Colorado Bob's Hopi Blue Corn Experiment: An Anniversary , and the 1st Year's Experiment's Results

Saturday, March 27, 2010

An Anniversary , and the 1st Year's Experiment's Results

My seed corn from last season. Some of this corn was grown on Buddy Holly Ave. in downtown Lubbock , Texas.

Last March , on the 11th . I launched this site with the following post :

Last night March 9, 2009 I offered to buy Hopi Blue Corn seeds for anyone who would plant them , regardless of their location. My email is posted on the right, just under the corn grinders.
Drop me an email, with your screen name , and mailing address, and I'll send you a package of:

Zea mays Tender Annual Hopi Blue Dent is an ancient flint corn, a traditional staple of the Hopi Indians of Northern Arizona. The 5' bushy plants have 8"—10" ears each. The ears have smooth blue kernels which dry to royal blue which can be eaten fresh, dried for cornmeal, or used for decorative purposes.

Last fall, when the crop came in I was asked for the results of the season. At the time it was too soon to tell really. I posted some answers, but not the results of the experiment.
Here are the results of Colorado Bob's Hopi Blue Experiment :
There is Big Medicine in Blue Corn.

I have changed the policy tonight ( It's under the email on the right).

You get 24 seeds , not 15 .

2 comments:

rezdog said...: Cbob, I've got mine from my harvest and I'm paying it forward by sending along some to a couple of good friends who wish to try their hand at it. I'll encourage them to follow along here and keep us posted.; March 27, 2010 at 10:48 PM
COLORADO BOB said...: Rez -
Great, tell them to drop in any time.; March 28, 2010 at 3:09 PM

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Blue Corn: Found primarily in the Southwest, blue corn has been a staple food of Native Americans - including the Hopi, Pueblo, Navajo & Zuni tribes - for hundreds of years. Coronado found blue corn & other flour corns during his 1540 expedition into the Southwest.

Blue flour corn, made of primarily soft starches, is used for blue corn flour & cornmeal, and for making blue corn tortillas and blue corn chips. Itís a bit coarser than yellow or white meal, but is somewhat sweeter & nuttier in flavor. It also contains about 20% more protein & up to 50% more iron than other varieties of corn.

Blue Corn & Hopi Indians: Hopi blue corn varieties can range in color from nearly black to a powdery gray color. There are three varieties of the blue corn: "standard" blue (sakwaqa'o), hard blue (huruskwapu), and gray-blue (maasiqa'o). Because of its hard kernels, huruskwapu is most resistant to storage pests and traditionally was the preferred variety for storing. When the grinding was all done by hand, women preferred using maasiqa'o because it is soft and easier to grind but the color was not as vibrant as that of the sakwaqa'o or huruskwapu.

Besides being the backbone of their diet, blue corn represents an essential part of the Hopi culture. It represents the Eastern rising sun, the beginning of life, wisdom & understanding. The Hopi of Arizona use blue corn in the naming ceremonies of infants, who might not receive their name for 6-to-8 months. They believe that blue corn represents a long life; Hopi men ate blue corn before undertaking long journeys because they believe it gives them great strength. To this day, the Hopi believe in the power of blue corn, as demonstrated by their story of creation.

As the Hopi moved from the third to the fourth way of life, Maasawu, the Creator, presented the gift of corn to all those who emerged. The other peoples took the largest ears of corn and Hopis were left with the small blue ear. The Hopis knew that their fourth way of life would be would not be easy, but that overcoming hardships would make them strong. The themes of humility, cooperation and respect became the lifeway of all Hopis.

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