Okay, so here\u2019s how this started. I was driving past one of those endless, never-actually-empty cornfields the other day\u2014you know the ones, where it just goes and goes, like maybe there\u2019s a secret village in the middle. And I\u2019m staring out the window thinking: why is that corn\u2026 taller? Duller? Just\u2026 different? It didn\u2019t look like the kind I pick up at the market. You know, the stuff that gets wrapped in plastic or piled up in a bin next to watermelon.<\/p>\n
Turns out, not all corn is meant for dinner. Or humans, actually.<\/p>\n
The Corn That\u2019s Not for Us
\nSo the corn in those massive fields? That\u2019s field corn. Sometimes called dent corn, or feed corn. Which makes sense, because it\u2019s mostly for\u2014yep\u2014feeding livestock. Also, weirdly, for making things like corn syrup and ethanol and cereal flakes. I mean, technically we do eat it, just not straight off the cob like we do with sweet corn. You\u2019d chip a tooth trying.<\/p>\n
Field corn\u2019s harvested late\u2014when the kernels are all dried out and starch-packed. That starch gets turned into stuff like cornmeal or, you know, fuel. Literal fuel. So, yeah, it\u2019s basically the industrial version of corn.<\/p>\n
Then There\u2019s the Good Stuff (Sorry, Cows)Now, sweet corn? That\u2019s what you boil or grill or just eat raw if you\u2019re feeling chaotic at a summer BBQ. It\u2019s picked earlier, when the kernels are still soft and full of sugar\u2014hence the name. Honestly, if you\u2019ve ever eaten it with your hands and had butter dripping down your wrist, you know. It\u2019s the one that actually tastes like food.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
We eat sweet corn like a vegetable, even though\u2014technically\u2014it\u2019s a grain. But whatever. It works<\/p>\n
Okay, so here\u2019s how this started. I was driving past one of those endless, never-actually-empty cornfields the other day\u2014you know the ones, where it just goes and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n