Small Town News

Short stalks and strong growth give the corn its name

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GARDEN JOURNAL

The hot, humid days of summer bring to mind the South Pacific, the islands of Java and sweet corn. When sailors brought back miniature chickens from Bantam, Java, the birds, though small, were prized for their gaminess and the fierce strutting antics of the roosters. Naturally, lightweight boxers took up the name and bantamweight boxers have been with us since.

However, another bantam lurked out on the farms of New York and New England. In the late 1800s, William Chambers of Greenfield, Mass., developed a short-stalked, early maturing, delicious corn with yellow kernels. He liked to grow the earliest corn in town.

At the time most people only ate white corn, which, like white flour and white sugar, was seen as more refined, and yellow corn was often thought of disparagingly as "cow corn" or "horse corn." After Chambers died, a seedsman from Washington County, N.Y., sent samples of the seed to W Atlee Burpee, who listed it in his 1902 seed catalog. The short stalks and strong growth gave the corn its name, Bantam, after the feisty little chickens. Golden Bantam sweet corn (Zea mays) was the first widely available yellow sweet corn, and within a few years, Americans began to favor yellow corn.

While many consumers demand ever-sweeter corn, Golden Bantam delivers a true old-fashioned stick-to-your-ribs corny flavor. True to its name, the plants only grow to about five feet and produce two short ears per stalk.

Golden Bantam will mature in about 80 days. Plant Golden Bantam in rows three feet apart, 10 inches between the plants in the rows. Because sweet corn is wind pollinated, you must plant in blocks of at least four rows for pollination.

You can also plantorn in small raised mounds or hills with four or five seed s in each hill. You can also use a planting method called checking, where you plant corn on three-foot centers so it could be cultivated both ways across the field.

Golden Bantam sweet corn grows well in a wide range of soils with a pH range of 5.5 to 7.0. Sweet corn needs relatively high levels of nitrogen, so fertilize with composted manure or other high-nitrogen organic fertilizer.

Pick your corn before the raccoons do. Old-fashioned sweet corn such as Golden Bantam immediately begins to convert sugar into starch once it is picked, so try to cook it the same day you harvest.

Because it's open pollinated, you can save your own seeds from Golden Bantam. Let the ears ripen on the stalk until very dry, then carefully shell the seeds.

Like bantam chickens, your Golden Bantam sweet corn will be a short but sturdy addition to the garden, and in a time of cloy-ingly sweet foods, it is good to step back in time for true corn taste. Like a bantamweight boxer, this corn has flavor worth fighting for.

Paul Barbano writes about gardening from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Contact him by writing to P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.





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