Gaspe Flint Corn Seed in the U.S.?

[Joe Haynes]

This year, my daughter and I will be planting a Patawomeck Indian garden. I am a member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia and want to grow some plants that my ancestors grew hundreds of years ago.

After some research, I learned that the Patawomecks planted three varieties of corn: popcorn, flint, and dent. One of the varieties only grew to about 3' tall and matured in about 50 days. They planted two crops of this corn so they had four total corn harvests per season.

After searching for a fast maturing heirloom corn, I ran across Gaspe Flint Corn which is a corn that was corn my Native people in Canada. The cooler climate meant they needed a fast maturing corn. So far, I have been unsuccessful in locating a seller that can ship the corn to the U.S.

Does anyone know of a source for some Gaspe Flint Corn seed in the U.S.?

We will be growing corn, pole beans using the corn stalks as poles, and squash using techniques that were used by Virginia Indians in the 17th century. It's an exciting project and we can't wait to see some growing plants!

 

[thistlebloom]

Hi Joe, welcome to TEG!
I don't know about a U.S. source for seed. I bought mine from Canada, but that particular seed company no longer sells to the U.S.

I have some seed I could share with you. Send me a private message and we can work out the details.

It's such a short corn that I would wonder how it would do with pole beans planted with it, the beans might be too overwhelming for that variety.
But it wouldn't hurt to try!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Hi Joe, sounds like a fun project with your daughter! You've incorporated a lot of different educational opportunities - history, culture, natural science - she'll remember this project for a long time! And maybe you'd have an interest in getting in on the Little Easy Bean Network organized by Bluejay - click there to go to the link. Welcome to TEG!

 

[897tgigvib]

I know from experience that even bush beans that make the slightest short determinate runners, such as Eye of the Tiger, will easily overwhelm Gaspe Flint.

Gaspe is best single cropped. At barely knee high practically any plant will overwhelm it. On the other hand it is so quick, actual real days to maturity I got was seed-to-seed 60 days for the first dry ripe cobs, and it finishes by 90 days. Taking up the plants at 90 days one gets all the cobs, and finds smaller cobs on the tillers.

Maybe something such as native Chives would be a good intercrop for Gaspe.

Gaspe is super fun to grow!

 

[Joe Haynes]

NwMtGardener, thanks, I will check it out!

thistlebloom, thanks!

Marshallsmyth,

You are correct about the beans overwhelming the Gaspe. I am also planting some flint and dent corn that to about 7'-8' tall and near those corns is where I will be growing the beans.

I will check into the chives, sounds interesting!

 

[digitS']

Joe, I think your research and your daughter's involvement are great! I also think you are on the right track.

I tried a "sisters garden" with a pole bean, sweet corn and squash many years ago. Not only did the pole beans overwhelm the short variety of sweet corn I was growing but I was stepping on the squash trying to harvest either the beans or the sweet corn.

Decades later, I tried the sisters again. This time, the corn was a flour corn and I decided to allow the beans to mature and dry. The squash was a winter squash variety.

I can't say things worked perfectly because I ended up setting up poles for the beans anyway. Other than that, I stayed out of the sisters garden through the growing season. So did the weeds .

Say "corn" to many gardeners and they think sweet corn." It would not be the best choice.

Since that try, I have just gone ahead with setting up the bean poles in the spring. That works, of course. It might also work to grow an especially robust dry corn variety or to plant the bean seed after the corn has had a week or two head start. Those are just ideas because I haven't tried them. Good Luck!

Steve

 

[Joe Haynes]

Thanks, digitS'!

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Joe -

I've been doing some searching for Native American heirlooms (I've got an ancestor from the Miami tribe) I'll make sure to keep an eye out for Patawomeck varieties for you! Keep doing what you're doing!

 

[Joe Haynes]

Thanks, TheSeedObsesser! It's a lot of meaningful fun to try to recreate the way our forefathers grew, preserved, and cooked food.

I am building an Indian barbecue grill too. I collected all of the saplings I needed today and will be working on it this weekend. Our tribe does demonstrations and re-enactments of Indian villages and culture. In May we are doing a demonstration about Patawomeck food and the wooden barbecue grill (Spanish called it a barbacoa) will be used in the demos.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

It's no problem! I just found out that I have some Miami heritage from my great grandpa a few weeks ago, so I haven't really gotten around to dwelling further into that. I have tried roasting things in earth pit lined with pebbles (mostly bluegill, and they were that bad!).