Saturday, August 15, 2015

Sweet Corn Review: Double Standard




As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

I do a great deal of seed testing for my personal use, and have been looking for a suitable open pollinated corn, which is not genetically engineered or sugar enhanced genes, which all make me ill in those concentrated sugar forms.

I have tried numbers of varieties, but most failed. I did have a very good stand of Golden Bantam Improved. The Improved was a good corn, much longer than the old Bantam. The mice loved it and about destroyed my seed base though, and this corn too bothered me with allergic reactions.

I have been working now with a corn for the past 3 years which we just ate tonight for supper. It is a Johnnys Select Seed creation called Double Standard. It is a bi color corn with an unnamed St. Lawrence Valley early white and a yellow corn named Burnell.

Burnell is a landrace type selection locally grown in Maine, another cool short season location.

This corn did pretty good on unfertilized ground. It has the heavy corn hull on each kernel that the old corns have. It is though sweet, has a wonderful aroma in being corn scented as it should, and the flavor is not overpowering.

For survivalist in the coming collapse it is probably the best choice which is out there. I have tried others like Buhl which failed. This one has not made me sick, it grows well, the plants while not thick do stand up well. It seems to do ok in handling heat and cold.

Problem is Johnny's and I think it is Henry Fields seed packets are very expensive in the five dollar range. You can save seeds from them if they grow, but all the same, that is high. It is though a good corn, which did 3 to 7 inch ears in a dry year with wet spells.
I still am working on another variety which grew well this year in Dohrinny, but I do not have enough to do the culinary test, and it is short season, planted late in 65 day corn, it is not mature enough to assess how it has produced. It did grow well though......is a cross from Canadian Golden Bantam and Pickaninny, a black sweet corn.

I try always to grow early short season crops, which will produce. Long season crops will produce more in most cases, but if you have a volcanic winter for summer or a dry spell, you will go hungry.

I plan to plant Double Standard next season to increase my seed supply and to make it behave a bit better in making the ears more uniform. I suspect like most crops sold, they are grown in nice locations and fertilized to be pampered. In normal conditions though this causes problems in uneven crops.

Just thought I would share the million dollar information on one sweet corn which at least I could eat as it did grow and produce more than seed.....and it did not cause reactions in my body.

Not vouching for these companies and have not looked at shipping rates, but Good Seeds has it for 3.50 a packet and Cherry gal has it for 1.75 (no that is not me.)

Oh and one mostly white ear, seemed to turn yellowish when cooked.






agtG