If I go to the store and get some ears of dried corn and shell them, will they pop when placed in oil and heated, the same way that popcorn does, or is popcorn a specific thing? If it does pop, would I recognize it as what we know as popcorn today?
You may get a few kernels to pop. But nothing like the corn that is grown for popcorn. Wikipedia mentions some wild corn will pop.
more about Zea mays everta.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/1302
If you dry it completely, yes, but very poorly.
How would I know? As my brother always says, “If your front yard was a corn field, you grew up on a farm, even if it was only 1 acre.” I have extensive experience with home-grown corn :rolleyes:.
Growing up next to a corn field, I also discovered there is a big difference between field corn and sweet corn.
Well dried field corn’s pretty tasty IMHO. Parch it thus- remove from cob and toast in hot oil, much like popping corn on top of the stove. Some will pop a little. Don’t over cook it. Salt, cool, eat. There is a brand called Corn Nuts that is sold as a snack food.
http://www.planters.com/cornnuts/
Home made’s better.
Oh, you children of the corn! What other mischief did you get into?
I’ve thought about including a row of popcorn in my garden. It would be a treat for the kids to eat popcorn they watched grow.
Corn Nuts were always my go-to food for staying awake on cross-country trips. I defy anybody to fall asleep while chewing those.
Several of my South Dakota friends really like to eat field corn. Deer love it.
Popcorn is a different subspecies.
That tall corn was great for hiding your car off road and out of sight; great spot for working on mysteries without any clues. 
Corn is wind pollinated. You need to plant at least 4 rows to get a good set. You can plant shorter rows if you don’t want to give up that much space.
I remember these two doofuses I used to work with back when I worked in an office. One of them somehow got a hold of a cob of dried corn. It was that decorative stuff, that’s got mixed kernels, some brown, some yellow. So they decided that since it was dried, it must be poppable. They put the whole cob in the microwave.
The cob ended up in flames. The fire department showed up because the smoke set off the fire alarm in the 60-story high rise. The stink didn’t leave the floor for a week. Good times.
There was this one time back in Texas when it got so hot that the corn in the garden started popping. The chickens all thought it was snowing so they froze to death.
And then the Eskimos came rushing in thinking global warming had ended, and they melted to death.