Grand River Rafting Blogs and Legends

When we think of the First Nations growing corn… many visualize quaint family plots growing outside the longhouse palisade. Actually the fields were so big that visiting priests complain about getting lost in them. We are talking about fields 100 to 1,000 acres in size. The land was cleared in a three season split. First year all the brush and lower branches were cleared and put around the big trees which were girdled. In the next spring the girdled trees were burned and cut down. The third year is when corn would be planted. The first two years of corn was the best yields. If a field got too low in production it was left fallow for two years. Never were all fields growing crops at once. Preparing the corn seed was done by soaking the seed in a corn medicine solution for one hour. Then put in a basket and wait until it started to sprout. The corn varieties used were flint corns adapted to the shorter growing season. There was also soft white & yellow corn… and gummy or sugar

--> When we think of the First Nations growing corn… many visualize quaint family plots growing outside the longhouse palisade. Actually the fields were so big that visiting priests complain about getting lost in them. We are talking about fields 100 to 1,000 acres in size. The land was cleared in a three season split. First year all the brush and lower branches were cleared and put around the big trees which were girdled. In the next spring the girdled trees were burned and cut down. The third year is when corn would be planted. The first two years of corn was the best yields. If a field got too low in production it was left fallow for two years. Never were all fields growing crops at once. Preparing the corn seed was done by soaking the seed in a corn medicine solution for one hour. Then put in a basket and wait until it started to sprout. The corn varieties used were flint corns adapted to the shorter growing season. There was also soft white & yellow corn… an

Believe it or not, the black fungus smut that grows on sweet corn is a gourmet delicacy. The natives would collect the corn smut when young; boil in water for 10 minutes, than fry crisp in a hot pan. The Iroquois favorite was roasted green corn. This was corn in the soft sugary stage. To cook they would dig a long trench and create a hot coal bed in it. They would then lay two long poles a cob length apart over the trench. The cobs were then placed across the two sticks and turned to roast over the coals. Green corn was also a delicacy boiled, with animal marrow spread on. In the green corn stage, corn kernels were often cut raw from the cob with a flint scrapper as shown above. The cut kernels were mixed with boiled beans, sunflower seeds and some meat. This blend was rolled together to make a delicious sticky corn ball called Indian Succotash. The Indians would sometimes add the oil from boiled crushed hickory nuts for a different creamy flav

The Spanish discovery of Indian corn had a huge impact on feeding the world. But the racial prejudice of English settlers missed the mark. In 1492 wheat was the mainstay food of Europe, Asia and Africa. It was the “King of the Mountain." But that changed in 1493. The hand on the left is the yield from one kernel of corn seed. When Columbus returned from his first voyage he told his stories before the Spanish court about the land of the “Arawaks”. He told about the Arawaks piles of grain from which they made a cake-meal. He described the grain as having tapered ears longer then his hand, thicker then his wrist, with long rows the size of a pea. He spoke about how the black seeds when cooked, split open to create a tasty white fluff. He said the Arawaks called this strange grass plant “mahiz”. Corn was non-existent in the rest of the world until Columbus saw it in the West Indies. Its productivity capabilities and ease of growing caught the world’s attention. Back then, whea