Corn Smut In The Garden Can Be Viewed Either As Pest Or Pleasure
August 22, 2024 | By Julie Harker, University of Illinois
Decades ago, when I discovered the pre-Colombian delicacy, huitlacoche, in central Mexico, I knew it was only a matter of time before enterprising American farmers would introduce this pre-Colombian delicacy “en el Norte.”
My Dad, who was an upstate New York farm boy — and a very good lifetime gardener of fruits, vegetables, and berries — was the first to introduce me to “corn smut.”
Not surprisingly, he had no idea that this “smut” was delectable, but only saw it as the destruction of another ear of his prized Golden Bantam sweet corn.
It is not hard to find canned huitlacoche in your neighborhood “tienda” (and sometimes in supermarkets!), but the taste of the canned product is to fresh huitlacoche what canned peas are to garden-fresh.
Caveat emptor.
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The cultivation of huitlacoche is a corn-belt fortune waiting to be made.
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