Most of us know that the State Bird of Illinois is the Northern Cardinal, but did you know that Illinois also has a State Amphibian, Animal, Artifact, Exercise, Fish, Flower, Folk Dance, Fossil, Fruit, Insect, etc. It’s quite a list! The State Snack Food is one of my favorite comfort foods—popcorn!
A grey, cold winter afternoon is always more tolerable with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn in front of me. Chosen in 2003, second and third graders at an elementary school in Joliet decided to try to make their love of popcorn official. State Senator Larry Walsh sponsored the bill.
More than 300 farms in Illinois grow popcorn and you can, too. After the last frost, usually in early May, plant popcorn seeds in a sunny spot with good drainage. Plant a square with seeds eight to ten inches deep and an inch deep.
To be successful, you should plant at least twenty-five seeds. Those twenty-five seeds should be in five rows with five seeds in each row. Water well and fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer when the plants are about six inches tall. When the stalks look like they may fall over, usually around July—knee high by the Fourth of July—mound soil up around the stalk. (Don’t ever do this to your trees!)
As corn matures, ears start to develop that have “silks” coming out at the tip. At the top of the cornstalk, tassels appear that produce pollen. The wind blows the pollen from the tassel to the silks and corn is born. We always knew that sex is corny, but now you know that corn is sexy! Each silk has to be pollinated to produce a kernel of corn. If you’ve ever seen a cob of corn with missing kernels, some of the silks didn’t get pollinated.
Pick the ears when the kernels feel hard and the husks are dry, usually before the first hard frost. Hang the ears to dry or spread them on newspapers. Shell the kernels and keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You’ll be surprised at the varieties there are—Dakota Black, Golden Beauty, Japanese Hulless, Strawberry, etc.
Give popcorn growing a try—even if it’s just armchair gardening. Thinking about the upcoming growing season is very therapeutic to me.
Naperville Gardener – Did you know when the first recorded Arbor Day was?
