Flint Corn (Zea mays var. indurata)
Gaspé Flint
Some of the finest cobs
One of the world's absolutely earliest corn types. Originally from the Mi'kmaq indians of the Gaspé peninsula in Québec, Canada. The majority of the plants are only 50-100 cm tall, with 7-10 leaves. The cobs are 5-11 cm long with 8 rows of yellow kernels. 1-3 cobs per plant. 75 days (90-100 days in Sweden) from sowing to harvest.
Some plants are only 30 cm and some grow as tall as 115 cm. Some short plants only grow 6 leaves, and some vigorous plants as many as 11 or 12 leaves. On vigorous plants the cobs can have 10 rows of kernels near the bas, like the nearest one in the first photo.
Flint corn is used dried and milled to flour for polenta, cornbread, etc.
Since the plants are small they can be grown at row and plant spacing 22-24 cm.
I got this one from Great Lakes Staple Seeds (in Michigan) who got it from Sherck Seeds (in Indiana). John Sherck got his seed stock from:
50% A Canadian farmer in Saskatchewan
20% Abundant Life Seed Foundation (seed saver organisation in Washington state at the end of the 1990s)
20% from a grower in Vermont, USA
10% Heritage Harvest Seeds in Manitoba, Canada
The variation within Sherck's stock is very large for most traits of the plants.
I have later added some more seeds to my stock that I got from Heritage Harvest Seeds.
