Corn for cornmeal

Discussion in 'The Green Patch' started by Motomom34, Oct 26, 2014.


  1. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Ever thought of drying corn for meal? Ever wondered if you can dry and grind all corn? From my reading I have learned that field corn (dent) or Indian (flint) corn is the beast for making corn meal. Field corn is not the sweet corn that we eat at the family table. Field corn tough.

    All About Corn | USA Emergency Supply

    After planting and growing your dent corn, let it dry on the stock. This helps to dry the corn. If you will be getting lots of moisture, harvest and finish drying indoors. Below are two links that give step by step instructions on drying corn for meal.

    How to Make Your Own Cornmeal with Dehydrated Corn or Popcorn - Mom with a PREP
    or
    Making cornmeal from dried corn (or how I saved the corn from the compost.)
    Growing with plants gardening blog: Drying Corn, for Corn Meal

    Once you remove the kernels it is time to grind the corn. Our very own @tacmotusn was lucky to find an antique corn grinder. Antique corn grinder find on the cheap | Survival Monkey Forums


    These people bought a kit that attaches a grinder to you bike


    Here are some other examples of bicycle corn grinders: The Country Living Grain Mill | Grind Wheat Grain into Flour Grinding corn takes time and ark power, thus people get creative to make things easier.
    I have one of these:

    corn5.

    Corn_GrinderGrain_GrinderCereal_Mill__H500_1.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2019
    Ganado, HK_User, Bear and 5 others like this.
  2. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    Very nice informative post. thanks
     
    HK_User and Motomom34 like this.
  3. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    I've thought about it, but have almost given up trying to grow decent corn. It seems easy enough, Native Americans were doing it five thousand years ago, but there's something I'm not doing right. Every year, my scraggly stalks provide me a handful of cobs, usually only half covered in kernels. If we had to depend on my corn harvests to eat, we'd be in trouble. I keep experimenting, but haven't found the perfect type of soil, sun, and water combination yet. Oh well, next year is another year.
     
    HK_User, ditch witch and Seacowboys like this.
  4. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I buy bulk corn at a feed store and grind my own meal. Popcorn also makes a pretty good corn meal.
     
    Ganado, T. Riley, HK_User and 4 others like this.
  5. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    My corn is never worth the effort. It's nearly always tough no matter what kind I grow and the wind just sucks the life out of the plants. The last year I tried I got stalks and not a single ear, which, yay. Plus there's no point in me trying to save seed as there's a GMO field a half a mile away. The only kind I got to grow really well was a miniature type, Blue Jade, and my saved seed gave me a lot of bi-color weirdos the next year. Much easier to do what Seacowboys does and buy 40 pounds for $8 and save my back a lot of misery. I'll keep trying, but at this point I just plant enough to keep the chickens amused.
     
  6. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Wandering past various corn fields over time, I noticed that the stalks around the edges of the field are always shorter and appear less vigorous than the rows two or three deep into the field. I think, but do not know, that the plants shade each other to a degree. In the way distant past, I planted 3 rows just for S&G in a spot of the yard that did not get direct sun in the afternoon. Checking for ripeness, the ears were developing as expected, but the dam))) squirrels beat me to the harvest.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2014
  7. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    @tulianr and @ditch witch I never had loads of sucess with corn either. I have a small space in my raised boxes for my garden and the corn takes up lots of room. Maybe @ghrit is on to something. Maybe corn needs some shade. I saw this- On Deck Sweet Corn Seeds - Container Corn, Vegetable Seeds and Plants at Burpee.com which is corn grown in containers. Your porch would not be as sunny as a garden would be. Maybe next year I should try some blue corn in containers.

    @Seacowboys I never thought of skipping the growing part. I love your suggestion, you are so smart.
     
    Ganado and HK_User like this.
  8. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Moisture and well drained fertile land.

    Pull ears as soon as the kernels fill out and the silk turns. Using a pump type automotive oil can apply cooking oil into the end of the ear as the ear grows. This stops the worm problem.

    Indians did the 3 plant method and kept their corn about 24 inches apart. Corn, beans and squash. Corn stalk gives the beans a trellis, squash provides shade to the base of the corn stalk and slows the evap.

    Mulch as the summer gets hotter.

    Did it all, happy with the results. Harvest the rabbits and tree rats when they come to dinner and you have a well balanced meal.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2014
  9. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    Corn likes lots of nitrogen and moisture, especially after it has tasseled and the ear is filling out. Give it plenty of nitrogen rich fertilizer. With even crap soil it is possible to have good corn yields (like over 250 bu/acre) with good irrigation (subsoil best) and timely fertilizer application.
    AT
     
    HK_User, tulianr and Motomom34 like this.
  10. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Cycles of rain and sun sometimes produce a lake algae that I harvest to mulch the plants.

    Much more than green slime, more like a thin grass and it adds that extra kick of Nitrogen for a good crop.

    I harvest it from the bank with a yard rake.

    Only takes a few minutes to fill a 5 gallon bucket.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2019
    chelloveck likes this.
  11. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

  12. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    There's a pretty good case to be made for adding that "Making cornmeal and grits" to the recipe forum, eh?
     
    HK_User, Motomom34 and Falcon15 like this.
  13. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    You sure aren't. Did you put a dead fish in the hole with the seed? You also have to dance around and chant. Like this . . . .

    [​IMG]
     
  14. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Most assume that corn care was women's work. Fact is the men on the mesa tops protected and watered the corn when needed.
     
    Motomom34 and tulianr like this.
  15. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    "Water for your crop" - Roland "The Gunslinger" by Stephen King
     
    kellory likes this.
  16. Illini Warrior

    Illini Warrior Illini Warrior

    whenever the discussion turns to grinding dent corn I mention the need to stock lime for nixtamalization .... key to corn preparation but not mentioned often enough as a necessary bulk item to stock .... tons of uses ....
     
  17. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Up the tower stairs and through the door......
     
    Falcon15 likes this.
  18. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    Really didn't like the second ending at all. Felt for Roland at that point.
     
    kellory likes this.
  19. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    He was robbed.
     
  20. vonslob

    vonslob Monkey++

    I have grown corn before but it takes up so much room for the amount you get. Have planted it with squash and pinto beans (three sisters) and it was successful. I think that corn likes shaded ground and that is what the squash does. Never had much luck growing corn in a row by itself
     
  1. JC Refuge
  2. JC Refuge
  3. JC Refuge
  4. JC Refuge
  5. Alanaana
    Uploaded by: Alanaana, Mar 1, 2023, 0 comments, in album: Alana's_Adventures
  6. Alanaana
    Uploaded by: Alanaana, Mar 1, 2023, 0 comments, in album: Alana's_Adventures
  7. RJFab
  8. duane
  9. TnAndy
  10. john316
  11. DKR
  12. DKR
  13. apache235
  14. Ganado
  15. alaskachick
  16. Motomom34
  17. Bandit99
  18. Asia-Off-Grid
  19. oldman11
  20. Asia-Off-Grid
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7