Corn, Papa's Blue

Zea mays

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.

Most recently, the Papa’s series were bred out of Painted Mountain by seedsman Ed Schultz, also in Montana. Dave Christensen spoke very highly of this series, describing them as very uniform and brilliantly colored. We agree–they have all the great attributes of Painted Mountain, with the benefit of having single-color strains, which we’ve found makes better tortillas.

It’s absolutely stunning, on those crazy-short 4′ tall, super-early Painted Mountain-esque plants. We trialed the series on the recommendation of Brad McIntyre of McIntyre Farms because his neighbor recommended it for an early flour corn variety. Open-pollinated.

Seeds grown by Banbury Farm in Buhl, Idaho.

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 have dried completely on plant.