08/29/2024
I bought 2, 50 pound bags of heirloom Silver Queen corn from Witten Market a few Sundays ago. I was lucky my friend Amy was working there that day because she told me about buying the corn in bulk instead of by the ear, which saved me a lot of money.
I brought the bags of corn to ACEnet and began shucking the ears at the picnic table out back by the community garden that coincidentally was started by Amy earlier this summer. Soon enough our friends from the kitchen, Ronnie and Matt, appeared and without me asking for help, as if by instinct, they started picking up ears of corn and shucking. Both Ohio natives, out came their memories about shucking and eating delicious corn growing up. Ronnie said his mom said corn’s no good if you don’t eat it the day it’s picked. I’ve learned that’s pretty standard knowledge if you’re from Ohio. We were through the 100 pounds of corn in no time.
photo: The corn truck at Smith’s Farm south of Columbus, where Kurt was lucky enough to grow up eating picked the same day white sugar corn. Smith’s is now Witten Farm.
Not being from Ohio, I didn’t have access to field fresh corn, I ate dismal grocery store corn that had no flavor and a dried out texture. Intellectually, I turned my nose up at corn. At the time corn was having an identity crisis. There was a lot of backlash to corn and Big Ag and I read the Michael Pollan articles about corn subsidies, ethanol, high fructose corn syrup and Archer Daniels Midland, etc..
The truth is corn is nourishing, it’s communal, and it’s part of our identity.
The earliest European settlers in America encountered the Cherokee people who lived across the southeastern United States in what is now Appalachia. The Cherokee taught the first settlers about the ways of corn. How to grow, store, and also how to nixtamalize corn by soaking in ash water (soaking corn in an alkaline solution to make the nutrients able to be absorbed by the body). The ground nixtamalized cornmeal got the settlers through winter and allowed them to have food as they traveled to new territories.
In Virginia’s Jamestown colony, the first English settlement in America, an early law required each settler to plant a certain amount of corn. This guaranteed they would not starve. These newly arrived Europeans came from the feudal system of landowners and serfs- which was based on the cultivation of large fields by many workers. Corn however could be grown pretty much anywhere, and it grew quickly, providing food that could be eaten from the field, and also dried right on the stalk and stored as grain for the winters. Corn also fed animals. And it also made the best liquor.
In John Thorne’s book, “Serious Pig”, he writes,
“[Corn] had an immediate and subversive effect on the newborn American character. What corn gave the small landholder in self-sufficiency it gave double in self-esteem.” In many ways corn gave way to an American identity founded in this self reliance and independence.
When the Cherokee were forcefully removed from their land and marched to Oklahoma in 1838, what is known as the Trail of Tears, there is a Cherokee legend that says where their tears were shed, a kernel for each tear, corn grew- a sign that the Creator had not forgotten them.
Sour corn came to Appalachia from German immigrants originally from the Palatine and Moravian regions. They made similar dishes that they brought with them as well- sauerkraut and sour beans, saure bohnen. Sour corn has a delicious and unique flavor- it’s like a pickle, it’s like kraut, but it has sweetness and a wonderful texture from the corn. Sour corn is made through lactic acid fermentation using a salt brine, which allows for extended storage and also unlocks amazing health benefits through the fermentation process that produces probiotics.
Sour corn is delicious straight from the jar, used as a condiment or mixed into your mac salad or potato salad. It is very tart! It reminds Kurt of umeboshi, a preserved plum (that’s more like an apricot actually), a beloved Japanese ferment. It’s a great snack to have with beer. The traditional way to eat sour corn is to drain and rinse the corn and fry it up in a hot skillet with butter or bacon grease until slightly browned. You could add in some green beans for a nice combo.
Swing by the Athens Farmers Market on Saturday for a sample. We will be selling pint jars of sour corn, our bread and butter pickles, vegetarian kimbap, and Spam musubi. For your dumpling fix head over to Kindred Market's freezer section.
In the meantime, please do a dance or make a prayer - we need rain!
See ya Saturday.
-Irene