A History Of Sweetcorn

A crop first cultivated by Neolithic farmers in the Americas around 10,000 years ago, Sweet corn is descended from teosinte, a wild, hard-dark kernelled grass native to the Balsas River valley in southern Mexico. Indigenous peoples transformed teosinte into edible maize over thousands of years, with widespread cultivation spreading throughout the Americas by 2500 BC. To make the hard corn edible , whole kernals were soaked in a mixture of water and wood ash to make lye. This highly alkali solution removes the husk and causes the corn to puff up and become chewy. Another type of corn, we might associate with more modern life, much enjoyed by meso americans was popcorn! Archaeologists have found evidence of an ancient ancestor of our modern pop corn being eaten in New Mexico 3.500 years ago.

Many tribes, such as the Cherokee and Winnebago, have stories of a "Corn Mother" or similar spirits, such as Onatah, the Iroquois Spirit of Corn. These spirits often, through self-sacrifice, bring food to humanity. In Mayan story of creation - the Popol Vuh, the creators fashioned the first humans out of yellow and white corn dough, establishing a direct, sacred link between the plant and human life.

Corn was planted in the De Milpa sytem for thousands of years, and is still done so in traditional practises today. The core of this planting method is Corn, Beans and Squash, other wise known as the three sisters. This name is taken from the Haudenosaunee description of corn, beans, and squash as three inseparable sisters, often personified as women who provide and protect.

Whilst maize (corn) was introduced to Europe shortly after contact with the Americas, it was flint or dent corn, not the sweetcorn we commonly grow today. It was in 1779 The Iroquois nation (a confederacy of 6 native peoples) in north east america) introduced a white, sweet cultivar (known as "Papoon") to European settlers. Many ancient and culturally significant varieties of corn have been lost due to widescale disruption to indigenous farming and enforced removal of local peoples. Even the seed that did survive the long journeys struggled to grow in climates and conditions much different than their own.