Can I save dried flint corn that has mold?

11 years ago

Hi, I've grown 100 cobs of a flint corn, Carol Deppe's 'Cascade Ruby-Gold'. I field-dried it until I found mold in some husks, at which point I threw out the moldy ones and harvested the rest. As Carol suggests in "The Resilient Gardener", I laid out the shucked cobs to air-dry in my living room (on trays/shelving). They've been that way 2 months, and I was about to start shelling them today when I noticed one tray of 25 cobs has lots of white fuzzy mold/fungus. (My guess is that one or more cobs had the fungus when brought in from the field -- I guess I should have dehydrator-dried those ones from the start and then frozen them.)

I'm going to shell the non-fuzzy cobs, dehydrator-dry them, then freeze them for a day. But my question is, must I throw out the 25 fuzzy ones? Or can I rinse them, shell them, rinse again, dehydrator-dry, and freeze them in order to save the kernels? I grind them over the winter for flour to make bread, pancakes etc.

Thanks,
...Terry

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
one might think you would be asking the cooks in the cooking forum ...

or the harvesters in the cornucopia forum ... which is the veg forum ...

being a bug killer at heart.. and a disease annihilator ... i really dont have much background in storage of food crops ... but it wouldnt surprise me if my friends here have opinions ...

but do try other forums ...

ken
ronalawn82
11 years ago
terrynew, it has been long ago and far away - but we threw out any product that accumulated 'grey fuzzy stuff'.
Times and things have changed; but please check out the 'mold' the best way you can.
Related Professionals
Clarksburg Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · North Adams Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Detroit Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Niles Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Providence Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Brunswick Landscape Contractors · New Orleans Landscape Contractors · Fall River Landscape Contractors · Cleveland Landscape Contractors · Vancouver Landscape Contractors · Bainbridge Kitchen Remodelers · Aberdeen Kitchen Remodelers · Des Moines Kitchen Remodelers · Duluth Kitchen Remodelers · Youngstown Kitchen Remodelers
Kimmsr
11 years ago
That might be something called smut, a common corn disease that some consider a delicacy.

Here is a link that might be useful: corn smut
ronalawn82
11 years ago
terrynew, that link, provided by kimmsr, does it for me! Long ago and far away Ustilago scitaminea caused one of the most promising varieties of sugar cane to be discontinued from cultivation.
Now I have no good memories of the genus.
Terry
Original Author
11 years ago
Unfortunately my mold looks nothing like the bulbous corn smut found in a google images search. Mine is wispy white cottony/silky fuzz, kinda like the Halloween fake spider web stuff. The fuzz is on top of and between the kernels, which themselves look normal.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
when i t comes to something i might eat.. i dont think i would rely on visual comparisons ...

and by the time you pay to have it tested ... its probably not cost efficient ...

ken
ronalawn82
11 years ago
LINK.
Kimmsr
11 years ago
As is often said a picture is worth a thousand words.