Anyone grown corn for Hominy? I have read a little on it and there’s dent and flint corn that seem to be the most desirable for hominy and many cultivars within those two categories.

My idea is to take wood ash to create the necessary caustic solution and then perform the nixtamalization of the corn with the solution. The North American natives did this with the corn they grew. The Navajo use, according to what I read Juniper ash, other groups used oak and hickory. I think in central america much of the nixtamalization is done with a CaOH solution derived from cooked limestone.

Basically, I’d like to make hominy that I could then put into a posole type stew, but have zero experience growing the right corn for this as sweet corn is evidently the wrong type.

Hickory king.
Or get a bag of the large white corn from a Mexican market.
I try a germination test with mine.
Stay away from the flint corn.
Too troublesome.

Dent corn is my favorite, though I don't grow it. I tried flint, one time, and even tried popcorn, but neither of those were as good. And I just use the powder I get in the Mexican place, for the nixtamalizing.

Im considering buying builders lime.
Not really concerned if it is food grade or not.
They basically test the same lime stamp food grade and sell it for a higher price.
Also pickling lime is the same thing as cal in the Mexican store.

Supposedly, wood ash nixtamalization gives the corn a slightly different, richer flavor than Cal, plus wood ash adds in some necessary to life micronutrients from the trees into the corn. Nixtamalization with wood ash was the Pre-Columbian indigenous people’s way to make hard to digest corn into something way more nutritious, safe to eat and useful.

https://www.radicalgastronomy.com/new-b ... 3/28/tamal

Did you see in the cooking section where I made it?
I have used this product for so many things
From tamales to a wonderful cornbread made from masa herina the dried version you get in the store.
Spent years researching the people of Mexico and beyond.
Almost everything we eat comes from the Americas.
Or much of it anyway.
We have so much to thank these ancient people for.

Think about this.
A little Mexican lady hoes a plot of land.
Grow peppers squash corn avocados and so on.
All by hand.
Then processes the corn and everything.
Saves the husks.
Then proceeds to hand grind the processed corn into masa.
Cooks a home grown pig or chickens.
After everything is done she proceeds to make tamales.
All of this in a covered shed outside on a wood fire.
This goes on every day in Mexico.
The places tourist never go.
This is the real Mexico and the reason I have great respect for these people.
This wss the life of my grandmother for many years here in Texas where she was born in the 1800's.
Plus wash clothes and all the other things in daily life.

Please forgive me but you brought up my favorite crop.
Corn.
Here is a chart of the corn grown in Mexico.
You can right click and hit view image to get a bigger pictuer.

[mention]worth1[/mention] I love it. It would be fun to travel around Mexico and sample the local cuisine and see how the different types of corn change flavors place to place. My dad, uncle and myself did a camping trip on the Yucatan when I was 11, but I had zero appreciation for Mexican food then. I did almost choke to death of a piece of venison there on that trip, hadn’t eaten anything in three days, but that’s another story.

I see some of the seed suppliers have some interesting varieties for purchase. This Oaxacan Green corn has caught my eye. I might have to order some.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/ ... d-307.html

I read where the Peruvian large white corn gets to 25 feet tall.
I planted some of the large white corn I bought from the Mexican market this morning in a big container to see if it will sprout.

It has been about 4 days since I planted the large white Mexican corn about 2 inches deep.
I forgot about it and just checked, most of it has sprouted and is about 1 inch out of the soil.
Success beyond my wildest expectations.
Now I need to water and fertilize.

Oh and one other thing, I selected the best I could out of the sack.
Since corn is a seed you can tell quite often by looking at the seeds to see it any are crossed.
This is what the small farmers do in Mexico to insure they keep an old race going.
Each corn seed has its own silk to collect pollen.
So that means if there is a cross you can pretty much tell unless they cross with something that looks the same.
With tomatoes you eat the fruit and pay no attention to the seeds and even if one crosses you wont know until you plant the seed.
Just thought I would toss that out there.

As I stated before I love corn and it's history.
Probably a fanatic on the subject.
I have been this way all my life and grew my first crop of Indian corn when I was about 10 years old.
Been hooked ever sense.
I have a book at home next to my bed I have worn out about Pre Colombian history.
It is called 1491 and I have read it many times.
Here is a part of the book that is called The Stupidest Question in the World.
It has some trashy adds in the link but read what is has to say.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt ... AdAAAAABAS