I have read on various websites that Indian corn, often used as an autumn decoration, is actually edible. Has anyone here tried it? How long do you have to boil it? How does it taste compared to sweet corn? Where is it sold fresh with the husk still on it? Does it ripen later than sweet corn (hence the autumn association)?
And is it as indigestible as regular corn? If so I have to buy some indian corn and a camera.
Patty calls his pictures,Art. But I still call it Shit.
What’s your definition of “edible”?
Depending on what it is, lots of things may be edible.
Indian corn is not merely edible, it is historically a staple of the native South American diet.
I’ve heard that it pops reasonably well. Never actually tried it, though. And you can grind it to meal, and use it for anything you’d use yellow cornmeal for (that’s how they get those funny-colored corn chips).
Why else would they grow it?
I’ve had it as an ingredient in different dishes, but never eaten right off the ear.
As I understand, it’s not meant to be eaten right off the ear like sweet corn. It was meant to be dried and removed from the ear, then ground and used as a flour. It was a good staple because after it was properly dried you could store it for a long time, grinding it for each meal (rather than storing a big bag of flour. The Natives also popped it, but the archaeological evidence isn’t too strong on it being commonly consumed. (Some researchers believe that the evidence of popcorn we have could have come from kernals accidentally dropped in the fire.)
It would be more like “field corn.” The hulls would be tougher and it would be more starchy-- less sweet.
For that, you’d probably have to find a farmer who grows it, but again, it really wasn’t meant to be eaten that way.