
A Nearly Extinct Bootlegger's Corn Gets a Second Shot (2018) - thesausageking
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/02/574367086/from-hooch-to-haute-cuisine-a-nearly-extinct-bootleggers-corn-gets-a-second-shot
======
flyGuyOnTheSly
I love this story.

Wild/forgotten cultivated crop seeds are fascinating to me.

I pick, taste and save as many different wild foods that I can find.

I have found wild chives growing on an island in northern ontario, they're
flowering in my backyard right now actually!

I have sampled hundreds of different mulberry trees and saved the best tasting
and largest berries to hopefully one day create a mulberry farm.

I have even found a very rare (in my neck of the woods at least) red mulberry
tree that flowers and produces fruit all season long. (Whereas most mulberries
produce berries once en masse, which ripen towards the end of june or early
july). This mulberry produces fruit from june all the way into
october/november for some reason.

I found an italian plum tree growing near my house that I picked clean and
saved hundreds of pits from last year.

My white whale is a local pawpaw tree that I have yet to find growing anywhere
in the local forests, despite many other foragers fruitful finds.

There are delicious fruits all around you. Rosehips are actually quite tasty
fruits as well, surprisingly!

Go take a look the next time you're out for a walk and try to figure out what
that bulbous berry or fruit is you're looking at. It probably tastes better
than you think!

(But don't eat it until you are 100% sure what it is of course!)

~~~
eitland
> I found an italian plum tree growing near my house that I picked clean and
> saved hundreds of pits from last year.

Don't all plum trees need to be grafted? I was fairly sure that planting most
fruit trees including plums from seeds would mostly result in small sour
fruits (and in the case of wild plums from my childhood: almost thorny
branches)?

I am quite hesitant to ask since you seem to be quite into this and I only
have some superficial knowledge about fruit farming but then again we are here
to learn aren't we :-)

~~~
japanuspus
In general, you should not expect that growing a fruit seed will yield a plant
with similar fruits (if it will grow at all): Most of the fruits we enjoy are
carefully bred for good sugar/acid balance, and offspring will mostly be quite
different. In addition, most fruit trees are grafted onto stems of other
varieties to get better root characteristics.

The nicest counterexample I know of is the danish apple "Filippa", which is a
rather acidic apple that stores well (I usually eat my last Filippas early
March): This variety can grow from seed and be left on its own root.

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breput
Maize has more human induced genetic diversity than any higher order organism.

There are many "heritage" maize varieties grown for various reasons - my
favorite is a type of popcorn that grows very small kernels (search for
"tinybutmighty popcorn").

That said, this seems like mostly an advertisement for a brand of bourbon
whiskey. Most of the specialty maize varieties have a similar origin story,
usually with some drama about the "last owner" or "one field left".

~~~
blaser-waffle
> Most of the specialty maize varieties have a similar origin story, usually
> with some drama about the "last owner" or "one field left".

Most of them? You've been seeing tons of these articles about heirloom corn?
Show me.

This is common with most heirloom plants -- usually a small cluster lives on
somewhere. I find it hard to believe it's an ad for whiskey when it's written
by NPR; if anything, it's NPR trying to find southern farm news to appeal to
certain parts of the US that would otherwise be outside of the NPR
demographic.

------
phillc73
Cool story.

I have a similar interest in barley for brewing. I like to find heritage or
land race varieties to try.

I often use Maris Otter[1], which is quite easy to obtain. However, others
like Hana[2] and Chevallier[3] can be more difficult to buy.

Scottish Bere[4] is another grain I'd like to try, but haven't been able to
find any for sale, either whole grains or malted. Seems like only flour is
available.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maris_Otter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maris_Otter)

[2] [https://crispmalt.com/news/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-
hana-...](https://crispmalt.com/news/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-hana-malt/)

[3] [http://zythophile.co.uk/2013/04/15/revival-of-ancient-
barley...](http://zythophile.co.uk/2013/04/15/revival-of-ancient-barley-
variety-thrills-fans-of-old-beer-styles/)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bere_(grain)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bere_\(grain\))

~~~
mikro2nd
IIRC Simpson's Malts do a line of Chevallier malts.

eta: I may have misinterpreted... If it's malt you're seeking, maybe my
comment helps. If it's grain for growing, I'd love to talk seed-swapping if
you do lay hands on any.

~~~
phillc73
I know Crisp do sell Chevallier when available, but I didn't know about
Simpsons.

I was specifically talking about malt, but I would be happy enough with a
supply of grain and can then do my own maltings.

------
chiph
I bought a bottle of Jimmy Red bourbon from High Wire for a coworker (I got
super lucky - it was one of maybe a dozen left), and he reported that it had a
lot of flavor -- very natural tasting, and not like anything that comes out of
a production distillery.

As much as Tito deserves his success, calling his vodka "handcrafted" is a
major stretch when you've got a spirit like this that has true heritage behind
it.

------
seven4
_" The last known bootlegger growing the corn died, and the corn almost died
with him. Two ears were rescued from his plot and gifted to celebrated local
farmer and seed saver Ted Chewning, with the suggestion that he grow it out
for his hogs."_

I'm sure the corn is indifferent... but from a genetic survival/propagation-
games perspective something about a guy called Ted being chief savior tickles
me. What lore would the corn write about Ted if it could. What commandments
would Ted put forth.

Ted 10-17: thou shalt save the forgotten seed.

------
bacon_waffle
[2018]

Gravy, the podcast, did a piece on this corn as well:
[https://www.southernfoodways.org/gravy/a-taste-of-place-
whis...](https://www.southernfoodways.org/gravy/a-taste-of-place-whiskey-as-
food/)

------
RickJWagner
Wow, fantastic color.

Corn of this type would be useful in decorating Mitchell, South Dakota's
"World's Only Corn Palace".

Each year, the Corn Palace (a huge building) is decorated on the outside with
colorful murals, all made of corn.

If you can't visit for real, consider making a virtual visit:

[https://cornpalace.com/](https://cornpalace.com/)

------
082349872349872
There's a market power story here. If one grows a perishable crop, like onions
(or even hogs, in countries with centralised meatpacking), one is at the mercy
of the markets that season. If one can store the crop (corn->bourbon,
poppies->opium, etc.) then, for the price of the processing, one has a lot
more options about when to sell and can attempt to get better prices.

(I live in a jurisdiction where people come around the villages with stills on
trailers, and will distill your excess fruit production. Some farmers even
leave their extra bottles on a table in the farmyard, with a box for the money
when we non-farmers stop by to buy some)

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atebyagrue
Ordered a pound of it this year and got some growing in the garden right now.
Got it from a uncontaminated, heirloom, non-GMO grower in Alabama:
[https://raileyfarmandfield.com/shop/jimmy-red-corn-
seed](https://raileyfarmandfield.com/shop/jimmy-red-corn-seed)

------
bryanrasmussen
I had a hard time with this title wondering how a bootlegger goes nearly
extinct.

It's still messing with my head a bit every time I look at it, but my head is
probably more easily messed with today than normally.

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soperj
Kerning on the font for the title here on HN makes it look like it says Com.
It's weird though, because in the comments it doesn't look that way. Corn.

~~~
system2
I think it is a Verdana thing. Title is 13px, comments are 12px. Increasing
the font to 13 does the same thing to comments.

------
ketamine__
I'm growing bloody butcher corn in my garden. It looks similar. I have a ton
of seeds if anyone would like some.

~~~
robbseaton
Hey, I love to trade seeds! I've got all sort of hot peppers. E-mail me at
robb at rs dot io ? Other HNers welcome, too.

