It's a delicious book about the plant life that makes up our alcoholic beverages, true, but it also includes fascinating tidbits about the plants we grow for reasons other than drinking.
For instance, CORN.
- I always thought "Indian corn" referred to the multi-colored corn popular in autumn displays. Nope. Apparently, when Columbus introduced corn to Europeans, the word 'corn' was used to describe all grains, so "Indian corn" was a distinguisher for what we know as corn today.
- A team of archaeologists believe that early corn might have been selected and domesticated for its juice, not its grain. They've found evidence that people used to suck on pieces of cornstalk and then spit the pieces out. Eventually, sugarcane beat out cornstalks as a ready source of sugar.
- There are seven main types of corn:
- Dent (field corn, which we plant at Wagner Farm for animal feed)
- Flint
- Flour (usually ground into flour)
- Pod (an old variety)
- Pop (kernels with large endosperm that, when heated, explodes and turns the kernel inside out)
- Sweet (what we eat), and
- Waxy (a variety that is used as an adhesive, or in food as a thickener or a stabilizer)
There's a lot more in the book about corn, bourbon, and other alcohols made from corn, of course. But I'm reading it for the veg history.
I'll be sharing more with you as I read through the book.
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