Corn smut in the garden can be viewed either as pest or pleasure
August 22, 2024 | By Julie Harker, University of Illinois Extension
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 gardner of fruits, vegetables, and berries — was the first to introduce me “corn smut.”
Not surprisingly, he had no idea 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 peas.
Caveat emptor.
See less
The cultivation of huitlacoche is a corn-belt fortune waiting to be made
No comments:
Post a Comment