Last summer, I grew a variety of flint corn called Longfellow. This variety has long, thin ears and produces a low sugar corn used to make tortillas, corn bread and other dishes that require this type of corn. A reader of this blog, was kind enough to send me another variety of flint corn to try called Floriani Red. I had an opportunity to do so earlier this week and would like to recommend it for those interested in growing staple crops in their gardens.
Floriani Red is a relatively rare flint corn that originates from the northern part of Italy. The corn hulls are a beautiful red color and the grain itself is a deep yellow. I used some of the grain sent me to make pollenta, an Italian side dish that is made from medium-t0-fine ground corn that has been cooked with water and butter. Floriani corn was cultivated in Italy specifically for pollenta so it's no surprise that it worked wonderfully well for this dish. The Floriani Red has a rich corn taste and the pollenta was more interesting visually because the red hulls end up as little red flakes in the final dish. (Pollenta made with yellow corn is uniformly yellow)
Corn is the easiest grains to manage because it only needs to be ground, versus other grains such as wheat or oats that need to be threshed (loosening the grain from the chaff) and winnowed (separating the grain from the chaff) before grinding.
For more information about grinding corn, see my prior post on grain mills and on grinding corn.
If you would like to grow Floriani Red corn, you can purchase seeds from Fedco, Heritage Harvest Seed, and several other suppliers.
Special thanks to Kelley who was kind enough to send me this variety to try.
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