Reddit user lurkface shared this delicious specimen of glass gem corn from this year’s crop. She reveals that the unique strain was produced by farmer Carl Barnes before he passed and that she traded for some of the seeds nearly 10 years ago and has been growing them on her farm in Fallsington, PA ever since.
Glass gem is flint corn that can be made into a ‘decent’ popcorn or ground into flour, but is not suitable to eat ‘off the cob’. Other potential uses could be for grits, hominy, masa, or even whiskey. If you are thinking about what happened when popped, the popcorn is white, not colored.
If you’re want to grow your own ‘jellybean’ corn she sells the seeds on Etsy and offers the basic growing advice:
“Put corn into ground, at least 10 seeds, spaced 1 foot apart. Water. Watch grow and weed. Fertilize with a high Nitrogen fert 2 times, once at a foot tall and once again when going to tassel.”
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