Cornbread - From the Garden to the Table

    This past year we tried something new and that was growing corn that can be dried and then made into cornmeal. We specifically grew Indian corn- the beautiful colorful stuff. It was a venture that went quite well and one I plan to try again and I thought I would encourage others to do the same.

  The reason we did this originally is simply because we think they are pretty and we like to try new things. We thought it would be fun to have a lot of Indian corn on hand to decorate with.

  After growing it I have come up with more reasons that I like to grow it:

1. It tastes good.

2. My kids love husking it and working with it.

3. It doesn't have GMO's and the more I learn about them and realize that there are GMO's in most corn that we would buy the stronger I feel about this one! Now it is important that you get non-GMO seed. I bought our from Fedco and there are many other good places as well to get non-GMO seed. If you buy organic seed it will be and then there are other seeds that might not be organic but are non-GMO.

 

 The picture above shows the corn growing in our rather weedy garden (I really hope to do better at keeping things weed free next year - but am thankful that much grows despite that problem!). The stalks on the Indian corn were pretty too.

 This is one of the ways we used them for decoration.

The kids loved taking the kernels off the cob after they had dried.

They would sit around and do that when I read in the afternoons.

I am not sure what would be a good way to do this is you don't have eager children to help.

Ground up into meal the Indian corn has a different coloring than normal cornmeal but it works the same.

Here is my recipe for cornbread:



1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup honey

3 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

Mix dry ingredients together. Then gently stir in wet ingredients. Don't stir to much, some lumps are okay. Put in greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for around 20 minutes, check with toothpick to see when done. We like this so much that I usually double the recipe and then bake it in a 9 x 13" pan.

 We have also used our colorful cornmeal to make other things as well (in tortillas, etc) and it works just fine.

Have any of the rest of you grown your own corn to grind? I would love to hear about your experiences. Also please feel free to ask any questions that you might have. I love hearing from you!

I am linking this up to the Barn Hop hosting by New Life on a Homestead and The Prairie Homestead.

I am also linking to Clever Chick's Blog Hop.