Glass Gem corn, the iridescent flint corn that looks like little jewels on a cob is both ornamental and edible. You wouldn't want to eat it straight off the cob but it grinds into perfect cornmeal and used for popcorn.
I was at my neighbour's house the other day dropping off some chives from my garden for her when I said something that felt a little ridiculous. Not Westboro Baptist ridiculous, just normal ridiculous. You may know the fun loving Westboro Baptists from their hit single, "God Hates the World" or one of their catchy mottos, "The Only True Jews are Christians" and "1, 2, 3, 4, God Hates the Marine Corps". They also hate "fags", flags, Catholics, the Pope, Barrack Obama, Sweden, Apple (even though they use iPhones), Leonard Nimoy, pink buses, life, death, air, rainbows and anti-psychotic medications apparently.
What I said to my neighbour was "this is a very busy time of year for me with the harvest and all". The harvest and all. Firstly, when did I learn to speak yokel? And secondly ... the harvest? I have a 20x40 foot community garden and a patch of front yard and I'm referring to "the harvest".
But I'm telling you now, with Sweden as my witness, every spare second I have at the moment is taken up by picking vegetables, storing vegetables, canning or otherwise preserving vegetables. The harvest.
One of the things I happen to be harvesting is Glass Gem corn. Reader Kat mailed the seeds to me last year. I didn't really know what they were at the time which isn't surprising since Glass Gem corn was only unveiled to the world in 2012.
Glass Gem corn is a variety that almost didn't exist. You see, years ago a part-Cherokee farmer in Oklahoma was known for being a bit of a corn breeding genius. His name was Carl Barnes. Carl mixed and matched and bred different varieties of corn. He planted and created corn that produced translucent, gem-like kernels. He did this for years until he was satisfied he had created a variety of corn that would reliably reproduce what he had in his head. A corn that looked like it was made up of translucent glass gems. Glass Gem corn.
When Carl started to get on (there's that yokel talk about), he passed his seed collection onto his seed saving protege Greg Schoen. Greg was the one person that Carl trusted with his decades of work. In 2010, while in the process of moving and not wanting to lose track of the thousands of seeds, Greg took a small portion of his collection to a seed saving institution, Seeds Trust.
Curious about these seeds, in 2012 someone from Seeds Trust planted a handful of them in their garden to see what this Glass Gem corn would look like.
They were stunned to find corn with see through kernels in gemstone colours. And every single cob was different. The company posted photos of the corn on their Facebook page and within hours the corn pictures went viral, crashing their Facebook page. EVERYONE wanted to buy the seeds. The problem was, there weren't any for sale.
Over the next couple of years Seeds Trust worked to produce enough seeds to be able to sell to the public.
I have no idea how my reader got these seeds, but I'm hoping she'll let us all know in the comment section. I take my seed responsibility very seriously so I'll be getting a separate garden next year just for my glass gem corn. I'm hoping to grow 100 plants.
If YOU want to buy Glass Gem corn, there are many places that sell it on Amazon.com but if I were you I'd buy it from the original source Seed Trust. By buying from them you'll be guaranteed you're getting a properly bred and selected seed.
I know you're all excited about the possibility of eating this now, but Glass Gem isn't an eat off of the cob type of corn. It's a grind into flour type of corn; a flint corn. Before you get too disappointed, there are 2 other things you can do with this corn. Use it for fall decorating because it's SO much more impressive than the regular Indian corn you can buy. OR ... and this is the fun part ... you can use it for popcorn.
Coming up on Wednesday I'll be showing you 4 ways to decorate with Indian Corn using my Glass Gem corn because no matter what Pinterest tells you, tying 3 cobs of Indian corn together isn't as easy as it looks. For real. Once Autumn decorating season is over I'll be removing the best kernels for seed saving and the rest will get put into a glass jar for popcorn.
Because who doesn't like popcorn?! Then again. Who doesn't like rainbows?
hewett joan
Dang! As a bead freak, I thought this was going to be some crazy DIY gemstone beading project that I would spent scads of money on! Now I'm going to spend scads of money trying to figure out how to turn this into a REAL gemstone corn!!! Will keep you posted!
Kathleen
Well now... I tried to find out... and the website "declined to show" me their site! I guess we are more than blacklisted!!!!
Kat
First off I am not the same Kat as the post mentions. I did however learn quite a bit about corn. Very interesting stuff and I never knew about the pollinating thing with all those silky strands. Beautiful photos Karen and great post!
Kathleen
When I saw the first picture, I wondered what crafter had gone to all that effort to polish gem stones, model and mould something that looks exactly like a corn cob, attach the gems to it, and oh, and how did they make the dried leaves look so realistic? And then I read the post... the corn is so beautiful! So, so beautiful!
And I am positive that South Africa doesn't have such strict laws... and I am praying we aren't blacklisted... off to find out...
Thank you for this post! I am in love! (with corn!)
Debbe Van Ness
HA! I thought the exact same thing! The corn really is beautiful.
Sharon
That corn is gorgeous! Wish I could buy some in a store because I don't have enough sun in my backyard to grow veggies and especially not corn. It looks great with the cobs tied together and it's going to look so pretty in jars afterwards. During the winter when you look at that jar, I bet you think about your summer garden!
Marna
Beautiful! I don't normally grow corn, just every few years, might be worth trying, it is so unusual. Thanks for sharing. :)
Hazel
GB is also blacklisted :(
We must have funny quarantine laws too (though we don't have fruit sniffer dogs at airports like California)
Pam...not the same Pam that posted earlier
Darn pretty corn! I want to see what it looks like popped! Will the kernels retain any of their color?
Karen
Hi Pam! No, they won't sadly. Sad, sad, sad. This blog is always filled with such sad news. It does however, produce delicious popcorn. I tried a few kernels that were very dry the other day and it pops up to be small popcorn but very crispy. Not at all chewy. Pretty much perfect popcorn actually! But it's definitely plain white and you can't even see the colour of the kernel at all once cooked. Luckily I don't eat a lot of popcorn so mainly it'll look great in a clear jar on a shelf. ;) ~ karen
Adrienne
Maybe you'd heard this but I read in a seed trust article, that the best kernels to pop are perfectly round without flat sides which won't pop as well :)
Paula
I tried to grow this corn this year, but it didn't really work. There are some cobs but they are super skinny and I have yet to pick one.
Karen
Hi Paula. It sounds like it either a) didn't get enough sun or b) was planted a bit too late for the ears to mature. It's also possible they didn't pollinate. Sometimes you need to help corn along to pollinate. The top of the corn grows a sort of flower on it with pollen. When it's moved by the wind the pollen falls down and hits the new silk of the corn. Each one of those strands of silk on the top of your corn produces a kernel of corn! So if some or all of the strands aren't pollinated you get corn that doesn't grow any kernels. ~ karen!
Paula
Thanks for the pointers. It was in sun all day with plenty of compost plus mulch and it was watered. I think that planted too late and lack of pollination are the most likely culprits.
It is so pretty that I will try again next year.
Patricia Polmanteer
That glass corn (pop corn)is beautiful indeed. I fell in love with it when I got the information from the seed trust in 2014 to plant that year but with my husbands health issues I had to wait. I planted it late this year and is came up nicely. I can't wait to harvest it and put it on display while it drys. I will be saving some to plant next (and all the following that I can) year. I am well please to see you post those beautiful pictures and write such a nice piece on it. Thanks for sharing.
Ritz
That corn is some beautiful!
Thank you, Karen.
Cynthia Jones
It's the purtiest corn I ever did seen. Ahuh!
Cynthia Jones
Hmph!
I had the brilliant idea of buying some for myself and my friend for part of her Christmas gift.
The Seed Trust message says my country AU has been blacklisted.
I dint do anything. Maybe they are worried about Australia's weird quarantine rules. They're happy to let us all go to Bali and have rabies/mange infested monkeys sit on our heads without spraying us on the way home, but "oh no, the dreaded corn kernel may have something icky in it that will kill our crops or spread disease".
Anyone want to send me some? I promise I will come and visit you in jail if you're caught.
Natasha
Lol that sucks...well I planted a whole small plot of these organic heirloom glass gem corn. I'd be happy to send you some when it comes time to harvest. You just pay the shipping.
Jan in Waterdown
Dammit . . . thought I was gonna be the first reply o' the day since I was just sitting around reading on my iPad and my email went "bing" and I said yay in my head, I will be first. But no. And I've got nothin' worthwhile to say either.
Well, it is pretty corn. Dammit.
Therese
Now that is some good looking corn!
Jan
It doesn't look real! LOL I'm sure it is, but WOW. I was so slack I didn't even put in a summer garden this year (the winter one is going great), but with some seeds like this, I would dedicate the whole plot to just corn. I bet if you picked it before maturity as large baby corns you could eat it. Wonder if it has the beautiful colors before maturity. Next spring would you please check and see? Stunning pics!
Amanda
Love this!!!
Daphne
We had trouble keeping up with "the harvest" this year, like you said, it take all our spare time! We had I think the best garden year I can recall this year. Still trying to bring in all the apples. Gorgeous corn, will keep my eye out when seed ordering. Thanks for a lovely post!
Jamieson
That is a stunner! I imagine it's even more beautiful in person than in a photo.
peg
so pretty~will you be sending seeds to all your followers,please. or just one whole ear . :D