called nixtamalization. Both processes unlock the niacin and protect the eater from pellegra.
In addition corn smuts, a fungal disease of maize is rich in the amino acid that maize has little of. The corn smuts are edible, and tasty. They are sold as Huitlacoche or Cuitlacoche.
That's what masa is, corn meal soaked in lime water, same as hominy. This frees up the niacin.
Well now, where can I find some of this smut?
@@skaldlouiscyphre2453 good luck , I've found it canned at a Hispanic market 1 time and a sweet corn grower near me had some but the migrant ladies had bought it all up
Hominy grits.
very interesting and insightful. Having had Hominy though i can attest that it tastes crappy. The ashcakes idea is cool though.
Hi! Kenyan here. I love the quality of your videos btw. Corn here is typically called maize and is a staple food here in Kenya. We use it to make ugali, which is eaten almost every single day. Fills you up well and is very healthy. God bless you!
Recipe please 🙏
@@angv2997 for 1 serving:
✨ Boil a cup of water in a cooking pot
✨ Slowly add some maize/corn flour as you stir (be careful because it tends to bubble up and spew hot liquid)
✨ Stir and add until the mixture is no longer liquid,( I can't find the word to describe that kind of consistency) and shape it into a nice round shape.
✨Reduce heat to minimum and cover it with a lid, let it cook (the secret is to let it cook until it just starts burning)
✨ Turn the cake upside down on a plate, and eat with a delicious stew and cooked veggies.
I think you should search "how to cook Kenyan ugali" here on UA-cam to get a better idea! I don't think I explained it well. All the best, tell me if you liked it!
If you want corn as a vegetable, you probably don't want maize. Sweet corn, as it is known, is sweet enough to eat as it is, unlike maize.
In New Zealand the main kind you find fresh in the supermarket is called "honey and pearl." If it's picked at the right time, it's delicious. Usually it's cooked and eaten straight from the cob.
@@fridahchloe4276 Thank you. Sounds yummy. I want to tour Kenya some day.
Do you make hominy corn there? It avoids the disease he mentions at the end of this video.
This video shows how to make corn hominy. The corn has turned into hominy at 10 minutes in on the video. ua-cam.com/video/9VjchvSXklU/v-deo.html
The Mother of Maize bless you with good crops! she's also called Eagle Mother (her picture is on the flag of Mexico), Deer Mother, and so on. Now, do you plant Hopi maize? It's much more drought resistant than the varieties Europeans introduced to Africa. It pairs well with honey mesquite bean pods to make a very sweet pancake and cookies. If you like tamales, take some ugali and spread it inside a moistened corn shuck. Add a filling (usually meat paste with chilis and garlic or a sweet jam), carefully roll it into a tube and use strips of shuck to tie it closed. Steam them for about 15 minutes, then make a salsa to dip them in. Corn flour works better (posole/ground grits) and is considered pre-cooked, so only water is needed t make dough and to steam the tamales.
An important thing to add is corn *does* have enough niacin in it; it's just mostly biologically unavailable. There's a process practiced by the peoples of Central America called nixtamalization, whereby you soak and cook the corn in an alkaline solution (e.g., limewater), and that causes a chemical process that makes the niacin bioavailable. This also gives a change to the taste and smell, and it's what gives corn tortillas their distinctive smell and taste. The resultant corn dough is called masa, and the flour is called masa harina. You can usually find masa harina in US grocery stores in the latin foods section. You can subsist entirely on nixtamalized corn without getting pellagra, and it has no other harmful components from the nixtamalization process.
Long story short, if you're worried about pellagra, or even just want more variety to your corn-based dishes, try nixtamalized corn.
Chad. it is estimated that up to 95% of corn in the USA is GMO today... GMO's have terminator seeds (they don't thrive the second year and many times these GMO's completely fail if you plant seed grown from GMO crops.. Look for Organic "Heirloom" seeds if you want successful crops year after year, and keep them far from other fields that might have GMO's in them because when they tassel, the GMO crop will shed onto your heirloom crop and contaminate it.
You have to use open pollinated corn which might be hard to come by
Tom.. if they haven't killed all the bees and other pollinators with glyphosate and pesticides, this can be achieved with organic Heirloom corn and pollinators.. If they killed all the pollinators, then it will be a tedious job of getting out in the fields with small paint brushes and swiping all the tassels on the corn to pollinate it.
Hopefully the greedy idiots of agriculture have not destroyed the God given pollinators that make growing flowering fruits possible. Yes.. corn is a grain, but fruits will not grow unless their flowers are pollinated.. there are only a hand full of grains, and most of our crops are fruits botanically speaking.
Seed growers detassel two rows of corn skip two rows and so on the whole field for next year's corn crop
Tom that sounds like how they create new hybrids: Not really familiar with that process.. i watched something 20 years ago, but remember very little.
Hey Rob, there are currently no crops in the world that have terminator genes in them.
In college in the early 70's I knew a hippie who subsisted for 2 years on potatoes, corn, and sunflower seeds. He was skinny as a rail but never lacked energy and he had a sharp mind.
he was also stupid. your body needs more than rabbit food
@Fred brandon Hippies weren't much into speed were they?
The land race cannabis was awesome back in the 70s. Come to think of it, a few keys of bud will go a long way in the face of an apocalypse.
Yeah, the lack of protein kicks in
Great way to induce sarcopenia and overload on highly oxidative omega 6's. Not a good long term strategy.
During the great depression my father in law lived on corn bread. In his later years, when he was well off he HATED corn meal because it reminded him of the depression as that grown tired of it. I suppose if that's the only thing you have to eat, it gets old over time. He retired as a wealthy man and put three kids through college. He never ate corn again after the depression.
My grandfather survived primarily on what they called corn mash during the depression. He said it tasted like Fritos. Like your father, he never would eat corn after that.
@@auroramarie2463 My father in law got out of farming because he didn't believe in living off debt. He paid cash for everything or did without. He could have become a millionaire easily but, believed in giving back and helped the struggling people in his community. At this funeral the pastor said he lived the life Jesus would have been proud of. He was Christian and I'm sure he went to heaven.
Lucky for us, hunger turns yuck! to yum! No creature allows itself to starve in the presence of food. Famine-food always had takers during hard times.
@@JeanneKinland He sounds like a very wise man.
The same with my father after war in Eastern Europe he complained of ubiquitous bean soup
Amaranth is also a great subsistence crop. Drought tolerance, good yields, plant and forget.
At 9:45 Chad is standing right in front of some nice Amaranth !
I hear the same about buckwheat. I planted both this year and I am excited to see how they do. I did evening primrose last year and got about 2 cups of seeds from 3 plants.
Honestly for both I just planted stuff from bob's red mill. I opened a pack of amaranth and buckwheat and both have come up and are growing.
Bought this as an ornamental last year and it self seeded all over the garden bed. I have tons this year and learned the benefits because of it. Pretty cool self seeders
I have dried sweet corn, but to use as a vegetable, not a grain. (the ears were boiled 3 minutes, then the kernels cut off & spread on the dryer screen, & dried.) It is delicious! Unlike canning or freezing, dried corn remains tender. It cooks up very nicely, & pops in your mouth, much like fresh corn. Also, I had to hide it from my kids, who had trouble resisting eating it as a snack!
Wow Susan. That is really interesting. You are great at describing things. Thanks for sharing your experience. That was helpful.
I had too much corn in the freezer getting old. I took it out and dehydrated it. It's sweet and has a great crunch.
I agree, I love dehydrated corn, it bounces back deliciously.
How do you rehydrate it to get the best results?
@@kimschaub2382 I soak them in water if using by itself or will throw them straight into a casserole /stew.
Thank you for choosing to spend your time to help us get through these tough times. God bless
Keep in mind, corn is insanely water and nitrogen intensive, so its not good for dryland areas without irrigation.
Sweet corn is most desired when picked at the peak sweetness level. Left to fully mature as is done with feed corn results in the high sugar content converted into high starch content.
I freeze whole kernel sweet corn that is cut from the cob. When using higher quality freezer bags, I have noticed no quality degradation after even five years in the freezer.
I have also dehydrated whole kernel sweet corn, cut from cob, and my research shows it is shelf stable for fifteen years. Excellent to grind into meal, or use in soups and stews.
I have dried sweet corn and ground it, and added it to cornbread. Carol Deppe (who bred the Cascade Ruby Gold variety), as she says in her book The Resilient Gardener, doesn't care for cornbread made with dried sweet corn, but she's more of a corn connoisseur than I am. :D I thought it a very tasty addition.
I really enjoy her books. She has a huge amount of knowledge.
Three sisters companion planting is awesome-- corn, green beans ( any running beans) & winter squash. Really good choice 3 in one spot ..GOD BLESS
The comment by Delaine is crucial: nixtamalization is essential for B vitamins and complete protein availability. It involves cooking or soaking in wood ash or lie. I have done this and it ends up tasting like, well, tortillas (as they are traditionally made from properly treated corn). I've also made a fermented corn drink that the Cherokee used. In any case wood ash is easy to come by and if you make a video on nixtamalization it would be a perfect compliment to this video. Thank you brother.
PS When European explorers brought corn back from the Americas, they did not bring the processing steps required (or perhaps they did but absent the internet it didn't stick) Thus many developed the health issues you described.
Yes, video is misleading. America's ancients KNEW about the necessity of treating corn with lime. Most cornmeal these days in the states is in fact treated with lime before consumption.
I was going to say this, now I don't have to, thanks for pointing it out Jesse.
Traditionally corn, beans and squash are grown together 100g of butternut squash provides approximately thirteen percent of your daily niacin requirements.
With those 3 crops combined, you get more food per acre than you would growing any single crop, and as you mentioned a more balanced diet
Please look into the way corn was and is historically processed in the Americas. Look up nixtamal and hominy, which releases the niacin. Most westerners have been told it is processed for texture, not true. Natives know it must be processed before being used as a human grain.
Such a great video for us newbies!! You explain things really well! Much appreciated!!!❤
Never thought of corn as a survival food. Beans have a lot of protein, and you can row a lot in a small space, including those climbing row bins that you can grow plants way off the ground. Potatoes are also a high amount of calories in a small space. You only get a few ears of corn per square foot, that's not very compact for survival food. would you rather have 2-3 ears of corn, or 2+ pounds of beans or potatoes. And beans are FAR easier to grow than corn. I always considered corn to be a luxury crop if you have a lot of waste space.
Agreed. To each their own but for the space corn takes I would rather grow something like hemp or sunflowers which are entirely edible and healthier.
Corn doesn't grow well here so beans and potatoes would be some of my go-to's as well.
And in my experience, corn takes / requires a large amount of water. Dryland corn in Colorado is laughable.
If you plant the trinity of corn, beans and pumpkins you get it all. The corn is support for the beans, the bean provides nitrogen for the corn and the the pumpkin protects the soil from heat and weeds
@@JesusSaves86AB Hemp is interesting, but is the plant edible, or just the seeds? It is very easy to grow too, and the CBD can relax/calm and help with pain!
@@k8m883 That sounds like a good combination, using the stalks for the climbers would work quite well!
If corn is nixtamalized, your body can access niacin and you can just eat corn. Corn was the crop of the native Americans, however it was traditionally nixtamalized by cooking and then soaking in lye water made from wood ash. Then it was VERY throughly rinsed and rubbed between the hands to remove the outer casing before being made into things like tortillas or chowder depending the the region.
I am allergic to corn, but can eat it if it has been nixtamalized so it definitely changes the structure. Europeans did not take this step back to Europe when corn was discovered as they did not like the taste and did not understand that it was necessary for consumption.
Hominy , it produces vitamin b . In the 1700s people were getting sick from just eating corn because it was all they had . They said the corn told them that they needed to eat it as hominy .
@Abigail miller, what does nixtamalising mean? How ids it done?
@@annrenee3265 boil an equal part of ashes and corn. That's it. Use hardwood ashes as it's more alkaline than softwoods. Maybe you can use softwoods too but it definitely need more ashes than hardwoods.
@@annrenee3265 nixtamalising comes from *looks it up* Classical Nahuatl nextli (the 'x' is like our "sh"), meaning lye, and tamalli, meaning maize dough. It refers to the process of applying hardwood lye to the maize grain while cooking it.
Thank you for all the good information you share with all of us. Blessings
Butternut squash is one of my favorites for this. I had a few that I grew stay good for over a year in my kitchen,not even in a root cellar.
I learned from my grandparents to dry sweet corn and then parch it. Natives would grind parched corn and use it to thicken broth or use as a flour. It works great, and corn parched in a little bacon grease and salted is delicious, just drink lots of water with it cuz it is a bit hard on the stomach unless ground or chewed very thoroughly.
I’m growing 150 sweet corn stalks this year. I planted 50 corn in April and transplanted them out in early may, then 50 in the ground in may and 50 more in june. So I will try to dry my left over sweet corn cobs and see how they hold over for corn bread etc, might even be able to save some seed for replanting next year
I have used sweet corn as grain corn. I harvest when ready to eat as sweet corn, but off the cob, ans dehydrate. I store it until ready to grind (although I have no idea if that is advantageous), then grind and use as you would any other corn meal. Would probably work well freeze dried too… maybe better because more moisture has been removed.
Thank you for your video. Once heard it said that we could grow enough food in the US to feed the world. Can imagine this maybe being true if we were to farm all the available farming ground without clearing any new ground. The problem is, that much land sits idle by design. Farmers are being paid not to farm their land, just so the supply, demand and price can be manipulated. Everything is greed driven by wicked people that only care about their wealth. Plus, a shortage of food is being created intentionally to cause a famine to reduce the population and to control people. May the wickedness these people have planned for others fall back upon themselves.
I agree, it looks bad but if they didn't manipulate the price the farmers would end up working for nothing and sometimes even paying to farm because it's a world market. First world farmers can't compete with third world labor costs.
The recent food shortages are part of the world reset and just plain evil. It's all about control and power.
@@mt8149 Can see your point. Maybe every country should focus on taking care of their own unless some country needs help. Get back to producing all of our own stuff. Stop bringing in refugees and other foreigners until we get our own country straitened out. We don't need a one or new world order.
Over farming land without periods of rest , causes depletion of soil minerals lowering the nutritional value of food.
@@OldTimerGarden Good point. Land should be given a rest, but not discontinued.
Don't forget Gates bought up tons of farm land to starve us out
Stunned that you assert sweet corn has a limited season! We have done successive plantings of sweet corn each year since the 1970s so that we enjoy fresh picked sweet corn from Memorial Day through Labor Day every summer.
Most years you could harvest sweet corn from mid May until early November in Grow Zone 5 if you wanted to. Start seeds indoors in March, then simply plant a few rows of seeds every other week throughout the summer. Could not be more simple.
I'm really glad these videos pop up on my fb news feed. I'll probably never be able to survive without a steady job for income and a grocery store to provide for my nutritional needs BUT I can learn about sustaining myself with what nature provides... Maybe some day I'll take more serious steps in that direction.
Thanks Nina. Even a little porch garden can always be fulfilling.
we grow popcorn. Great for food storage as well and a great snack without having to grind up. Throw the kernels on hot oil over a fire. Kids love it.
I love the background sounds. Those cricket sounds are so soothing, I could listen forever...Thank you for your content.
Great idea if you're not allergic to corn....which I am...y'all have fun though. There are still plenty of easy, prolific crops I can grow for eating; I'm an old farm girl, so I'll be fine :) ...maybe I should grow corn too, for trading....hmmm...we grew lots of it when I was a kid, both for eating and for livestock feed. Useful stuff! (Old trick: after a fishing trip, put all the bits left over after cleaning them, put them in a bucket, fill it with water, and wait a day. Then walk it down a row of corn, slowing pouring as you go. Free fertilizer!)
By the way: I have heard that the process of "nixtamalization" makes the corn more digestible and healthy. Going to try that soon. Corn do have all nutrients in it, which are needed (also B3!), calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron and sodium) as well as vitamines B1, B2, B3, B6 and C plus provitamin A. So in the end, it depends on the treatment of the corn to avoid the mentioned problems: Nixtamalization. Learn from the ancients.
We like growing Painted Mountain corn, also a really pretty grain corn. My mom has dried sweet corn to make corn meal muffins, they were so yummy and naturally sweet, it was a little hard on her electric grain will and I think she used the dehydrater to dry them, but I don't think you would have to in a dry enough climate or around a wood stove.
I love the quality of the videos. Good work!
Thank you Jane:)
Thank you. You're a very good speaker and teacher.
It’s really odd to hear folks talk about how “Native Americans *used* to…” We’re still here people 🙄 Still planting and harvesting our corn, still processing it the same way, still making the same foods with it. But hey, bravo to your people finally catching on 👏
Well said, thats true. I have heard that said by many people around here. They all say to the Europeans" oh, you're just finally figuring it out? And, your grandfather was a settler?"
Then how about using some of that casino and gill-netting revenue to produce instructional videos and share your native brilliance.
By the way, Spain introduced you to horses. Europeans showed you how to use a wheel. Indeed, 99.99% of the things you use in life came from my European ancestors…so chill out.
@@Gr8Layks Those are actually all now disproven. Maybe you should read some more modern studies. There's already many many vids about traditional growing techniques, if you bothered to look, racist lazy beta snowflake.
@@Gr8Layks you left out disease, widespread famine, unfair trade practices and destruction of natural resources among other atrocities that are unfathomable and too numerous to list in this reply. I would want to remain anonymous also if something so asinine would even enter my thought process much less spew from my ignorant mouth. I believe the indigenous people were doing rather well before being so enlightened by the European educators and would have thrived just as well without any outside influences.
Well said
I’m originally from the Faroe Islands (live in Denmark now) and the climate and land is very hostile to most staple food crops. It’s cold, windy, rainy, wet/boggy, and there is a lot of sea spray over the entire country, so the soil is also slightly salty. We had to wash windows after each storm that blew in from the ocean, because they would become crispy from all the dried salt on them, lol.
Some grains were grown in the past, but people were never self-sufficient with it because it grows so poorly there. When potatoes arrived in the mid 18th century, they immensely improved peoples’ health, because they produce abundantly in that climate (colder, but not dissimilar to Ireland) and pack a punch with regards to calories and nutrients.
When my grandparents were young (they are currently in their 90’s), they would live almost exclusive of potatoes, fish, sheep, sea birds and pilot whales. Pilot whales in particular were important during the winter months, because they are seasonal visitors, arriving in autumn and winter months, giving a nutrient dense and calorie rich diet during the most lean period of the year.
I wonder if short-maturing maizes would grow there, minding that they would take almost 60% longer and risk frosting out.
Just subscribed. I never saw you before and you are very impressive!!!! I'm going to be checking out your other videos now that I've got my work for the week done.
This is the third video I have watched ,and I can't believe I've not stumbled on to your show until now you've covered several of things I've been questioning,and you angle is my lifestyle, health ,native food and ways,self sufficient lifestyle,looking forward to seeing more , Happy Thanksgiving brother,from Freedom Indiana
Corn may be the only "bread" grains that you can grow on a smaller property that will grow enough to feed your family. Gotta love cornbread
You are correct. And I do love cornbread.
I watched a Hopi plant his field of corn, beans, and squash. Nature did the irrigating. It was interesting as his corn looked like gathered corn stalks if the fall but planted that way. Their seeds have more protein than modern corn as does their beans.
Can you provide a nutritional reference that actually shows a higher protein content?
I assume he lives somewhere that has a monsoon?
Well worth watching! Thanks - I have subscribed.
Red cabbage. My favorite with lots of butter and meat.
If I could only grow 1 thing to get me by and help me survive, it would be Turnips/ Turnip tops: nutritious, cool weather crop, less than 60 days to maturity easy to grow and you can eat tops and turnips. I can plant these several times a season and harvest from may to December. They store well and are very versatile, eaten raw or cooked.
I read about people in the 1800s who couldn’t afford potatoes and lived off turnips instead. I am not the biggest fan of the taste though. We all have different tastes:)
@@HealthAndHomestead If it's a matter of survival I'll deal with the taste. Europeans were eating turnips before they were introduced to potatoes. The problem with corn is it takes up alot of space and it's a heavy nitrogen feeder. Brassicas, like Kale, arugula, kohlrabi, broccoli and turnips will grow anywhere, can be harvested at any stage after sprouting and are a lot less conspicuous if your not wanting to advertise what you have planted.
My father in law told me his family were share croppers in Mississippi and were poor. All they had to eat most of the time was turnips.
@@t.daniel5003 Very good points. Additionally, corn does not grow well in cooler climates. I would go with turnips myself, too. I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that, though.
@@andrewreaney I hope for the best, prepare for the worst and pray for most.
You can turn the Stalks into "Silage" a nutrition dense fermented animal feed that can store for even several years. I imagine a Chipper/ shredder or Mulcher would be much appreciated for the task. Keep up the great work 👍 and thank you everyone for the awesome comment section 😊
Also don't forget to let your animals work the plot over after your done.
We used to press stalks first to get corn syrup, NOT to be confused with HFCS.
@@rifelaw the comment section continues to deliver =) thank you
@@rifelaw Even stalks as dry as the ones shown in this vid?
@@nunyabiznes33 Pressing came after harvesting.
@@rifelaw TY. Never heard of getting syrup that way. Never knew those stalks still got plenty of moisture in them. Might try when I grow corn.
So you just press? Do you process it any further, like boiling and reducing? Is it sweet like commercial grain corn syrup?
🌽🌽🌽 Sweet corn as a grain corn will yield less, because it naturally has higher water content. When drying out it has a dent and looks shriveled up, hence is called dent corn.
🌽🌽🌽 Flint corn = grain corn. Many uses. Corn meal, corn flour, and also animal feed. Corn oil is produced when taking the germ part from the seed kernels, and that is how come cornmeal does not go rancid, unlike corn flour does in very little time.
I haven't ground sweet corn but i planted some real late last year so i left it as long as it was warm. Was warm until December. I noticed they were all the way brown & not growing anymore so i picked them. They were hard like feed corn or the seeds you buy so def can b done
Corn is empty calories. Grow beans, quinoa.
Is it, though? Don't beans have imbalanced amino acids, and maize helps to balance that out?
Has anyone considered the sun flower? You can make tons of things with the seeds and use them to set traps for fowl.
Hard to keep the birds off from and many animals will maul them when they are immature.. Deer here decimate sunflowers if there are any numbers of deer at all.. I would think potatoes are a better choice except for the production of oil from sunflowers meeting different type of need nutritionally.
I'd grow them for birdseed if I weren't so allergic to the pollen. It's bad when they're live but when giant sunflower dies and releases its remaining pollen I sound like I've got tuberculosis my asthma is so bad.
Great information, thanks 🙏🏻
Thanks again! Great info my friend. We got snow off and on here in ND.
You are welcome. Wow snow is back. We got a hard frost today and multiple light frosts before this.
Nixtamalization will increase the niacin in corn. I would recommend doing this process for at least part of your corn consumption. It really is not difficult.
Thanks Greg, I need to look into it.
@@HealthAndHomestead That is the process of making hominy. The Aztecs used hominy and avoided the corn disease. This video shows how to make hominy.
ua-cam.com/video/9VjchvSXklU/v-deo.html
@@HealthAndHomestead Search youtube for Steve Owens and "nixtamalization". He does a wonderful explanation with proportions.
Corn is a starch which can lead to diabetes, Corn is great option for animal feed: Chickens, hogs, cattle to supplement there diet as well as increase their weight. Another issue with corn is it needs a lot of fertializer, especially nitrogen.
Indians used the three sisters: Corn, beans and squash. The Corn would provide a stalk for pole beans. Beans & squash are legumes, have the ability to nitrogen-fixing in there roots which the corn can utilitize.
If it leads to diabetes in humans, as you say, what is stopping corn from causing illness in other animals you mention?
Aside from that, cows should not be eating corn in any capacity. Grass is what they are biologically meant to eat.
@@jennak.8541 Livestock does live that long to develop diabetes. Beef cattle are usually slaughtered after a year to 18 months.
Cows will eat a lot of grass, but corn and other sources are provided to them, usually to help them gain weight. Also consider that cattle are often fed the entire corn plant (stalk, leaves, and corn - ie silage). Corn is botanically classified as the grass Zea mays.
@@jennak.8541 Maize is a grass, so should they not be eating maize stalks if that's the grass one has on hand?
You can use the maize in your own diet if you're minimally responsible about it. Europeans like me will have a tougher time with the blood sugar with it, though.
Thank you! Very good information! Greetings from Chile!🇨🇱
Wow Chile. I would love to visit there someday. Blessings to you Patricio.
on pellagra; it should be noted that corn has vitamin B3 in it, but the human body can not digest unprocessed corn in such a way as to take advantage of it. Nixtamalization, the soaking of corn in a basic solution frees up the vitamin B3 into a digestible form.
this is how Hominy is made, and then that can be processed into grits and masa flour
FYI making Hominy out of corn will make the Niacin more bioavailable.
I would love to know how you remove the dried grain corn kernels from the dried cobs to grind? Where do I find that information? Thanks!
Hwy Marlise, Here is one way we have tried it is called the Decker Corn sheller it is around $10 www.lehmans.com/product/inexpensive-corn-sheller/ But it doesn't work so well on our thin corn. It would work better on thicker cobs of corn. I simply rub them off with my fingers. You could start it with a screw driver then I rub them off by hand.
In the Caribbean we used our nails.we make porridge cake candy we cook it with beans we make a lot of recipes with corn.
Thank you brother
Here is a video I saw on Self Sufficient Me recently on how to remove corn kernels. I hope you find it as helpful as I did. ua-cam.com/video/cJF1GWHAwX4/v-deo.html
If it is dried on the stalk like that, you can just kind of twist it in your hands and the kernels all kind of plop right off.
@@yolebrutus1396 I wish I knew how to make corny porridge! And that dark brown banana bread cake stuff ; )
A good tell for if corn will grow good where you are is do farmers grow it near you. All farms in my area have corn and it grows great at my homestead. From N.W. Missouri
Thank you. Good info
I grew up eating corn every day, in my country is a staple food, like almost in all Latin American countries. But since I live in Europe, I realized you (North Americans and Europeans) use the corn in a "wrong" way.
Corn needs to become digestible, it needs a process called "nixtamalization", it takes a day but the corn becomes better. When you grind dry corn you mix the external part of the grain with the rest. It's a terrible idea, it can causes digestive problems to sensible people. In general it's not good for the digestive system.
Of course it doesn't change the lack of niacin, you must find it in other foods as you said.
In the northeast6 USA the native tradition was to add some wood ash in to make the vitamins (forget which) more digestible.
Is there not some niacin in nixtamalized maize?
The mazatecs soaked corn in lime to prevent pellegra
Enjoyed your two videos I watch and subscribed. I like your style...
Thanks for joining. Blessings.
Clever video making, you're a smart kid, by the way thanks for the info, helped confirm some of my knowledge. God bless you as well.
You should really mention that in order to truly be self sustaining, you must not depend on hybrid seeds. Standard non-hybrid is ok but heirloom is best. planting peanuts at the base of your corn will also help with crop yield. Them and beans of course. But I need my tomatoes and potatoes and butternut squash
Where do you buy these seeds that arent gmo? Is there a good place for this?
@@IntoTheNothing1 Burpees, Ferry Morse and Gurnies have a good selection as do several commercial suppliers. There are also heirloom seed saving organizations that can be found on line. The primary thing to look for heirloom, non-hybrid or non- GMO. The seeds should be labled in the catalogs
@@Jagdtyger2A awesome thanks for the info
Maize will hybridize in the field if you plant two varieties. Guess what the seed saved will be? Hybrid seed. But it's fine, as long as the resulting intermediate variety, and its messed up offspring, are to your taste.
All varieties started out as a roving band of F1s.
Beans r what u want to grow more nutritious they double n size when soaked
For sure Johny D. Beans are one of the great things to grow. Great storage food.
Corn is not low in niacin, in fact corn is very high in niacin. The problem is that the niacin is bound up and the corn requires nixtamalization (being treated with wood ash and water or quick lime and water) to release the niacin. Do not blame the corn for your lack of education on the subject. The Native Americans (especially those from North America) almost exclusively relied on corn for their carbohydrate needs and almost every native culture knew to use nixtamalization. The problems arose when Europeans took corn back to Europe and did not bother to pay attention to how the Natives prepared it. It took quite some time for the Europeans to figure out that they had missed a key process. Also the 15 million calories per acre number you are using is for heavily irrigated and fertilized corn crops, the yields for home growers will be closer to 7-8 million calories per acre. Yes home growers of wheat will also have much lower yields, that is just how it works. Corns overall nutrient density, is not that great nor does it exceed wheat to any significant margin. It produces more food per acre not necessarily better food per acre. I do grow a lot of corn for personal use, simply because it is easier and produces more yield than wheat. Corn is a great staple crop, but needs to be augmented with many other things just like any other grain. By and large grains are crap at providing nutrients and great at providing calories. Beans, greens and root vegetable are where you will get the vast majority of vital nutrients, with meat providing the rest. And yes there are certain nutrients that are either more abundant in animal products or only available from animal products.
I grew both corn and wheat last year. Wheat is indeed more work at harvest time. However, my yields were similar. I only measured the wheat with precision. I got 54lbs on 577 square feet of space about the same or maybe even a bit more than the corn I grew.
A key thing to keep in mind is that if you live in a comparatively warm part of the US (zone 7 and higher for sure, probably zone 6 as well), you can plant wheat as a winter crop and have enough growing time in the summer to grow a different crop in the same location. Possibly even corn, though it would be better to rotate to a legume. I planted in mid-October and harvested in early June. That should be considered in the calorie yield calculation, because there are relatively few high calorie crops that can be grown through the winter.
New viewer, but wow love the content
Thanks. Happy to hear it Jodi. Blessings.
if you make your corn into hominy then you'll get the niacin your body needs, but since corn isnt a complete protein you'll still need to eat something like beans to compensate.
Hominy is white.
walteWalters Because white corn is usually used. Hominey will be the same color as the corn you use.
Precooking the dried corn with ash releases the B-Vitamins and makes corn safe to eat as a main staple. The process is known as and was used by both Mayans and Aztecs civilizations.
I have been developing landraces for many years. I started my corn landraces with a mix of grain (flint) and sweet corn. I tested the dried sweet corn and it made fine cornbread, so I now focus on sweet corn. You can differentiate by stalk color as well as kernel color. Start by mixing them all up and then sort by kernel color X stalk color (two interactive variables). Then you can continue to sort year by year.This method preserves hybrid vigor within an open-pollinated variety. If you get striped kernels, this is the phenotypic expression of transposons, or "jumping genes." It is worth an internet search on transposons. Corn is hardy, transplants well, is easy to care for, and tastes good.
How do you keep the cultivars "pure"? Do you like only grow certain cultivars per growing season and let those mix while you have extra seeds of those in storage?
I don’t like cornbread I LOVE cornbread 😎
On poor soil running cattle will produce the most calories per acre
Or sheep, goats, rabbits, geese... I have cattle, goats and geese myself. Diversify!
@@lagoya where I live there's no nutrients in the soil so nothing out of the garden has any flavor and coyotes will kill any animals they can. So just about the only animal you can keep alive is the bovine
And that's about the only thing I live on is hamburger
@@joedrinkwalter94 TBH I'd rather live on hamburger than veggies! I don't have enough acreage for that much beef though. Whereas my smaller ruminants are almost completely self-sufficient and breed faster. It helps that I have a good dog to run off the varmints.
only very few though. more = overgrazing
Outstanding. Good information.
I have dried sweet corn. I ground up the corn into meal and make corn bread. I do not need to add sugar because of the natural sweetness in the corn.
Plant climbing beans with the corn and the beans will pull nitrogen out of the air and fix it into the soil and actually help feed the corn. BOOM. Double option with more survival protein and free fertilizer. Work it all back into the soil at the end of the season and your ground will become even more fertile. Also, cream corn is a good frozen storage option. You can use ziplocks to make packs of it and store it flat in the freezer.
thats a good method but the three sisters method also includes a ground cover crop like squash so you receive 3 crops from one location. BOOOOOOOM thanks native maericans for the three sisters method
It wasn't just slaves that lived mostly on corn....poor people of all colors in the south subsisted on corn. They learned to soak dried corn in lye to make hominy.
The main idea is that there are many variations of corn and ways to prepare corn.
Thanks for the info.
Such a great video, good info!
Don't fall for this 'We'll tell you at the end of this video'. It pisses people off and causes them to close you down - exactly the opposite to what you are trying to achieve (have people watch your video). Be generous and give the information right away and then continue to give good information. There is so much to give regarding the growing of grinding corn.
A few Canadian seed companies that had flint corns didn't ship to USA. I ordered Reid's Dent corn from Victory Seed co my and
Cascade Ruby-Gold Flint Corn
From Kitchen Table Seed House.
I grew up eating yellow field corn. I DETEST sweet corn and sweet cornbread. But plain, yellow, field corn is hard to find in the store, though. I think they probably grow mostly sweet corn these days so that if it starts to spoil, they can still sell it to make ethanol. And the more sugar it contains, the more ethanol it yields.
Also, if you remove your shucks carefully and save them, they can be used to make tamales, and CORN meal is also needed for them.
Love those Crocker’s in the background…those days of the late summer are special to me
My grandma and her parents dried sweet corn in a big container on the stove. They boil the corn then cut it off the cob, and put it in a large flat container on the stove, stirring until dry. It turns dark brown and tastes delicious.
I grew sweet corn and dried it. It shrivels a lot more than what it looks like you have there but it made great cornbread. I didn't know any better so I didn't know you were supposed to have a certain kind of grain corn. Tasted like cornbread after I cooked it so I guess it works just fine.
I think it's the sweetness that some folks don't like.
Sweet corn that got forgotten dried in the bin...the kernals are flat vs. "meaty" like the dent, grain varieties. I also planted second year seed of glass gem, popcorn size seed from the smaller "decorative" corn.
Love this site. Thanks.
You are welcome, blessings to you Sandy.
Subscribed! I aways learn something new on your channel. Thanks, J
Three different attempts last summer spaced about a month and a half apart. 120 heat cooked every bit of it. Corn doesn't work in the desert, surprisingly cabbage, beets, okra, tomatoes and watermelon did.
I planted carob trees as a famine food source. It is something that I never have to tend to or plant annually. Once the trees are established they take care of themselves and require no further irrigation. I hope I never encounter a famine situation but if it happens the trees will be ready and producing the edible pods. The pods can be eaten with no preparation, processing or cooking.
The carob trees thrive in hot dry climates. For pods they do require both male and female trees or a hermaphrodite such as the Santa Fe variety. The males do not produce pods.
I thinking about leaving my corn on the stock through the winter .. I want to see if it will seed itself next year .. and I want to see if it will dry on the stock
And maize plants have four to ten ears, unlike sweet corn. But personally I would grow black beans, as yeild per plant, and protein output is well worth the small space it takes. 450grams per plant is good. They go with your canned tomatoes that only need a hot water pot to can, and your dried squash as that's another high yeilder. You can grow yeast on the window sill for vitamin B and water cress all year for green iron.
Many maizes will only bear one or two ears. This is mostly going to be maizes in poorer soil and environmental conditions.
You could do a video on growing the "three sisters" of the native americans, corn, beans and squash? It is a complimentary great food foundation. Also squash can be cut and dried for preservation if it is the sort that doesn't store well whole, like a pumpkin. Of course some squash keeps very well whole. My Dad grew up poor in the south, and they mostly lived on cornbread and beans.
I’ve never been able to get corn to ripen. I got a shorter time variety and just planted it today. It’s been unusually cold here in Washington (outside Tacoma).
I love corn. You can also freeze or can it to see you through the winter. Not AS delicious as fresh, but still really good. Nothing beats some fresh corn on the cob, but ya gotta have some in January too. lol
A favorite way to use corn amongst those who don't tolerate the carbs in corn is corn silk tea. It is mild and works amazingly for preventing and treating UTIs.
Parched Corn: My grandmother & other Midwest farmwives processed sweet corn until it was completely dried and transformed, stored it in jars in a warm, dry place, and used it through the winter to make scalloped corn or corn casserole.
Fresh sweet corn kernels were cut off off the cob with a paring knife, spread thinly on top of a special double boiler and turned frequently with a spatula. The corn was slowly cooked & dried until it had turned to a translucent golden brown and was absolutely rock hard.
The double boiler was made of what they would call "galvanized tin", square - about 2 feet by 2 feet, about 6 inches tall, with a recessed top so there was a vertical edge of about 1 inch all the way around, with riveted handles on two sides. In one corner, a 2 inch triangular opening provided access to pour in hot water from tea kettles to fill the boiler. The boiler was then placed on top of an old-fashioned cast iron range or (in grandmother's house) the oil-burning heating stove to keep the water boiling. Obviously, this made for a very hot & humid kitchen in midsummer!
To reconstitute for cooking, parched corn was soaked like dried beans. Because the sugars in the kernels had been caramelized by the cooking, the corn had a much richer, deeper molasses taste and also reminded me of dried nutmeats. I think the last time I encountered this dish was in the mid 1980s.
I believe the reason that they used to use sweet corn dried as grain corn is because they were essentially the same thing. When you harvest it earlier the plant hasn’t yet converted all of its sugars into starches so it’s much sweeter. Leave it to dry, most the sugars are converted to starches and now you have grain corn. It also didn’t last. As soon as you take it off the plant it gets less sweet incredibly quickly. Newer verities, like literally in the last 20 years, of sweet corn will stay sweet much longer and I know nothing about drying those verities.
This is powerful knowledge!