corn

so there are many kinds of corn,
it is diverse in many ways,

the main kinds of corn are


flour corn
dent corn
flint corn

pop corn
gourdseed corn
shoepeg corn 
sweet corn
sticky corn

then there are many types within each kind, and each has its ideal uses 

first corn is from the south,
it started in the tropics,
by default it can take huge amounts of heat,
if you have corn that fails then you are likely growing the wrong variety 

corn came north in 3 waves as it was improved,
most of the corn out there is from the 3rd wave (the last one),
the white mohave flour corn is from the first wave and will grow in very harsh conditions, and it is the only one I know of from that first wave,
I would love some copies of the second wave, but just don't know how to figure out what ones they are, or if there are any of it out there now,

flour corn is soft and light,
it makes great corn meal, and corn tortillas, and has not been sold as a commercial product in about 100 years
it usually does not need high nitrogen in the soil (no reason the other corn can't be bread to do this)
needs dry weather to finish drying or it rots (not an issue out here in the desert)
and is likely the best kind to be feeding cattle due to the protein profile (no idea why no one grows it for this)

flint corn is hard and almost transparent
it makes the best polenta, and can finish drying in rainy locations
it has more protein (why it is kind of see through)
not ideal for tortillas but will work, and makes corn bread that tastes like pop corn.
usually needs high nitrogen to grow (once again there are varieties that don't need it so much)

dent corn is an outer shell of flint corn and a center of flour corn (so it dents in the middle when it drys )
it is the industry standard of field corn and is most of the corn grown in the world today,
it is a good in between for most things but not ideal for anything

pop corn is a small round flint corn
and it pops !

gourdseed corn was the industry standard field corn before 1850
it has high production and looks neat,
it kind of half pops if you try, so one side pops and the other side is meaty,
and past that I have never tried another way to cook it...
I clearly need to play with it more.

sticky corn was invented by china,
and it is sticky...
they like sticky foods in china, corn seems to listen to what you want it to do, so ask the corn, and you might get something new and fun like china did


sweet corn is sweet
and it is eaten before it drys when it is still wet 
there are 3 sweetness levels to it, and the more sweet the harder it is to grow,
if you try eating the other kinds of corn fresh like the sweet kind, they are kind of like a potato with the starchy flavor, so keep that in mind if you like sweet corn and think others are like it fresh,
if you let the sweet corn dry and make it into corn meal it makes a super sweet corn meal,
you rarely see it for sale (well over $30 a pound usually)

you will only try shelling the corn by hand the first year,
after that you will likely decide to not have bloody hands and get a sheller,
http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/corn_sheller_hand_operated_crank_manual_antique_walnut_stationary.aspx
but there are cheeper ones as well
http://www.amazon.com/enasco-Metal-Hand-Corn-Sheller/dp/B00ECEQJA0/
and you can make one pretty easy as well
https://www.engineeringforchange.org/news/2012/06/30/how_to_make_a_corn_sheller.html

you grind the corn to get corn meal,
you coarsely grind it to get polenta,
and you don't grind it before making tortillas or tamales

one of the big advantages of corn is that it is one of the few grains that you can grow and harvest by hand with no special hardware at all.

corn is a big topic, more later