Corn, Hooker's Sweet

Zea mays

Named after Ira Hooker, who developed this short-season variety to ripen in cool temps.

The story of corn and people is a beautiful one of co-creation. Thousands of years ago, Indigenous people in modern-day Central America worked side-by-side with a wild grass named Teosinte until it became what we know as maize or corn. From there, it traveled north and south all over the Western hemisphere along trade routes, and hundreds of different indigenous groups adapted it for their unique place on earth, where it shaped their diets and cultures. For thousands of years, Native communities have cared for their maize despite colonizers trying to separate them from it in order to control them. Both the corn and the corn stewards have survived, and it is through the generosity of both of them that we have the gift of corn today.

Short plants produce 5-7” long ears that ripen from white and yellow through purple to blue as they mature. Harvest for sweet corn in white and yellow stage or grind mature, dry blue kernels for a super-sweet cornmeal! Open-pollinated. 

Seeds grown by Earthly Delights Farm in Boise, Idaho, William Schlegel in Ronan, Montana and Freezone Farm in Nine Mile Falls, Washington.

70 seeds

Directions: Direct seed after last frost. Corn is wind-pollinated and should be planted in at least 4'x4' blocks to achieve full cobs. Harvest when cobs are full and silks start to dry.