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Post by mnjrutherford on Oct 27, 2013 12:35:41 GMT -5
Joseph, I hate to as you, but I can't find your postings about soaking popcorn before popping it.
The guys have shelled the "popping" corn (the cobs we are saving for seed will remain "hung" till planting time rolls around). They are now picking through the kernels to get rid of any bad ones. I know they are going to want to pop it immediately or sooner. Can you tell me where to look? THANK YOU!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 27, 2013 12:57:29 GMT -5
Selecting and Moisturizing PopcornThe test I use to estimate if the corn still has too much water is to bite the kernel. If it is still soft-ish there is too much moisture.
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Post by nathanp on Oct 27, 2013 15:20:07 GMT -5
Took some pictures of my grown out "Joseph's Popcorn" after harvesting last weekend. I had to harvest as many ears as I could and dry them indoors, as many of the ears had tiny ants trying to eat the kernels. Here are some pictures. Love the colors. Multicolored ears drying. I think the yellow one with the red edges might be my favorite (4th from left in the top row). The two in the bottom left are not from Joseph's popcorn seed. I planted a row of a store bought organic popcorn. I think it is the Bear's Paw variety, or has some of that in it's heritage. The ears were not round. Here is a picture of the mostly yellow and white ears. This is another of the yellow/light ears. The one on the bottom left looks like a shoepeg ear And here are the pathetic ears from the store bought seed. About half I just threw to the chickens as they had virtually nothing usable.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 27, 2013 16:21:21 GMT -5
Nathanp: Thanks for the grow report. I love photos! They look damper than I like to harvest popcorn, but gotta beat the bugs and weather so whatever it takes. How about that drying shelf? I'm drooling over something like that. The possibly favorite ear with the red edged kernels is probably a descendant of "Hopi Pink" which was one of the ancestors of this popcorn. I was sad that I didn't keep a pure strain of Hopi Pink, but at least the family is still with me, incorporated into both my sweet corn and my popcorn.
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Post by nathanp on Oct 27, 2013 16:42:17 GMT -5
The black shelf is actually the top of a dog crate. The white is just a metal shelf that's been sitting in my garage. I just set it up across the top of a couple things in my garage.
I would have liked to have left the corn drying in the field a lot longer.
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Post by ilex on Oct 30, 2013 18:16:51 GMT -5
Got this among Joseph's popcorn: Don't know what to say other than thanks. I'll post more, and better photos of the rest. I found it very sensible to snails eating the silk. Guess it's time to get some ducks or eat the snails.
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Post by nathanp on Oct 30, 2013 21:28:46 GMT -5
That is just beautiful. Amazing colors.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Oct 30, 2013 21:38:09 GMT -5
We still have to do the moisture test but Mike just HAD to try the popcorn. It did not really >POOF< well but the flavor is TO-DIE-FOR!!!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 31, 2013 21:58:09 GMT -5
I've finished my big seed swap for the year, so I've turned my attention to the popcorn.
As I do every year, I am test popping individual cobs to determine which have the highest popping ability. I have changed my popping strategy.
I put 20 seeds into an electric frying pan set at 400°F 375°F with a layer of oil in it. Then I count how many seeds pop. I scoop the seeds out after each trial. I have decided that "most every kernel pops" is the most important trait in popcorn, so that has become my primary selection criteria. Many cobs are coming in at 95% or 100% popping. I like the method, because the popped kernels don't burn, it's faster, and uses less corn.
I'm separating the cobs into groups: 95% or 100% for seed. 85% to 90% for popcorn. 50% to 80% for popcorn seconds. Less than 50% for animal feed or corn meal.
I grew some glass gem in my popcorn patch this summer. It is popping between 0% and 70%. Average is 10%. So it seems that it could be turned into a great popcorn by selection only. I'm still sticking with my original plan to incorporate it into my popcorn by hybridizing. (I made the cross this summer.) I want to select for the shorter growing season of my popcorn.
I purchased two types of landrace style commercial popcorn. They popped at 85% and 90%.
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Post by aineo on Jan 2, 2014 7:06:13 GMT -5
Thank you for sharing this, Joseph. I just started test popping the popcorn I grew last year, and experimented with doing it in the microwave (ended up with too much burned) and a stir-crazy popper. I think I am going to use the stir crazy, as I like eating the test when I am done, and quite frankly, it tastes better out of the stir crazy.
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Post by freeholder on Jan 22, 2014 0:18:14 GMT -5
Blueadzuki, were you the one having trouble with squirrels eating your corn seed? If so, since you have such a small garden, how about looking for a few old rabbit cages, take the bottoms off, and use them over your corn planting to keep the varmints out? I think you'd need to nestle the cages down into the soil a few inches to keep them from digging in.
Kathleen
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 22, 2014 6:14:31 GMT -5
I'll consider it, though I have a nasty guess that, once I take care of keeping the squirrels and chipmunks out, all that's going to happen is the moles and voles will take over the slack. But it may be worth a shot.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 6, 2014 23:20:42 GMT -5
I ran tests to determine the best conditions to conduct the test popping on my popcorn. I haven't adjusted the moisture of the cobs to optimal levels. It's probably around 10%. I am currently using a temperature of 375 F in my electric frying pan because it offers the most consistent results. 350 F was the minimum temperature at which the corn popped well, and on average more kernels popped, but results were not as consistent. For this testing I value consistency. Here's what the data looked like: I had so many cobs which popped perfectly that I'm only saving those cobs for seed for sharing. I'm very pleased with the seed crop this year, because so much of it popped so well that I am able to select for other valuable traits like easy-shelling. I only have about 180 cobs left to test.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Feb 8, 2014 17:26:40 GMT -5
ONLY 180 cobs left to test? How do you get any knitting done???
That corn looks beyond amazing Joseph! Success feels good doesn't it?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 8, 2014 14:32:13 GMT -5
I planted popcorn on May 5th. It was a joy to make selections this year. Many of the cobs popped perfectly, so I planted those as pollen donors and for bulk popcorn. I planted somewhere around 100 short rows according to the ear-to-row method. That will allow me to evaluate how each sibling-group performs. It's my intention to save for seed only from the best performing families (however I am defining performance by next planting date).
I also planted about 30 short rows of popcorn that I intend to detassel so they can be pollinated by the perfect-popping fathers. These were from cobs that had a trait like glorious colors, or high nutrition, or easy shelling, etc. The glass gem cross was included in this planting, and the Cateto cross, and popcorn varieties that are new to my garden. I also planted a patch of white popcorn.
I planted until dark, then planted another few hours by moonlight -- because rain was expected the next morning. Glorious indeed to plant the popcorn at the right season and have it rained on immediately. I planted by hand and spaced the seeds perfectly. That means no thinning later on and weeding will be much easier. I wasn't good for anything the next day. Oh well. I'm so content to have put the time in up front rather than later on.
The farmer's market starts this weekend, so today I popped up a batch of popcorn in peanut oil. Wow!!! It's good to remind myself why I grow.
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