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Thread: Field corn and soy beans

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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Default Field corn and soy beans

    I was out walking around my place last night, and with all of the fruit trees, and my garden, there is a lot of edibles available on my place. Then I thought, I have field corn and soy beans growing on all borders of my property, so that could be a food source as well.
    My question is, what is the best way to utilize field corn and soy beans. During the growing season I could literally harvest and store more food than I could ever eat during the winter months, but have never tried to process or prepare field corn or soy beans.
    I know when I was a kid, a buddy of mine and I got lost for a couple of days, and we ate a lot of raw field corn that we came by. I made us Poo like wild geese but other than that, it never made us sick, so I know it can be eaten.


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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I often wondered about that my self....I have a lots of corn....beans died this year, but are grown from time to time.....Good point.

    Recipes would be good.

    Have tried roasted field corn, and is tough and and taste "mealy".
    Have 'parched corn" and ate it dry, as well as made a porridge from it...and yeah eatable but not real tasty.

    As far as it going right thru you, I'm thinking the straight raw corn over loads your system and can't process it too well?
    I'm also thinking that grinding into meal would be of more benefit as far a digesting goes.

    There maybe traditional recipes involving a "corn broiler".....Just got one., and kinda researching early ways of preparing corn.
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    Haven't tried soy beans too much yet, but are kinda nasty raw....have had them pan roasted, like parched corn....and are OK.

    Interesting topic.......Thanks
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    The field corn they grew around here (years ago before GMO's) was actually quiet good to eat any number of ways. However, you had only a day or two to harvest it when it was ready because it would become tough and mealy if you didn't harvest it in time. That may have been a characteristic of that specific variety, but I haven't a clue what the specific variety was. I am certain it didn't come from the labs at Monsanto! My advice is just to keep tabs on the crop and be prepared to act quickly when the flavor peaks.
    Last edited by Cast-Iron; 08-29-2012 at 01:19 PM.

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    Ask your neighbors where the neighborhood farmer's co op is and see what they have and buy what you want. If they don't have it, ask where to get it. You could start with buying wheat and a grinder. You'll do too much damage to those beans trying to harvest them when they are ready. We were taught not to damage a man's crops. But, you can put a cup of dry soybeans in a quart jar and fill the rest of the jar with water to an inch from the top and process it at 15 lbs for 90 mins. I've ate many like this but don't anymore. I know that they are all GMO crops in the field now. But, you should read about GMO's too and make your decision about those as well. Like cast iron says, people used to eat the corn, but I haven't heard about it in many years.

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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Well I figure that if I'm ever really hungry runnin short on food, what little I will take will never be missed, plus the farmers are good freinds of mine and have always told me that if I want any of the corn after it dries in the fields, to just help myself. I get some every year for bird food.
    So what does GMO have to do with the edibility of corn and soy beans? Will it make you sick or what?

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    Senior Member 2dumb2kwit's Avatar
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    Here's some corny info. He does explain the different kinds of corn, in here.

    Part 1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWzu5lYSVGU

    Part 2
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK57hpWddZQ
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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Yes folks, corn is food! You can grind it into meal between two stones and make bread from it.

    And if you have wheat growing nearby that is food too. It grinds up and forms a substance called "flour".

    You can do the same thing with soybeans.

    And those cows and other four legged animals you see roaming around, they are food too! If properly processed they make an item we call "meat".

    The entire operation is a system we refer too as "agriculture".

    Some folks have been engaging in this process for +- 10,000 years. I am surprised you have not already noticed that it was going on.
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 09-01-2012 at 09:51 PM.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Wow, Walmart has been around That long.....LOL.....
    Everbody knows that if you buy "meat" at the store no cute little animals are harmed.
    Bread comes from factories.......Sheesh.
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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    Yes folks, corn is food! You can grind it into meal between two stones and make bread from it.

    And if you have wheat growing nearby that is food too. It grinds up and forms a substance called "flour".

    You can do the same thing with soybeans.

    And those cows and other four legged animals you see roaming around, they are food too! If properly processed they make an item we call "meat".

    The entire operation is a system we refer too as "agriculture".

    Some folks have been engaging in this process for +- 10,000 years. I am surprised you have not already noticed that it was going on.
    Well OK smartazz, then tell us how to process the raw fresh out of the field corn so it is fit to eat. And I am not talking about sweet corn either!

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    you don't process raw FRESH field corn. You let it dry, hopefully on the stalks in the field. Once dry, you shuck it, you shell it then you grind it. It really helps to have a corn sheller to remove the kernels from the cobs but you can do it by hand or with a hand held sheller.

    When you need it you grind the corn into meal. If you grind too much, it will spoil, as unlike store-bought, it still has the germ in it and will go rancid. Same goes for wheat.

    Also be careful of the moisture levels in your dried corn. I had to look up the name of the fungus but aflatoxins can inhabit stored corn if the moisture level is too high during storage.

    Soybeans, you can dry em then roast them but other uses I don't know. You only get two beans per shell so they're rather tedious. If you are planting this stuff as fodder or coverage crop, you can also get canadian field peas. They dry real nice and make great pea soup. Though sometimes I have to harvest the vines and hang under cover to dry to keep them from rotting on the ground. Cut them to leave the roots behind though for the nitrogen.
    Last edited by LowKey; 09-02-2012 at 08:00 AM.

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    One step at a time intothenew's Avatar
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    Here is some bed time reading for you.

    Cornmeal and Grits

    Edamame


    And don't show up at a corn fight with only a knife.

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    Do those salt boiled soybeans taste anything like boiled peanuts? If so, might have to change my cover crop back.
    I used to love visiting gramps in Florida when it was boiled peanut season.
    Seemed you couldn't go anywhere without stopping for some along the way.
    The canned ones are passable but nothing like the real thang.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I'm thinking that recipes and processing methods, would probaly fit in this thread better than a history of Agrculture.

    Lots of thes skills have been lost because of the ease of purchasing these grain already processed and ready made products.

    So here's a parched corn, (easy to do) method.
    http://www.utahpreppers.com/2009/10/...-parched-corn/
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    My dad grew up eating field corn just like sweetcorn, they'd pick it while it was young and more tender and boil it on the cob. I believe he added a little sugar also.

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    One step at a time intothenew's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LowKey View Post
    Do those salt boiled soybeans taste anything like boiled peanuts?
    No, absolutely not. There is none of the earthen, oily taste of a nut. They are green, and taste green.

    Quote Originally Posted by wtrfwlr View Post
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    When I was a kid we would pull the field corn before it dried out and boil it on the cob just like roast n eaes. The secret was to have a really big pot of boiling water wiyh saly anYou cd sugar in it. Ypu would need to cook the ears a few minutes longer but they were just as good as sweet corn any day. This way we had roasting ears alot longer. If you cooked too many ears then just cut them off to make corn puddim.

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    Senior Member wtrfwlr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BornthatWay View Post
    boil it on the cob just like roast n eaes. The secret was to have a really big pot of boiling water wiyh saly anYou cd sugar in it.
    I'm not a spell checker or anything, but I can't understand this part?
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    Senior Member Sparky93's Avatar
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    My Grandma makes some awesome fried field corn, I don't know her recipe but I do know she adds A LOT of sugar! lol
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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wildthang View Post
    Well OK smartazz, then tell us how to process the raw fresh out of the field corn so it is fit to eat. And I am not talking about sweet corn either!
    Yea, what all those guys said before I could answer!

    Every world culture is based on a surplus production of a single seed grain. Corn, wheat, barley, millit, oats, rice....

    In almost all cases if the seed is dried it will store indefinately by only keeping it dry and the surplus seed not used for food will germinate as a crop. Unless you are using a hybred.

    Corn is one of the world's exceptions since it can be eaten at several stages in the growing process. As stated, fresh corn can be eaten boiled, roasted or fried. After it is dried it can be parched, ground into flour or lye used to disolve the outter shell and the seed turned into hominy and the hominy crushed into grits.

    All the forms of corn we use today is derived from "popcorn", which was engineered into "Indian corn" (the multicolored type) which has been further modified into what we have today. Our modern corn is engineered to fit the machines that pick and process it. Back in the old days the ears had a different number of rows of seed and individual ears the Indians grew were often 2 feet long. The pioneers often gew a small cob form that was much smaller than what we have today, often refered too as "nubbin" ears. It was used as food for both people and livestock and eaten all through its growing cycle, depending on how hungry one was.

    The soybeans are usually dried and grouind into flour. The flour can be blended into many products that some people claim resemble food.
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