Glass gem corn

This lovely ear of glass gem corn is featured at Seeds Trust. They will begin selling seeds for it in August.

The story of glass gem corn. Seedsman Greg Schoen got the seed from Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee man, now in his 80's, in Oklahoma. He was Greg's "corn-teacher". Greg was in the process of moving last year and wanted someone else to store and protect some of his seeds. He left samples of several corn varieties, including glass gem. I grew out a small handful this past summer just to see. The rest, as they say is history. I got so excited, I posted a picture on Facebook. We have never seen anything like this. Unfortunately, we did not grow out enough to sell. Look for a small amount for sale starting in August 2011.

Glass gem corm (Via TYWKIWDBI)

• [MikeKStar]

  Corm?

  • [lovelystrangeness]

    http://brescher.net/fark/corm.jpg

  • [chellberty]

    Chrome.

    • [Jesseham]

      Cron. 

• [Jack Holmes]

  CROM!

  http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8rw15_conan-s-prayer-to-crom_shortfilms

• [chef oxygen]

  There is a difference between selling something this August 2012 and “For Sale August 2011″ which did not occur.

• [Thorzdad]

  I keep looking at it and still can’t believe it’s actually corn. I keep thinking it’s a piece of glass art. Nature’s amazing. Simply beautiful.

• [blueelm]

  Too pretty for corn. I want to wear it.

  • [Rich Keller]

    Yeah, I’ve been looking at a lot of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts jewelry images over the last couple of days and I thought that this was a detail from a brooch from around 1900.

  • [Jorpho]

     Well, indeed, we know nothing in particular about how easy it is to grow, how difficult it is to cook, what it actually tastes like, and so on, even if it does look pretty.

    There do seem to be people who mourn the depressing, universal homogeneity of Peaches & Cream as opposed to the wider variety that once was available, though, so perhaps this is a welcome development.

    • [Cary Allen]

       It may surprise you to learn that some plants are grown entirely for their visual appeal.

• [Andrea Dixon]

  I’m feeling kind of skeptical! It looks like glass beads to me. Very pretty though!

• [cjporkchop]

  Gorgeous, but how does it taste?

  • [Glen Able]

     Well, one would hope each different colour has its own flavour.

    • [JProffitt71]

      Subsidize the rainbow?

• [Phil Fot]

  That is some awesome looking corn. Where I grew up, the local farmer’s always had a patch of Indian-style corn/maize growing to sell during the autumn.

  I used to think that was the prettiest sort of corn I’d seen. This glass gem strain is freaking awesome. I, too, think it looks like some pricey art glass piece. I’d love to see it in person. Alas, both my thumbs are black. The only kind of plant I can handle is my lawn and even that’s in bad shape.

• [Katherine Boyd]

  Many types of bicolor and multicolor corn make better corn-meal than fresh-eating, but you never know! It is really beautiful, if only for ornamental uses.

• [Rich Keller]

  It’s really susceptible to infestations of this, however:
  http://boingboing.net/2012/05/08/see-through-jewel-caterpillar.html

• [Mark Duanburge]

  What happens when you make popcorn from it ?

  • [eldritch]

    Same thing as normal, I would guess.

    The kernel pops, the interior fluffs up nice and white, and the exterior is kinda buried under it. You’d not really be able to see it well. Also, popping corn is specifically bred to have appropriate popping attributes, so there’s a rather good chance this stuff can’t pop.

  • [D Wyatt]

    You taste the rainbow of course.

• [Melissa Kruse-Peeples]

  I would like to share that this seed variety is now being preserved at Native Seeds/SEARCH nativeseeds.org . Currently there are only a few packets for sale on-line. More to come next year. Help support this organization so that we can keep rare heritage varieties alive! http://nativeseeds.org/index.php/store/1049/2/seeds/tucson-seed/corn/ts363/P-glass-gem

  • [IronEdithKidd]

    Will it grow in zone 5?  And since it’s listed as a flint corn, can I pop it?

    Lastly, if you have some available in the fall, how would you reccommend seed storage for overwinter in zone 5?

  • [teapot]

    Holy crap look at the high res image people:
    http://nativeseeds.org/components/com_redshop/assets/images/product/1336595434_TS362%20glass%20gem.jpg

• [Keith Tyler]

  I can’t decide if this is more or less awesome than what I thought it was at first (an ear of corn made of glass gems). It’s still pretty awesome.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Where’s Peter Carl Fabergé when you need him?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Where’s Peter Carl Fabergé when you need him?

• [Cerebus916]

  Look at this corn.  Just look at it.

• [LogrusZed]

  It is incredibly beautiful, but how does it taste? Is this a good boiling/steaming/roasting and buttering corn or is it just a decorating corn?

• [keplers]

  almost too beautiful to eat… wow. 

• [Itsumishi]

  I found some other photos on the Australian Gizmodo site. Amazing stuff.

• [Crystal Gail Cunningham]

  I WANT!! 

• [Kirsten Bradley]

  And there’s so many more a-MAIZE-ing (sorry) heirloom corn varieties too! See here: http://milkwood.net/2012/05/12/glass-gem-corn-and-other-heirloom-jewels-of-the-corn-cabinet/

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Oooh, shiny!

• [OoerictoO]

  cue Monsanto lawyers in 3… 2…

• [Jenn Chlebus]

  Ummm… did “old Injun Carl” say this was okay to do?  The paragraph says he wanted Greg to keep his seeds, not sprout or grow or sell or disseminate them. I’d love to grow some beautiful corn, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want it going all Cujo on me.  Half a loaf with a blessing is better than the whole loaf with a curse.