Tuscarora White flour corn
$4.00 – $15.00
(Zea mays)
A full-season white flour corn with big, beautiful ears. Usually eight rows of soft, easily ground, very large kernels. Wonderful for cornbread, hominy or parching (cooking like popcorn, only it doesn’t inflate as much). Needs every day of the growing season to mature here.
This corn, brought north by the Tuscarora in the late 1600s and early 1700s, was widely adopted by the Haudenosaunee/Five Nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca) which the Tuscarora joined to form the Six Nations. Today, it is cultivated in many of the places where members of Haudenosaunee now live. Also called Iroquois White corn; boarded in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.
Wait until soil has warmed to 60° F/15º C to plant. Plant 1-2” deep, four seeds to a hill (10” between them), spaced 40” on centre; or plant in rows 30-40” apart for main season ones, with row spacing of 10-12”. Plants will pollinate for 2-3 weeks after tasseling; separate varieties by at least 500’ or plant successively so they will pollinate at different times. If doing succession plantings, let first variety reach eight-leaf stage before planting the next one. Save seed from at least 100 plants (preferably 200), selecting based on field characteristics of plant, not just on cob size.