PAINTED MOUNTAIN (Popcorn, Maize)

***NOT TO NT***   (Zea mays)  An ancient corn - one of the most widely adapted and genetically diverse corn varieties available today.  Extremely drought & cold hardy growing where other corn varieties fail.  Originally bred by Dave Christensen over a period of 40 years after working with more than 70 types of native American corn varieties originally cultivated by the native Indians & early American settlers.  Medium to long multi-coloured cobs 18-30cm long containing every shade of colour known to corn with kernels high in protein (13%) and anti-oxidants.  Ideal for areas with a short growing season, or harsh conditions.  Use ground into flour for use in tortillas, muffins, chips etc. or dried for popping.  May also be eaten fresh in the early 'milk' stage.  Seed has been organically grown.  90 days.  50 seeds

'Everything you read about the corn is true, it germinates in cold soil, uses very little water, produces early and abundantly (the first year we grew it was so hard for water and heat that I left the crop to die as young plants - only to my suprise, they continued to grow and flower and produce cobs up to 1 foot long!), and most importantly they taste terrific in homemade tortilla...I well recommend this to anyone wanting the satisfaction of home grown grain especially without much investment in equipment or even know how.' Scott (grower)

AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK 'Heirloom Vegetables: a guide to their history & varieties' by Simon Rickard 2014 (available from this website)

'Dave Christensen comes from the cold, dry northern plains of Mantana, USA.  Modern hybrid corns, selected for the midwestern corn belt of the USA, won't grow where Dave lives so thirty years ago he set himself the task of breeding the most cold- and drought-hardy variety of open-pollinated corn in the world.

Dave discovered that there had once been many cultivars of corn in the harsh northern Rockies and great plains.  These tough varieties had sustained Native Americans and frontier colonists for generations but they were now teetering on the edge of extinction, some of them maintained only by single families.  If these corns were lost, their genes would be lost forever.  Dave realised that those genes might be useful to people living in harsh climates around the world.  He decided to rescue as many of these heirlooms as he could and incorporate them into his breeding work before they became extinct.  The corn which Dave bred used over 70 traditional Native American heirlooms in its pedigree.  He named it Painted Mountain.  Painted Mountain has since proved itself in harsh climates in other parts of the world, including rugged Ryanggang province in North Korea, where childhood malnutrition is rife.  Painted Mountain is a corn that is helping to feed the world's poor, on the ground right now.  It was bred the old-fashioned way by a single concerned individual with no patents and no genetic modification.