{"id":43,"date":"2012-08-06T21:10:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T02:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/?p=43"},"modified":"2012-08-06T21:10:17","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T02:10:17","slug":"smut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/smut\/","title":{"rendered":"Smut"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw some telltale enlarged white growths on the neighbor’s tiny corn patch.\u00a0 I recognized it as smut, from my youth in Iowa, a bane of corn farmers.\u00a0 But I now know it is edible, a delicacy, even.\u00a0 So I checked my own corn patch, and found several infected ears.\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The original kernel of corn is visible in parts of it, like this outstanding example, larger even than popcorn would be from the same kernel:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>

Single 'kernel' and full ear.<\/p><\/div>\n

Some of the infected kernels had burst open, revealing mostly black spores inside, some were only slightly enlarged and firm.\u00a0 I cleaned and separated the little ‘pods’, added them to some sauteed onions and garlic, with a little salt and pepper:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yum!<\/p><\/div>\n

There are many recipes online, it is often eaten in Mexico.\u00a0 Check your own corn, don’t pass up the chance to turn a loss into a gain!<\/p>\n

Research:\u00a0 Wikipedia: Corn smut<\/em> (Ustilago maydis) is a pathogenic plant fungus that causes smut disease on maize and teosinte.\u00a0 Huffington Post<\/a>:For years, scientists have assumed that huitlacoche (WEET-LA-KO-CHEE) \u2013 a gnarly, gray-black corn fungus long-savored in Mexico \u2013 had nutritional values similar to those of the corn on which it grew. But test results just published in the journal Food Chemistry reveal that an infection that U.S. farmers and crop scientists have spent millions trying to eradicate, is packed with unique proteins, minerals and other nutritional goodies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw some telltale enlarged white growths on the neighbor’s tiny corn patch.\u00a0 I recognized it as smut, from my youth in Iowa, a bane of corn farmers.\u00a0 But I now know it is edible, a delicacy, even.\u00a0 So I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hedgecroft.com\/permaculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}