This is an 8 row flint corn from the Iroquois. Bred by a Seneca seed-keeper named Darwin John. This variety was used ceremonially at the mid-winter “Big Feather Dance” and used at the Strawberry Festival in a special soup made from corn and strawberries.
Darwin John matures around 80 days from planting. While not as early as the Gaspe’, it still was extremely early and done pollinating before the local commercial field corn had gone to tassle. The plants reach about 7′ in height and produced 2 nice ears per plant. I was amazed how many ears were perfectly pollinated to the very tip. The overall quality was excellent. The average ear was 5″ in length with large kernels. Not huge, but double that of Gaspe’. Darwin John has become my personal favorite flint corn as it is very reliable and productive. This corn has a great flavor and is delicious as cornbread and polenta. This corn is also very good eaten as a sweet corn, not super sweet but lots of flavor. I have yet to try it in Strawberry Soup!
Minimum 20 grams ~ 100 seeds.
