I called the feed coop this morning to find out what kind of corn I had bought for the wild turkeys. I thought I would be walking into the old Vermont joke where a lady tourist asks a farmer “Could you tell me the name of this flower?” And he says, “Ma’am, in these parts we call ‘em ‘wildflowers’.”
But it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, the woman on the phone yelled: Joe, where’d that corn come from? Towaoc, he said. I asked, Is it genetically modified? She yelled, Joe, is that GM corn? Nope.
Towaoc is a tiny town on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, 60 miles due west. According to the 2000 US Census, the population is 1,097 and it’s 94.4% Native American. And perhaps one of the reasons that corn was so cheap–$20 for 100 pounds cracked, sacked and loaded–is that family income in Towaoc averages $18,796.
If I was a turkey and could pick out which strain I’d want those Indians in Towaoc to grow, I’d go straight to the Seed Savers Exchange, a catalogue that specializes in really old varieties. Seed catalogues are like gardener’s porn, and every gardener has a pile hidden somewhere. The specimens are all impossibly perfect… is it airbrushed? So plump and bodacious, and the pictures all glisten… do you think they spray them with oil? When the snow is deep some of us succumb to temptation.
Not me. I only look at seed catalogues when I’m trying to figure out what kind of corn I’d like if I was a turkey. The Mandan Bride for sure, and I think the Black Aztec. And we can’t stop there: some Indian beans
Either the Hidatsa Red and the Painted Pony, or the Hidatsa Shield Figure and the Rattlesnake Snap… hard choice. And finally
I have to drop all pretense that I have the slightest interest in vegetables and get down to the serious business of choosing a sunflower for next year; I’m leaning towards Torch.
How interesting to know about the corn. Beautiful varieties. What a thrill!
….except ‘Torch’ isn’t a sunflower. It’s a Tithonia, so-called Mexican Sunflower. Not closely related at all and doesn’t bear the plump, meaty fat- and protein-packed seeds typical of common sunflowers. Why so named? I think because it’s a Central American native that has a daisy (composite) flower.
Other than that, it bears no resemblance to a common garden sunlfower. The flowers are a dazzling deep orange, and the plants, with their velvety, staunchly upright stems are a great addition to a garden, especially when you need some sturdy height. The seeds, if left to ripen, are a favorite of smaller seed-eating birds like bush tits and gold finches in my California garden.
I agree with you on the catalog porn–one year I bought about 6 varieties of dent corn. Just had to have it. But our water bills were too high so never grew it again. Did get just enough to grind a little and it was good.
A visitor by way of PW, I like your style and your eye. Look forward to returning again.
Dear Toodie, I’m just putting in my seed order, including too many varieties of tomatoes. Thanks for the tips on the Tithonia–I used to grow it years ago and your descriptor of them as velvety and staunch… that’s exactly it. I ordered them too. Alice