Showing posts with label corn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corn. Show all posts

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Supaun? Mr. Thorburn Mentioned Eating Supaun...


Cornmeal mush!  The name supaun seems to have died out.  Having seedsman Thorburn mention it in his advertising got me curious as I never had heard of it and had no clue what he was talking about (he wrote like that, too, so you do not know what he is riffing on sometimes).  

Once I looked it up in Google Books I find the word was in use in memoirs, songs and articles in the 18th century and to the mid 19th century.  I think the 19th c. uses were by older people, so the name just didn't stick into the mid 1800s.  Pone, hominy and samp I have heard of...although I am not sure I knew exactly what samp was.  (Samp is a much more roughly chopped/cracked corn than any meal grind.)

LEARNED FROM THE INDIANS 

In a recent number of  The Century, Mr. Edward Eggleston points out some of the many useful things which the white settlers learned from the Indians. 
“The art of making maple-sugar and the culture of the maize were learned from the savages, who planted the corn in hills, grew beans around the stalks, and filled the intervening space with pumpkin-vines, as old-fashioned farmers do yet. The great factories of fish-manure along the Northern coast are tracked to the advice of an Indian given to the pilgrims to put a fish in every hill of corn. Hominy, Samp, supaun and pone are Indian words, and there is hardly an approved method of cooking maize that the Indians did not know:..."

1910 - Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z, Volume 2; Volume 30, Part 2




In this book from 1851 an old lady who went visiting and expected nice dinners, was served potatoes and supaun by her cousin to test how she would react to such humble fare.  She was at heart a nice old woman and reacted fairly well

More references:


Curiosities of Literature: And, The Literary Character Illustrated

https://books.google.com/books?id=O98-AAAAYAAJ
Isaac Disraeli - 1847 - ‎Read - ‎More editions
For many heroes bold and brave From New-bridge and Tappan, And those that drink Passaic's wave, And those that eat supaun; And sons of distant Delaware, And still remoter Shannon, And Major Lee with horses rare, And Proctor with his ...

My Boy Life: Presented in a Succession of True Stories - Page 197

https://books.google.com/books?id=Zl43AAAAMAAJ
John Carroll - 1882 - ‎Read - ‎More editions
When we had partaken of our supaun and milk, I was cheered by my brother's coming in from outdoors with the news, that " the Bashan bull had gone to feeding." I must wind this story up with a not very pleasant finale. The calf had very good ...




Saturday, September 3, 2016

1896 - Angel of MIdnight Corn and John A. Bruce, Seedsman

I just like this catalog cover.  
While I have not found much about Mr. Bruce yet, I'm a sucker for seedsmen who feature their buildings on their catalogs.   My question now is, who are the statues in the building niches representing?!!




Floating around the internet was this one identified page from a catalog.  
I admire this engraving of the corn, and the name is irresistible!


Angel of Midninght corn seems well suited for the more northern latitudes as this Maine farmer attests to in The Rural New Yorker magazine from 1902. 
CORN FOR MAINE.—The two kinds of corn giving the best yields shelled per acre here are the Angel of Midnight and Early Canada, either of which will mature a crop in from 80 to 90 days from planting. 
My opinion is that the Angel of Midnight yields the most shelled corn. I was in a gristmill a short time ago, and while there a man brought in five bushels of ears of corn to be ground corn and cobs together, and I honestly think that in that five bushels there was one bushel of ears that were at least one foot in length, which is very long corn. That cob meal was finer and looked nicer than a great deal of the feed meal that I buy made from western corn. That was Angel of Midnight corn.
Here is the whole catalog page. (year unknown)


While I am thinking about Bruce and his corn, here is another delightful engraving from a 1902 Bruce catalog.   Just that little bit more of the artist's imagination makes this so much more appealing.





Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Photos of People with Corn Stalks

I tried to think of a title for this post that wasn't so matter of fact, but this is all that came to mind.  In my defense, it is wicked hot in our old elementary school and my brains have simmered all day. 

There is something about tall plants that amuses people.  Corn, hollyhocks, sunflowers and the like attract people when the camera is around like bees are attracted to blossoms!  My husband says if I just planted my favorites he would have to get a ladder to admire the garden....you should see my lilies in bloom - over 6 feet high!

Anyway, back to the corn - here are some old photos I gathered off eBay over the years.










Stroudsburg is a borough in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States.
It is located in the Poconos region of the state,
approximately five miles from the Delaware Water Gap.


This is too good not to share full size.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Seed Art: The Land of Corn

designboom

"Brooklyn-based photographer henry hargreaves 
and food stylist caitlin levin, 
motivated by a passion for travel, have created ‘food maps’, a playful cartography series of geographical locations made out of the iconic foods that best represent them."

I saw this on designboom.  It is wonderful site, aggregating a wide variety of design disciplines. It is the one newsletter I subscribe to I am sure to look at!  They have interesting robotics occasionally. While not seeds, other countries are interesting to look at and think about if you feel like cruising.