Color, the Veggie Garden

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

in the 1st pic,the last ear on the left is just about fully dry. they'll keep most of their color when they feel hard when pressed on the kernels. most in the pic are getting tough but not fully dried down yet. i'll give them a few weeks before i pick the kernels off for saving or using for feed for the chickens. i could save some of the kernels to grind for flour/meal.

the 2nd ear from the bottom on the left row is very fresh and the color will continue to develop some more before it dries. if picked when they are in the 'milk' stage you can eat them (they will still be pale yellow but start showing a blush of blue or other colors), but you need to pick them & cook it right away or the sugar breaks down too quickly.

i think i planted too closely this year. many are showing lots of un-pollinated kernels at the tops. and 2 show un-pollinated kernels at the bottom & top. or we just had too much rain when they were being pollinated.

 

[digitS']

Beautiful corn ...

Here is a picture from earlier this year and you can contrast the color of Purple Orach with Red Orach (link).



Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

That's super pretty corn @Chickie'sMomaInNH !
The Glass Gem corn you sent the kids is running out of season and unfortunately not going to produce.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

if you have any seeds left plant them next year. i mixed in the rest i had left from my 2014 purchase with last year's harvested seeds when i planted this year. i didn't have any problems with bad germination or having to replant this year. i was a little late getting some of the seeds in but they still produced early enough for me this year!

@digitS' those purple orach are beautiful. in your area do they self seed and come back the next year with a vengeance?

 

[digitS']

Vengeance?

Yeah .

But, if there is too much of the orach - it's been easy to find and weed out.

Steve

 

[journey11]

been harvesting some of this year's Glass Gem corn. lots of colors!
View attachment 9316 View attachment 9317 View attachment 9318

Gorgeous! Can't believe the wide range of colors you got. Like a work of art.

@Jared77 will want to see this.

 

[journey11]

Here's my McCormack's Blue Giant Dent corn, just harvested yesterday. There are more unshucked ears beneath, but I got excited and shucked all of the big ones. It needs more time drying down, then I'm going to grind it for flour. The darker ears are the drier ones. It will retain a light blue color even when cooked.

It made huge corn stalks, over 10' high, with 3 ears per stalk, but really only two each made for nice big ears with the third being pretty small and not well developed. I could have fertilized more. And the corn ear worms didn't find me this year. Yay!

Ava's studying early American history this year, so we'll have some nice husks to make dolls with. My mom taught me to make them when I was a kid and we'd have them for decoration for the Thanksgiving table.

I'll post some pics of our blue tortillas when I get to make them too.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

pretty blue/purple on those! last night i pulled an ear from mine that was in shades of purples and red that looks close to those!

 

[thistlebloom]

That's beautiful corn @journey11 ! It probably has a long dtm though right?
I would love to grow that.

 

[digitS']

85/100 days the linked info says, @thistlebloom.

But, look whose post precedes yours ... Maybe, it's 85 days in NH and 100 days in WV .

The only thing I go for that is over 80 days are cool season crops. In other words, Andover Parsnip (120 days) is okay but none of the warm season crops, like peppers and sweet corn, Mortgage Lifter tomato (85 days) is not.

Steve