The Difference is Visual & Factual
We have learned a lot about corn since we started the business, some of which is worth sharing.
Corn has been a staple of the American diet for thousands of years, and the origin of our modern day corn plant was actually a thin grain-like green weed. Eventually, the thin little plant was turned into the agri-product most used in food today. Farmers relied on the wind to pollinate their crops and tended to them until harvest; this is called open pollination. In the 1930s hybrid corn was invented and corn in America was forever altered. These manufactured seeds were genetically identical to one another which meant crops would now grow to the same height, and be ready for harvest at the same time. This also allowed for the use of big combines instead of humans to pick/harvest the corn. You can’t re-use these seeds, you have to buy new ones every year, but this invention meant you could modify the corn to achieve greater and greater volume per acre.
America eats more than 1 Billion pounds of popcorn per year, and virtually all of it comes from the hybrid corn (even the organics!). The kernels are big and yellow and produce big, yellow popcorn with gold hulls. Farms which mass-produce these kernels now have volumetric goals every year which include making seeds bigger so that they can produce more popped corn, and of course, make more money. And in America, the bigger the better apparently.
As you can imagine, the old way of growing corn has just about disappeared.
Our Petite Maize would have disappeared as well if it wasn’t for the generations of family farmers who committed themselves to farming it “the old fashioned way,” via open pollination. Our farmers can re-use their best seeds from year to year, and by doing so, can create their own variety of all-natural corn kernels. Ours is one of those heirloom varieties. They are more delicate and require an extra long time to dry under a very watchful eye. Once you taste our Petite Maize you will understand why these farmers sacrificed an easier way of farming. No other popcorn tastes this good!